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By: Nick Carroway
Managers at Tulum Night Club in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, were left stunned after discovering pools of cow blood splattered outside the venue following a black metal concert on January 26. The event, headlined by the controversial band Volahn, took an eerie turn, leaving club staff and security questioning what had transpired.
“I exited the place from the back door and I saw blood on the floor — a lot of blood,” Roger Torres, a manager at Tulum Night Club, told The New York Post. “So I said, ‘What happened? Somebody fighting?’ I asked the security guys, and they told me, ‘No, nobody fought.’”
Torres, 54, said the mystery deepened when they later discovered a gallon-sized container of what appeared to be beef blood left behind in the venue.
The nightclub had booked Volahn at the last minute after the band faced backlash online, resulting in the cancellation of their scheduled performances at Juan Bar in Corona and Trans-Pecos in Ridgewood, The New York Post reported.
Volahn, led by Southern California musician Eduardo Ramirez, has drawn scrutiny for its associations with other groups that have been linked to Nazi imagery. Ramirez has previously opened for Inquisition, a band accused of having Nazi affiliations, and has been involved with other acts that feature swastika-like logos, such as Blue Hummingbird on the Left.
According to The New York Post, Ramirez has also been seen alongside the co-founder of Wolves of Vineland, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled as “Neo-Volkisch.” Additionally, he has been photographed wearing a t-shirt of Graveland, a band infamous for its connections to Nazi ideology.
“We didn’t know about any of this when we booked them,” said co-manager Jesus Bravo. “A day before the show, they called us looking for a venue, and they offered us a deal. It was a slow month, so we accepted.”
The performance was not advertised online, with promotional flyers only listing the venue as “TBA.” The event, organized by Metal Kingdom Records, a record store in Corona, saw less than 100 attendees in a space that can accommodate up to 600 people, The New York Post noted.
Social media images from the night show band members drenched in blood, seemingly matching the gallon of “edible beef blood” found in the club’s green room the next day. “One guy was on stage covered in blood,” Torres recalled. “Right now, I feel scared. What is the purpose? Some bands believe in bad things. It’s not normal.”
Days after the performance, coagulated pools of dark-red blood remained frozen on the sidewalk outside Tulum’s side entrance at Second Avenue and 42nd Street.
PETA responded to the incident, telling The New York Post, “We hope that anyone who is appalled by this will think about it when they sit down to eat and will choose a vegan meal.”
Bravo stated that moving forward, the venue will be more discerning about the bands they host. “We want to be more careful about the kind of promoters we allow into our establishment,” he said.
