RaHoWa was a Canadian Creator band that played goth metal with some elements of neo-classical metal. The band name is an abbreviation of Racial Holy War. They released two albums from 1993-1995. Some of their songs, particularly on the Declaration of War cd had explicitly racist and violent lyrics.
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The band was founded by George Burdi using the pseudonym George Eric Hawthorne. Burdi was a white supremacist, and at one time the Canadian leader of the Creativity Movement and the owner of Resistance Records that acted as the groups distributor. Burdi was lead vocalist. He was convicted of assault causing bodily harm in 1995 for kicking an Anti-Racist Action member Alicia Reckzin in the face during a street riot that followed a RaHoWa concert in Ottawa in 1993. Rumors from the Anti-Racist Action state that Alicia Reckzin has left anti-racialism, in favor of neo-nazism.[1][2]
Rahowa's first album displayed a typical post-Oi punk/metal sound, however, influences such as Moonspell, Type O Negative, Current 93, Danzig and neo-classical and epic metal influences crept into the picture on their second album, Cult of the Holy War, which received some good mainstream reviews and comment. Burdi later served a jail sentence and renounced racism, but rumors are speculating that he has renounced his anti-racist stance, and has been in contact with several movement leaders. [3] [4]
Burdi now plays in a non-political band called Novacosm which hasn't been active since 2007.
After their second and last album "Cult of the Holy War" was recorded, three new members added live support:
RAHOWA was very popular among Nazi-Skinheads and their concerts are alleged to have incited violence. In the hours following one gig in Toronto in 1993, several concert goers attacked a Tamil man, beating him into a coma and leaving him permanently disabled.
| Declaration of War (1993) - (37:31) Full-length, Resistance - White People Awake, Triumph Of The Will, Fallen Hero, Race Riot, Third Reich, Solitary (live), Exodus, Victory Day, Avenge Dresden, White Revolution, The Trial | |
| Cult of the Holy War (1995) - (01:03:16) Full-length, Resistance - Preludium In G, Man Against Time, When America Goes Down, March Of The Dead, Hall Of The Heroes, In The Fires Of 1945, The Last Battalion, Anvil Of Crom, Might Is Right, Rahowa, God Is Dead, The Snow Fell, Ode To A Dying People, Rahowa Speech (Hidden Track) |