UPDATE – Rory over at Vice sent me the heads up on the newest trailer
Heavy Metal in Baghdad, a documentary made by the guys from Vice Magazine, has picked up an American distributor and should see a theatrical release this spring.
Heavy Metal in Baghdad is a feature film documentary that follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda [Latin for "Black Scorpion" - rock you like a hurrican, Dawg] from the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to the present day. Playing heavy metal in a Muslim country has always been a difficult (if not impossible) proposition but after Saddam’s regime was toppled, there was a brief moment for the band in which real freedom seemed possible. That hope was quickly dashed as their country fell into a bloody insurgency. From 2004-2007, Iraq disintegrated around them while Acrassicauda struggled to stay together and stay alive, always refusing to let their heavy metal dreams die. Their story echoes the unspoken hopes of an entire generation of young Iraqis.
It’s pretty cool that they’ve managed to not get their heads chopped off. But also not very metal.
And yes, this was all an elaborate excuse to post a Metalocalypse clip.
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Playing heavy metal in a Muslim country has always been a difficult (if not impossible) proposition
That’s no bullshit! You ever tried playing "Trapped Under Ice" on camel skinned drums?
Me neither but I bet it would suck.
Right JHC. And it’s also hard to find King Diamond make-up for your Mercyful Fate tribute band.
I went to a tiity bar during the Christmas holidays. Young girls got naked and slapped me in the face with their tits. They also showed me their well trimmed vaginas.
Take THAT Muslim countries! What did you do at the end of December? BURN!
Hay-suse: that’s probably not half as difficult as pulling a lars solo off using the intestines of your decapitated infidels for guitar strings…they keep breaking…you have to keep decapitating…it really doesn’t go over with the burkka-clad bitches in the front row.
*pulls a Beavis and Butthead style what the hell is this crap expression*
Fucking hell, I need to stop forgetting to embed the actual video.
oh boo-fuckin-hoo. “…iraq disintegrated around them”- pshhhh, please. i play call of duty 4 all the time, and let me tell you pal, the middlle-east is a cake walk.
special request: lance, can you pray again today?
+1 for chodin
running tally
jhc +4
chodin +2 and rising fast
call of khtulu, err duty 4- nada
How the fuck can a heavy metal band make it in the muslim world indeed!?
Wouldn’t their fan’s turbans keep falling on the floor from the headbanging? Or do they just beat their wives upside their heads instead?
Yeah, and how are their fans supposed to make the Dio devil sign with their fingers when their hands have been chopped off?
Doesn’t bother me Lance, I can’t watch them anyways…<hangs head as tear falls>
So do they suck or no? They had better have a good acoustic ballad set, I hear they have power trouble over there.
i could never go to one of these guys’ concerts. i fear that the line between reality and art would become way too foggy.
*Acrassicauda jams onstage*
Acrassicauda: DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN “burning! burning! burning!” DUN-DUN-DUN
audience: “BURNING! BURNING! BURNING!”
Acrassicauda: DUN-DUN-DUN “spider’s blood! spider’s blood!” DUN-DUN-DUN
audience: “SPIDER’S BLOOD! SPIDER’S BLOOD!”
*guy runs into concert screaming “there’s a bomb that’s going to kill us all!” *
audience: “THERE’S A BOMB THAT’S GOING TO KILL US ALL!”
New post needledicks!
Goddamn it, I’m never here when something I would enjoy gets posted.
They’ll always have cool looking places to shoot videos.
I’ve actually seen Heavy Metal in Baghdad and it’s a great story. The band is actually now stuck in Turkey I believe because they ran out of money. If you go to the movie’s site there’s a photo gallery of prints you can order from Vice photographers, with all the proceeds going to help pay for the band’s touring costs.