Heavy Metal in Baghdad

In writing an earlier post about Heavy Metal magazine, I came across some reviews for a DVD about a heavy metal band based in Baghdad that really caught my attention.

I am not very shy about my position on Muslims: I do not care for them, in general. While I also despise Fundamental Christians and other zealots, Muslims tend to be Fundamentalists by nature; and remember, I live in a backwater shithole in Tennessee: I know from Fundamentalism! So let me go ahead and distance myself from the hippy-dippy Liberals who try to convince you that Acrassicauda is the "real face of Muslims" in the Middle East; the heavy metal band profiled in the documentary, Heavy Metal in Baghdad is the exception which proves the rule.

But having said all of this, I am extremely interested in getting this DVD and finding out more about the band and their plight. What little I have read about it makes me determined to follow their progress.

The Weirding is always about free speech and heavy metal - heavy, heavy, brutal metal - so I wanted to do my part in getting the word out about this band and their plight. You can purchase the DVD online and check out the trailer on YouTube.

Honestly, from what I have heard, the band is talented but raw. It just shows how important freedom really is; if these guys had access to the music we do, the production value, studio space and time... they have possibly the most unique position in all of music, especially in the small pool of heavy metal, yet they are literally on the lam for their very lives!

It is 2008.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008