Pär Hulkoff's Anthems for Antimodernists

Introduction 🔗

This post considers lyrics from Pär Hulkoff (Raubtier and solo career). Although, I like the sound of most of his works, I lack the musical background to give a detailed breakdown with the apt terms. Hence I will really only consider the texts. You will find my personal opinion sprinkled throughout.

What sparked my interest in Hulkoff’s music was when I saw him as an opening act during Sabaton’s 10-year-anniversary-tour of Carolus Rex in 2022.¹ The song, Ingvar has not left my mind since.

The actual choice of songs is just some of my personal favorites, and I have not heard everything he has penned.

Background 🔗

Pär Hulkoff is a musician and songwriter, most famous as the lead singer of Swedish metal band Raubtier, which was founded in Haparanda, a city next to the border to Finland. Calling their music “Swedish” does not capture the spirit of the songs, as all Swedes can recognize the regional difference between Northern Sweden and the rest. The North is more rough and rugged, colder (literally and socially), and is often carried as an elitist pride.

As for the influence, Hulkoff has stated that his historical study is not super detailed, and he distrusts in those who have written history because of their agenda: “the economization of the North.”² This is at the core of his anti-modern texts, and he embraces the Old Norse ethos as he judges proud city-dwellers from the harsh wilderness:

My music is the music of my surroundings. It is the river, the lakes, the majestic trees, and the wild animals. I need all of that to stay focused with antennas out… cities kill the spirit.³

Throughout both Raubtier and Hulkoff (his solo career), he seeks freedom and indirectly acknowledges survival of the fittest hierarchy throughout his texts.

Raubtier 🔗

In Raubtier, the central theme is a harsh critique of modernity, which appears in the form of social liberalism in the West. His approach is to force them to see their antithesis, the brutal reality of nature. This is part of the motive to why the music is filled with imagery of violent beasts, primarily dog bred for combat (Raubtier is German for “predator”) and militarism (embracing German terms like “Panzer” or “Lebensgefahr”). The imagery is a bit much for me personally, but I can appreciate the point.

Opus Magni 🔗

Starting the Raubtier songs is their Great work, it lays out Hulkoff’s (political and spiritual) enemies, as he urges the capable to resist the corruption.

You free men who still carry the thought
Of the individual’s true ideal
You who are not bent by the voice from the bank
And aren’t deceived by the viper’s speech

With fire and iron shall the freedom be paid
It costs welfare, luxury and abundance
Are you prepared to wake up from the dormancy
The price of freedom is sacrifice, blood and death

His apoliteia⁴ is steadfast, as he calls to distrust de facto democracy:

Red or blue? What do you think it means?
Nothing but empty phrases emptied of substance
Our head of state bends himself for those he obeys
Whenever they invite for a dance

With this, Hulkoff alludes to the different factions of elites who influences politics.⁵

Leviathan 🔗

Hulkoff’s enemy number one is the all consuming state known as Leviathan.⁶ A state can be totalitarian and tyrannical even if it hides it under guises of freedom and democracy.

This passage captures the bureaucratic oppression that the managerial state uses to terrorize man through gradual stress:

A free man is a hated man who, marginalized,
gets grinded by the paragraph’s drugery
and slowly suffocated and—as planned—reduced,
incapacitated, and bereft of his children

What will these children become?

By declaring opposing opinions and views as sick, the state can apply its rules to condemn and punish without contradicting its morals.

Dystopi 🔗

Under the lord of Leviathan, the citizens have hurdled together in their weakness. This song consider civilized Scandinavia during a events of a social collapse:

IKEA tables quickly burn for he who has no firewood
[…]
You can’t eat concrete,
so flee for your life from the cannibal’s knife.

Högt, fritt och blött 🔗

(Eng. “High, Free, and Wet”)

The title references the motto of outdoors people. Hulkoff is an enthusiast of the genuine life in the wilderness, whether that is hunting and hiking.

The song outlines Swedish partisans resistance following the event of a foreign attack. He points to fragile systems such as the electrical grid, internet reliance, and how it affects self-sustainable food capacity.

