‘Let the metal unite us’

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By Madeline Brown

Remember the date Oct. 10, 2007.

Four regular guys from Iraq had a dream. Maybe you could call it an American dream. All they wanted was to play heavy metal music in their own country.

It�s always been my American dream to write about music, and I�m grateful to have the privilege of meeting such a crazy mix of musicians and learning what their music is all about.

Being in Baton Rouge, we have such a wonderful opportunity to pick and choose a live band every night of the week. We can go see cover bands at The Caterie, blues bands at Phil Brady�s, indie bands at Red Star, DJs at Splash and so on. We can hop on over to New Orleans or Lafayette whenever we want, and then the list grows even larger.

Firas, Faisal, Tony and Marwan found a deep passion in listening to American metal bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden. They had one goal: get people off by playing metal as hard as they can. They formed the band Acrassicauda, Latin for �Black Scorpion,� in 2001.

After playing three shows, war wreaked havoc on Baghdad. Now they are an enemy to American forces and Iraqi religious groups, Muslim and Christian, who both write off the band as �Satanic.� Sound familiar? I thought it would.

In this case, the stakes are higher for Acrassicauda than it ever was for Elvis, Ozzie or Metallica. Misunderstanding of their metal music means death threats, not censorship or fussy parents.

The music lived on in Iraq as long as it could. They played three more shows in Baghdad. That meant risking their lives for the freedom to play the music they love. It also meant their fans risked their own lives to have the freedom to mosh and hear the music they love. Now that�s an expensive cover charge.

Filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi from VBS.TV (one of the best Web sites you�ll ever find nowadays) discovered the band in 2004. They fought their way into a crumbling Baghdad in 2006 to film the only metal band in the city.

They found half of the band, Firas and Faisal. The other half, Tony and Marwan had left the country, joining the growing number of war refugees. The filmmakers� documentary �Heavy Metal in Baghdad� follows the two guys in Baghdad and to Demascus, Syria, where they recently joined their band mates.

There are now about 2 million Iraqis displaced due to the war, military engagement or whatever we�re calling it these days.

�It�s not easy to be a heavy metal artist in post-Saddam Iraq,� Moretti put it nicely.

When the filmmakers presented their film at the Toronto International Film Festival, Alvi said, �Acrassicauda represent the old Iraq on some level because there is a Sunni, a Shia and a Christian in the band playing metal together harmoniously.�

Music is something that enriches our lives. It�s one of the few things in life that can really connect people. Acrassicauda�s story of adversity and incredible drive is something that reached out and grabbed me last week, and I wanted to share it with you, dear music lovers, because I finally found something I can do in this horrible situation we�re in.

Oct. 10, 2007, exactly one week from today, the band mates� visas will start expiring. The Syrian government threatens to send refugees back to Iraq once their visas expire. The band wrote in their blog at www.heavymetalinbaghdad.com that their chances of survival in Iraq are 0 percent.

I urge you to visit the Web site the filmmakers set up for the band, www.heavymetalinbaghdad.com. Vice movies and VBS.TV have set up a PayPal account to get Acrassicauda to a safe place and have some money to live and rock on.

�� The last thing that hits our mind is to seek your help to get us out of here where we going to be able to live the dream of our life and being out there on stage with you wherever you are � the double horns goes from us to you.�

E-mail the author at Madeline@tigerweekly.com

Originally Published: Issue 582 - October 3, 2007

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