Heavy metal in/from Iraq: You can’t stop the music!

Nobody can stop the music!

    Tear down the walls / Wake up the world / Ignorance is not / Bliss / So fed up with the second-best / Our time / Is here and now
    I am the enemy / I am the antidote / Watch me closely / I will stand up… now
    We will rise / Above
    Stereotype fools / Playing the game / Nothing unique / They all look the same / In this sea of mediocrity / I can be anything / Anything I want to be
    I am the enemy / I am the antidote / Watch me closely / I will stand up… now
    We will rise / Above

There are a number of metal bands from Iraq, but fewer in Iraq. Acrassicauda (‘Black Scorpion’) was formed in 2000, while Semi Death formed in 2001. Acrassicauda were forced to flee to Turkey, while Semi Death escaped to Jordan. Prior to this, Iraqi metal bands included Scary Crew, Passage and Striker (according to Semi Death anyway). Other bands include Amargi (formed in 2006, and also forced to flee) and Dog Faced Corpse (“The new & the first death metal band from iraq!”). While Nutzis in New Zealand were parading before Parliament in Wellington, Corpse played a gig in Baghdad on October 25 with Brutal Impact. A cloying account by USA Today:

Nothing else matters: Iraqi heavy metal returns
Charles Levinson
USA TODAY
October 30, 2008

BAGHDAD — At a private dinner club on the banks of the Tigris River in Baghdad, Muthana Mani screamed threats at a wild-eyed crowd of young Iraqis.

“I’ll see you die at my feet! Eternally I smash your face! Facial bones collapse as I crack your skull in half!” he roared.

Two years ago, these kinds of threats in Iraq typically came from members of al-Qaeda, [US forces] or violent sectarian militias. Saturday night, they were directed at 250 Iraqi fans of heavy metal music who fearlessly donned eye shadow, anarchist pendants and black T-shirts and came out of hiding to attend Iraq’s first metal concert in five years.

Throughout the two-hour show, the crowd thrashed about, a sea of sweating bodies and banging heads. They screamed obscenities and broke tables. It was a scene that would have made any American metal fan proud.

It was also another indication of just how much security has improved here. When religious extremists controlled Baghdad’s neighborhoods, being a member of heavy metal’s unique subculture could amount to a death sentence, says Mani, 21, the lead singer of Brutal Impact, one of the two bands that played the concert…

Even as they recited bloodcurdling calls to violence, however, these headbangers carried a message of unity to fans. Brutal Impact is itself a testament to coexistence with two Sunnis, two Shiites and a Christian among its members.

The second band, Dog Faced Corpse, debuted their original song, Consanguinity. It is a call for brotherhood among Iraqis, explains guitarist Amin al-Jaff.

The band’s name refers to apocryphal reports at the height of the killing in 2006 that militants had stitched a dog’s head onto a victim’s headless body…

See also : Baghdad’s refugee rockers, Sarah Rainsford, BBC News, December 6, 2007: “After fleeing the violence in Iraq, the struggling band Acrassicauda has found a home in Turkey.” | Heavy Metal in Baghdad

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    Courage to Resist
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    In the past few years, tens of thousands of service members have resisted illegal war and occupation in a number of different ways—by going AWOL, seeking conscientious objector status and/or a discharge, asserting the right to speak out against injustice from within the military, and for a relative few, publicly refusing to fight.

    While there are those who would like to dismiss war resisters as “cowards,” the reality is that it takes exceptional courage to resist unjust, illegal, and/or immoral orders. For many resisters, it was their first-hand experiences as occupation troops that compelled them to take a stand. For others, “doing the right thing” and acting out of conscience began to outweigh their military training in obedience.

    About @ndy

    I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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    One Response to Heavy metal in/from Iraq: You can’t stop the music!

    1. Andre says:

      Oh damn, the iraqi metal video rockz. Bombs and metal are a very nice combination 😀

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