His cautionary warning reads thus:

It’s been spoken about a world without borders
And with lies hid total incompetence
But here, behind landmines, pitfall traps and fences,
Hard lessons have taught us that every man has their limits.

As a city-dweller, I must respect Hulkoff’s point of view; his resistance to be subdued.

Inget hopp 🔗

(Eng. No Hope)

Western civilizations are not ready for total war on our soil. Our society festers with a fear anything resembling death, whether it is sickness or growing old.

And in our day and age, the possibility of war looms like the shadow of death, and all the frightened masses are capable of doing is cursing it.

War is hell for most, mindless and senseless. It drowns dreams and sacrifices young men to Moloch, and violates the civilians who can’t escape its storm. And yet, bloodthirsty politicians with no skin in the game keep pushing for it.

Man carries a latent violent capacity, and war is the only mode of expression for some. War existed before man, and it will not go away. Let us at least be honest about its reality.

We crawl and thrall, war took our souls.
We bleed like brothers, we see how the ground glows.
We dwell in eternal darkness, evil powers have beleaguered our time

Låt napalmen regna ned 🔗

(Eng. Let the Napalm Rain Down)

This iconic song celebrates a self-destruction in napalm flames alongside the Untermensch⁷. It is the boiling point of seeing the modernist, slop, whether in the form of reality TV or fashioned diets.

The weight of creativity is too heavy for the drone
So remain sitting, and waste away your only life

There is themes of accelerationism in the song, but it far from advocates for such actions.

Lejonhjärta 🔗

In the same spirit as the epithet bestowed upon the English crusader-king, Richard I—Lionheart—the song urges the master to be unshakable to the impish attacks of slave morality.

The sheep hate the shepherd dog,
for he reminds the sheep of a beast.
They want him hidden and tied up,
hated, mocked, avoided like plague.

Don’t sink to their level, keep your head high if you have noble aspirations.

En hjältes väg 🔗

(Eng. A Hero’s Path)

Instead of appeasing the sheep, the hero has real battles, lesser holy wars in the material world, and greater ones within.

The imagery of Sigurd Fanfnabane appears as a model straight from the Eddas.⁸ Like Beowulf, he embraces his morality by facing mortal danger.⁹

The expressed ethos includes immorality through one’s deeds (see Doom Over Dead Man) and a devotion to honor. One does not need to be the strongest to be a hero, and the true attempt at heroism triumphs over complacency.

Hulkoff 🔗

For Hulkoff’s solo career, his self-titled band makes its debut with the album Kven, which concerns “the forgotten population in the North, that was so important during the Iron Age.”² The music shifts from industrial metal to folk metal to accompany this shift from warfare to Indo-European tales. Unlike Sabaton’s style that accounts actual details, he embraces the fantastical that makes the listener suspend some disbelief. This is a strength which I can really appreciate.²

The social critique of Raubtier is more subtle, as seen in the implicit message of The Lone Wolf. The primary theme has shifted to the Old Norse ethos expressed in the Eddas and Sagas.

Hamingja 🔗

Hamingja is an ontological term of Norse mythology, which is thought of as a guardian spirit that is inherited within a family. The literal translation is “fortune” and it is spoken of in the Sagas as if it could be both positive and negative.¹⁰

Because of the Indo-European link between the Norse and Vedic texts, it is possible that hamingja shares a common root with karma.

As the song considers events leading up to Ragnarök, Hulkoff asks the listener if they still have their ancestral blessing and honor intact:

The brave are heckled by cowards’ wrath
[…]
Brother takes a brother’s life
Poison drips from the traitor’s knife
The flame is lit
Steward, peasant, thralls and lords
Now is time for swords
Life of man is now forfeit

Doom Over Dead Man 🔗

Straight from the Havamal,¹¹ this song considers the spiritual calling of blood and soil.

