Baghdad Heavy Metal Band ACRASSICAUDA Still On The Run
December 10, 2007, 16 years ago
The following report is courtesy of Bryan Pearson from Middle-east-online.com:
Members of Iraq's only heavy metal group, now struggling to survive in Turkey, will not be joining the flow of refugees returning to their war-ravaged homeland anytime soon - if they can help it.
"We dare not go back. We'll be targeted even more than before," bass guitarist Firas al-Latif said by telephone from Istanbul, where four members of ACRASSICAUDA are seeking official refugee status.Ironically, publicity generated by a documentary on the plight of the heavy metal foursome, which was screened at the Toronto film festival earlier this year, has counted against them.
"All this publicity has occurred. Our pictures are all over the Internet. We've become a big thing mediawise," said Latif over a crackly connection."Most Iraqis now know about us. To be known in Iraq is not a good thing."
Inspired by US megaband METALLICA, the group came together in 2001 and immediately gained local notoriety, which maybe should have been expected of a band playing heavy metal music in a conservative country.
After the American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, the musicians felt optimistic about events in the country and even spoke about recording an album.
They drew the attention of journalists of counter-culture magazine VICE who wrote a feature on the hard-rocking group of friends, which helped them garner an international following by what Latif now describes as "courageous die-hard fans."
Backed by VICE, Acrassicauda - named after a dangerous breed of black scorpion - staged a sell-out show in Baghdad in 2005, one of only six gigs they were able to perform in Iraq.
The documentary Heavy Metal In Baghdad focuses on the VICE team's attempt a year later to find out what had become of the band members after the eruption of bitter sectarian violence across Iraq.
Read more here.
