Heavy Metal in Bagdad

Leider gibt es in Europa noch immer viel zu wenig Artikel über die Subkulturen, die sich überall in der arabischen Welt entwickelt haben, und die über Veränderungen viel mehr sagen, als all die Berichte, was welche Politiker, Kleriker oder Milizführer, die meist eh alle weit jenseits der 60, wenn nicht sogar älter, sind, gerade mal wieder von sich geben. Girlie-Rap in Suleymaniah zum Beispiel oder auch Heavy Metal in Bagdad, das sind solche Themen.

Die von Faisal Said al Mutar, der 1991 im Südirak geboren wurde und inzwischen in den USA lebt, gegründete Organisation Ideas beyond Borders kümmert sich unter anderem auch um solche Themen, sonst übersetzt sie unzählige Bücher und Artikel, die sonst nicht zu haben wären, ins Arabische.

Für sie schreibt Karam Bassam, der Sänger der Heavy Metal Band Dead Tears über "Fighting For Humanity In The Middle East Through Metal". Und während er diese Zeile schreibt, finden erneut Demonstrationen überall im Land statt, bei denen mit ziemlicher Sicherheit wieder einige der jungen Protestierenden entweder zu Tode kommen oder verschleppt werden. 

"(Heavy Metal) is a way to rebel against the norms of society and convey emotions about specific subjects. The genre utilizes the lack of censorship norms within the metal community, which makes the expression of thought easy.

I created my first band Anthems of Isolation in 2012, then my second band Dead Tears in 2019. I found my passion in expressing myself through writing lyrics and singing. While I have loved being a part of these bands, being in a metal band and being from the Middle East might bring unwanted attention in specific countries. Many bands have faced difficulties performing live or even releasing music, and some to the point of becoming arrested or receiving death threats. This is due to the misconception that metal is associated with Satanism. The misconception is based on its aggressive, unusual, and dystopian image, which is merely meant to be a reflection of the world's reality, aiming to build a critical stance on important issues.

As a band, the joy of doing something you love with a sense of purpose is a great feeling. We tried to employ this in Dead Tears’ first album “Wretched Earth”, which was released in 2020. The main concept behind the album is to show the dark side of human nature that can cause horrific acts and is ultimately leading us to our own end. For instance, the song “Undeniable Existence” explains that even though humans do not have a choice where they are born, they are still arrogantly mistreating each other based on race or religion. To demonstrate real-life examples in our work, we wrote about historical events to help convey our ideas. Similar to our other song, “Psychopathic Science” used the unfortunate events and cruelties that took place at Unit 731 during World War II to demonstrate our ethical stance on the issues conveyed in the song.