Madison Rising: Meet the hard-right metal band that called Obama the “antichrist”

Madison Rising is a right-wing rock phenomenon with an adoring fan base, and some mainstream cred: They’ve played at Nascar, at NFL halftime, and even did the theme song for one of Sarah Palin’s short-lived reality shows, “Amazing America.” Now, they want to make America rock again, or so their T-shirts say.

The band’s founder, Richard Mgrdechian, is a retired NASA engineer turned startup maven. He wants Madison Rising to inspire a new generation of conservative adherents — and to bring American together again. But it’s a message with an edge, and a particular vision for what the “real America” looks like: The band has called Obama the “anti-Christ,” and, last year, put out a song deploring left-wing violence the day after the attacks in Charlottesville. The song was called “War.”

VICE News went on the road with Madison Rising as they hit a biker rally in south Texas, and then dropped in on the Queens, New York, Mgrdechian’s home.

This segment originally aired January 10, 2018, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.