It’s been a violent summer for innocent people. First, the “Batman shooter” in Aurora, CO, who we’re not going to justify by naming, and more recently, yesterday’s horrific  massacre at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek WI, in which 6 were slaughtered in a temple before the gunman was killed by a police officer. As details are starting to come to light about the alleged shooter, 40 year-old Wade Michael Page, it turns out that he was the frontman of a white-supremacist band called End Apathy.

End Apathy started in 2005, and their MySpace page describes them as having “roots in old school hardcore punk and metal influences,” with Black Sabbath, Slayer, Iron Maiden, DRI, COC, GWAR, GBH, Misfits, Cryptic Slaughter, and more being cited. However, their label, Label56, is also a white supremacist website. In an interview with the website, he explains that he’s been involved in the white supremacist movement since 2000, logging time in other bands before joining End Apathy. He described the goal of his band “to figure out how to end people’s apathetic ways” and start “moving forward,” stating “The inspiration was based on frustration that we have the potential to accomplish so much more as individuals and a society in whole.”

While this is an isolated incident from a deranged individual, it’s going to unfairly drag metal and hardcore into the spotlight. Obviously, racist/white supremacist bands are something we’re not behind at all, and we’re glad this racist piece of shit got taken out and avoided wasting taxpayer dollars and a lengthy trial. But most mainstream media will lump Page and his pathetic skinhead band in with all of hardcore and metal. There are plenty of non-racist skinheads and skinhead bands, but those bands should be preparing themselves to be scrutinized and demonized in the coming days.

[via The Atlantic Wire and Southern Poverty Law Center]