Metalblog

Iraqi capital Baghdad is more used to being rocked by suicide bombers than being rocked by death metal bands. Baghdad death metallers Dog Faced Corpse are trying to change that by performing at the Pharmacist’s Club, a private dinner venue on the banks of the Tigris.

But change will not come easy in Iraq. The Sunday Times reports Latif Ahmed, 22, the drummer, who abandoned his engineering studies at Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University after a stream of death threats, found almost no support from friends or family for his “hare-brained” scheme to restore heavy metal to Iraq’s cultural scene.

“It’s very, very loud and our rehearsals made my neighbours very angry. We’ve had a lot of opposition,” he admitted last week. “But on the night it was great. About 250 headbangers showed up. Seven tables were broken. It was a full metal night — the day I’ve always dreamed about.”

The concert was a calculated act of defiance by Ahmed, whose jeans, long hair, goatee beard and taste for Black Sabbath and Metallica had marked him out for attacks at college by religious fundamentalists. Students loyal to Moqtada Al-Sadr, the Shi’ite clergyman, dragged him out of the university and threatened him.

This is what metal music is all about. Rebellion and fighting against the system for what you believe in; not corporate sponsorhip and shifting units.

Here is a video of Dog Faced Corpse performing their song Consanguinity live in Baghdad.

We wish the band all the luck in the world. Keep it real and stay safe. Dog Faced Corpse, the Metalblog salutes you. Two horns up! \m/ \m/ 

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