I sometimes look down into a spring
I feel my forefathers reflecting
I feel the weight of the song they sing
Of strife and labour and suffering
The burden’s mine, and I face it

To me, this expresses my great reverence for my bloodline, and a debt I feel greater than all else that I must repay. How much do we not owe to their plight? You are their masterwork, don’t spoil it.

Holmgang 🔗

Holmgang refers to a Viking tradition, where two would face off at a holme, a small island.¹² It is a sacred duel to the death that one must answer; “wash honor in blood.” The tradition appears in Eigil’s Saga, which we must assume Hulkoff took inspiration from.¹³

The utility of this tradition must’ve been to maintain social cohesion, but deeper still, it reflects the reverence of not speaking beyond one’s capacity.

You have trampled on my honor
And my family’s in spittle and spite
So I summon you to Holmgang
For it is my plight and my right

The Swedish version speaks of a Nidingstång (Eng. Nithing pole) being raised to the one that refuses the summon.

This totem was meant to bring misfortune (one could say negative hamingja) to the one who was exiled.¹⁴

An indirect result of practicing these brutal customs, was a natural selection for strength and honor—a maintenance of the collective code.

We can look back to the past and appreciate the cowards who—facing the risk of being called out—would’ve kept their slither from public discourse.

Ingvar 🔗

Shifting from the Norse ethos, to the underlying Norse soul/spirit, we turn to the adventuring drive of the Vikings. To embark into the unknown adventure following a great leader speaks to something deep in me. I believe this is my Faustian spirit,¹⁵ which Hulkoff unconsciously alludes to as one of his musical drives.¹⁶

The song tells of Ingvar Vittfarne (Eng. The Far-Travelled), a Swedish viking mentioned by many runestones.¹⁷ He led a voyage down the Danube to Serkland, eventually succumbing to sickness after battle in Bulgaria.

To me, the mystique lies in hearing the names of contemporary locations in the older Swedish names (“Gårdarike” for Novgorod, “Serkland” for the Middle-East, “Gandvik” for the Bothnian Sea).

Part of the pleasure of listening to music (or reading literature) is to trying to make sense of it on your own—forming your story. I knew about the Viking travels to the East,¹⁸ and so my romanticism could form. Eventually, I read in more detail about Ingvar following a passage elsewhere,¹⁹ which cemented my awe.

Jórvik 🔗

Jórvik is the Old Norse name for the English city of York, which, during the Viking age was a rich trading hub, and a target for raiders.

The text speaks of a farmhand of 16 years, who feels something awaken in him as he observes the dragon ship of King Canute. He feels— no he needs to sail out to sea and in search for wealth and fame (pillage and raid). This adventure resonates something deep in my Faustian soul,¹⁵ even more so than by Ingvar. Not knowing what awaits, but burning to conquer²⁰ and take on the world:

I know why I’m made, I am off to raid
On a longship bound for Jórvik
With an axe in hand, in a wild warband
Going westwards, going to England
Let my mother know that I had to go
Where my father once set shore

Ibor & Aio 🔗

The Longobards is a Gothic people who went on to conquer and establish kingdoms in Italy. According to legend, their story began as two brothers, Ibor & Aio, were exiled from their native Scandinavian land, and guided by Odin reaches fame.²¹

The texts echoes the Indo-European ethos: honor, truth and strength:

Our hearts are as true as our beards are long
Our vows are iron, our customs are hard
Kneel to the kings of the Longobards!

Two brothers against the world; will to power unmatched.

The song’s effect is amplified as it is sung as a duet by Hulkoff and Sabaton’s Joakim Brodén.

The Lone Wolf 🔗

The eternal wolf observes as his kind become tamed into hounds by embracing the comfort provided by humans. In this allegory, the dog envies the perks that comes with relying on the wolf’s solitary strength:

The ones who sold their freedom
Hates the one who still is free

Conclusion 🔗

In conclusion, I believe that Pär Hulkoff’s music speaks to the hearts of the Westerners who can tell from whence they hail, and who resists the decline of their civilization. For me, it was not the most violent songs that resonated, but those touching on truths I recognized in my own spirit—the Faustian pull, the weight of ancestry, the cost of true freedom.