The Norwegian band Antestor had to be escorted away by police in Brazil.
_____________________________________

Tonight’s big thanks goes to the police in Belo Horizonte for having saved our lives, writes bassist Erik Normann Aanonsen on Facebook after escaping an angry crowd outside the venue in Brazil where the band Antestor played last night.

Hundreds waited outside

– Inside the concert was a full house, 3-400 fans, and a great atmosphere. But we heard along the way that it was about to brew up to riot outside the venue. After the concert had accumulated about 100 people outside, they had made banners against us and tried to break the door. We were beaten, kicked and spat after, says guitarist Robert Bordevik.

The band is touring in Brazil in connection with his new album Omen, because Antestor have large audiences in the country. When Antestor launched their touring schedule this fall the band received over 300 threats, including death threats.

– But it calmed down and cooked a bit away, so we have not thought about it much. Nevertheless, we were met by a bodyguard at the airport in Brazil, he has been with us 24 hours a day. During the concert in Belo Horizonte was well over 30 guards present, and the police .. But then it took off outside, I counted ten police forces arrived to try to keep control of the crowd. Police fired warning shots in the air to try to disperse the crowd, telling Bordevik.

The band also tried to escape from the back door, but there was a mini bus been punctured. The drama ended when police beat iron ring around the Norwegians and escorted them to a waiting taxi farther away, who then ran a proper detour to shake off any angry Brazilians.

The guitarist said they were kind of prepared that anything could happen.

– But we were the trapped like rats. Antestor play extreme metal with a Christian message, while those who waited on us are “Satanists” – they hang ten years after development in Norway. It is just not something new that some extreme metal fans “hate” the Bible and Christianity. But it is the first time for us that there is such a thing, says Bordevik.

Does whatever

Deacon Student Markus Solstad from Nordic Mission, a record shop for Christian metal, touring with the band as a “roadie” in Brazil, confirming riots in Belo Horizonte.

– I got a caramel over the eye, but mostly went well, he said.

Solstad says it is a great Christian metal scene in Brazil, and that other bands have experienced hateful attacks.

– Christians are persecuted all over the world, this is nothing special for metal fans. But we have not experienced anything like the other concert venues in Brazil, so this is enough especially for the environment in this particular town, think Solstad.

Yet the band that opponents of the band’s Christian profile also today published hatopprop online, where it reads Go Away Antestor . band end the tour in Rio de Janeiro in the evening.

– We have decided to play anyway, we’re not going to let us cowed by threats, says Robert Bordevik.

Norwegian Resistance

In Norway, the Christian metal rockers faced hate speech.

In 2007 , Aftenposten wrote about Steve Rowe and Australian band Mortification, a pioneering band in heavy Christian rock, who chose to cancel a concert in Oslo after death threats from a Satanic environment.