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Metal in the Middle East

I’m often amazed at the allegiance kids in the Greater Middle East have for Heavy Metal music. Bands like Iron Maiden continue to sell out concerts in Dubai, and Metallica remains one of the most popular bands throughout the region. I, for one, was an absolute “Metal Head” growing up, as were most of my friends at the parochial school my brother and I attended in Saudi Arabia. In fact, the very first album I bought as a seven year-old was Iron Maiden’s “Number of The Beast” (Really. I’m not kidding).

I think my conservative parents preferred the machinations of demons and devilry to any kind of provocative, sexual imagery I could have been into. (Of course, my brother became diehard Motley Crue fan, so there went that hope).

The ferocity of Heavy Metal music funnels a lot of angst, especially in younger generations, and we all know that currently there is a nearly inexhaustible source of that combustible emotion in the Middle East. Also, the lyrical content of Heavy Metal is often rather innocuous, dealing with folklore and history or, at times, aggrandizing one’s bravado. This makes it a form of popular music that is readily palatable in the Middle East.

Take the band Acrassicauda, for example. Their syncopated riffs and thunderous bass drums have legitimate roots in the Middle East. The band was formed in Iraq though they currently reside in America. Much of their notoriety is based around a documentary entitled ‘Heavy Metal in Baghdad,’ though their exalted brand of thrash metal speaks for itself. Acrassicauda has been around since 2001, and some say they will spearhead a kind of “Metal Renaissance” in the Middle East as individuals are allowed greater access to making and performing music in the region.

Check out their song, ‘Garden of Stones.’ It’s a blast. Literally.

 Watch the video here

*Photo Credit: Niklas Morberg

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