Absurd (band)
| Absurd | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Sondershausen, Germany |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Labels | Darker Than Black |
| Website | http://www.hordeabsurd.com/ |
| Members | Ronald “Wolf” Möbus Sven “Unhold” Zimper |
| Past members | Hendrik “Jarl Flagg Nidhögg” Möbus Sebastian “Dark Mark Doom” Schauseil Andreas “Chuck Daniels” Kirchner Udo “Damien Thorn” H. Tormentor |
Absurd is a German pagan black metal band, and has been classified as a "right-wing extremist" group by the Thuringian Landesbehörde für Verfassungsschutz.
The band was founded in Sondershausen by Hendrik Möbus (also known as - on the circuit and later on official Compact Cassette and later CD liner notes - as Randall Flagg / Jarl Flagg Nidhögg / JFN) and Sebastian Schauseil in 1992, with a third member, Andreas Kirchner, joining at a later stage.
Their lyrics concern nationalistic, pagan (Hendrik Möbus is the founder of the Deutsche Heidnische Front), pro-heathen revivalist Germanic, and anti-Judeo-Christian themes.
The band achieved infamy because its original members (now no longer in the band since 1999) murdered the 15-year-old Sandro Beyer in 1993. The canonical motive is that Beyer was privy to an illicit relationship of Schauseil's with a married woman, and had been spreading rumours about this and other activities of the band. On 29 April in Sondershausen, the then-17-year-old band members Möbus, Schauseil, and Kirchner enticed Beyer to a meeting, and strangled him there with an electrical cord. Kirchner, in a now infamous quotation, was reported as saying: “Oh shit—now I’ve completely ruined my life.” Schauseil claimed to have heard a voice in his head saying “Kuster Maier”, which made no sense but was interpreted by him as “töte Beyer” (‘kill Beyer’).
In prison, Möbus (b. 1976) was able to carry on with the band under the temporary name "In Ketten" (German for "In Chains"). After the murder, this became a cult band with Neo-Nazi groups. No releases were made as 'In Ketten' but some of the tracks recorded were used on the 'Facta Loquuntur' album. The tape Thuringian Pagan Madness shows on its cover the grave of the murdered Sandro Beyer, and inside says: "The cover shows the grave of Sandro B. murdered by horde ABSURD on 29.04.93 AB".
The band members were released on parole in 1998, because they had been under eighteen when they had committed their crime. Shortly after release, Möbus violated the terms of his parole when at a concert he performed the Hitler salute, which is illegal in Germany. His parole was consequently revoked. He managed to flee to the United States, where he met William Luther Pierce, but was captured there. During his stay in America he also got in a conflict about money with some of his contacts who he stayed with for some time, one of them being the then neonazi pagan occultist Nathan Pett, who later left the far right scene, and was apparently beaten with a hammer and threatened with a pistol by two persons. At first this was rumours but Möbus later admitted in an interview for a neonazi site that the incident had taken place. He was arrested by U.S. marshals. In 2001, after his request for asylum was denied, he was sent back to prison for the remaining three years for murder. For mocking his victim and for the Hitler salute he was sentenced to a further twenty-six months. On 15 May 2003 he was again sentenced to four years in prison. Möbus is today free and runs his own music label, called Darker Than Black, which distributes NSBM albums and merchandise on an organized scale since 2007. Antifascist Action in Germany has organized at least one demonstration in late 2014 to protest against the racist music shop Möbus owns together with one other person. Two cars belonging to Möbus were damaged in an arson which the Antifascist Action Germany claimed responsibility for, during a campaign in Berlin where there was also posters with Möbus face and personal information on put up, and graffiti with messages against him and the label. When released from the last prison sentence Möbus appeared on stage during a neonazi live gig, but did not play anything.
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