OAKLAND — After anti-fascist groups threatened to protest the event, the Oakland Metro Operahouse canceled a Saturday show featuring Marduk, a Swedish-based black metal band.

The Oakland Metro Operahouse announced the cancellation on Facebook on Friday, citing safety concerns as well as a statement from Oakland police that based on the riot at UC Berkeley following Milo Yiannopoulos’ announced visit, “it is reasonable to believe that there would be a threat to public safety if these groups showed up to protest Marduk.”

This statement could not be confirmed with Oakland police on Saturday.

Anti-Fascist Action Bay Area posted the protest announcement on their Facebook page on Feb. 10, arguing that the band had “known white supremacist ties from Sweden that profits off of glorifying Nazi imagery and songs about Nazi SS officers and anti-Semitism.”

The Oakland Metro Operahouse denied that the band is white supremacist, nationalist or anti-immigrant after reading interviews from the band, but cancelled the event and offered refunds for those who purchased tickets.

The band, which is named after the patron god of Babylon, does have songs and albums named after Nazi officers, such as a song titled “The Hangman of Prague” on their 2004 album Plague Angel, which is named after Holocaust architect Reinhard Heydrich. The lyrics, like art, are up for interpretation and can be read at bit.ly/MardukLyrics.

Fans who had driven to Oakland to see the show were outraged and discussions centered around the question of freedom of speech and what extent questionable speech is protected.