In what is undoubtedly a reaction to the horrific white supremacist terrorist attack against mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand last Friday, Spin reports that two venues in the country have cancelled scheduled Phil Anselmo and The Illegals shows. One of the venues, Club Tavern is in Christchurch, where the massacre occurred, while the other, Galatos, is in the country’s capital city of Auckland.

The reason for the cancellation hearkens back to an incident in Los Angeles in 2016 at the Dimebash show in honor of his late ex-bandmade Dimebag Darrell. At the show, the former Pantera singer allegedly made a Nazi salute and allegedly shouted “white power” while on stage (both of which were caught on video, though it’s not absolutely clear what was said or what the meaning behind his gesture was). At the time Forta Rock cancelled a performance of one of Anselmo’s other bands, Down.

Following the incident and subsequent backlash, Anselmo railed against the metal journalism community and fellow musicians like Scott Ian of Anthrax and Robb Flynn of Machinehead, who were critical of his alleged actions. “There is false journalism in the metal community, and the result is all knee-jerk reaction,” Anselmo said. “Look at this all and what happened. There is no questions asked in the moment. It is just straight to the persecution.”

New Zealand Herald reports that in a since-deleted Facebook post, Club Tavern offered this message: “The Philip Anselmo gig has been cancelled, we do not and will not support white supremacy or racism.” Galatos also issued a statement: “Galatos will not be hosting this show in our venue on the above date. Just today, information has come to hand which has made us uncomfortable about proceeding with this show.”

Anselmo has been busy over the last few years, announcing several new projects. In 2018 Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals released their album Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue, which followed 2013’s Walk Through Exits Only. He also announced a new band Scour, which takes on a more death-metal oriented sound and released a self-titled album in 2016 and an EP called Red in 2017.

He also has a new project called En Minor, which is supposed to be more influenced by goth music like The Cure and Sisters of Mercy. They make their live debut at Psycho Vegas 2019.