Acrassicauda
Encyclopedia
Acrassicauda is an Iraq
i thrash metal
band formed in 2001
. It is often credited as being the first heavy metal group to emerge from Iraq. The band consists of three Arab members and one Assyrian
(Tony Aziz Yaqoo). The band formed and played concerts under the regime of Saddam Hussein
. It became well known outside of the local Iraqi metal scene after Vice magazine
did a profile of the band. It received even greater coverage when it was profiled in a feature-length documentary about the band and its troubles in Iraq called Heavy Metal in Baghdad
. The band's first album was released on March 9, 2010.
Because of it increased fame after the Iraqi regime change, the band started to receive death threats from Islamic militants who thought that the band was worshiping Satan
. Due to this and the increasing violence in Baghdad the members of the band fled first to Syria and then Turkey before being granted refugee status in the United States of America. Most of the band settled in New Jersey
, but Tony Aziz decided to live with family in Michigan
, before moving to Richmond, Virginia
. They now reside in Brooklyn
, New York
.
, Acrassicauda consists of lead vocalist–guitarist Faisal Talal, guitarist Tony Aziz, bassist Firas Al-Lateef, and drummer Marwan Riyadh. The band was formed after Riyadh and Talal met Aziz in a Baghdad school where they were studying fine arts in 2000. The four members worked as journalists and translators before the American invasion. The band name is derived from the Latin
name of a species of black scorpion
common in Iraq. In Saddam's Iraq, the band was able to get inspiration from various bootleg tapes from heavy metal's 30-year history.
With original lead vocalist Waleed Moudhafar, the band performed under the Saddam regime, but because of censorship restrictions, it had to write a song that praised Saddam Hussein. Called "The Youth of Iraq," the song included the lyrics "Following our leader Saddam Hussein, we'll make them fall, we'll drive them insane!" Other restrictions on the band included the banning of headbanging
because of its similarities with the head movement of orthodox Jews (davening) while praying. In early stages of the American presence in Baghdad Vice magazine
(Vice 2004 Vol 11 no1) did a profile on the band that claimed that it was the only heavy metal band in Baghdad. Since that time, other bands have emerged from the Baghdad heavy-metal scene. Moudhafar left the group in 2003.
After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War, Acrassicauda staged a concert at the Al-Fanar Hotel
amid heavy security in the summer of 2005. After stringent security, the concert was able to go on, but several power cuts interrupted the show. The band members would practice in a basement of a store complex until 2006, when the building, basement, and all the band's equipment was destroyed when it was bombed. Due to threats against their lives and increasing violence in Baghdad the band members individually moved to Syria.
to Syria
because of the violence in Baghdad. They, like most Iraqis, were forced to use the dangerous 16-hour bus route from Baghdad to the Syrian border. During the voyage, there were buses that had been hijacked and passengers kidnapped along the side of the road. While the group was in Syria, over 3,000 Iraqis were entering the country every day as refugees.
While in Syria, the band was able to hold a concert for metal fans in the basement of a Damascus
hotel. Because of Syrian government restrictions, the band wasn't allowed to call its concert heavy metal and, therefore, used rock music on concert advertising. At the concert, the band performed mostly cover songs because the Syrian audience wasn't familiar with the Acrassicauda sound. In Syria, the members of the band lived in a small room in an apartment basement with no windows.
During the taping of Heavy Metal in Baghdad in 2007, it was revealed that the Syrian government did not intend to extend the visa
s of the band. The country had changed its immigration policies, forcing Iraqis to apply in Baghdad instead of the Syrian border. The filmmakers campaigned to raise funds to relocate the band in a safer country rather than having it return to Iraq. The band members also sold their equipment to make the trip and for living expenses. The members of the band fled to Turkey when the visa change took place to apply for refugee status and wait for a third country to accept them.
While on the move, Vice magazine tried to resettle the members in Canada and Germany while also providing money from the Vice corporation. Some $40,000 from Vice sponsors and donations collected online helped out with living expenses of the four band members, according to Suroosh Alvi, one of the founders of Vice and director of the film profiling Acrassicauda. Alvi went on to say, “We had outed them and endangered their lives. They were receiving threats from Iraq while they were in Syria. We had a responsibility.” It was with Vice's help that the band was able to use a Syrian recording studio to record three tracks for a demo recording that included “Between the Ashes” and “Massacre.” Turkish musicians also lent the band a fully equipped recording studio after hearing of the band's plight while in their country.
. A humanitarian relief and refugee resettlement agency, International Rescue Committee
, placed them in an apartment in the town of Elizabeth
. Then, in the early morning hours of January 30, 2009, Marwan arrived. On the band's second day in the United States, they were able to watch Metallica
at the Prudential Center in Newark
. Each band member met the group backstage and James Hetfield
, Metallica’s lead singer, presented the band members with one of his guitars, a black ESP
, after signing it Welcome to America. The Metallica concert was the band's second-ever stadium concert—the first being the band Testament
, which the band saw a few months earlier in Turkey.
The band's first officially released album, Only the Dead See the End of the War
, is a four-song EP Released on Vice Records on March 9, 2010. It was produced by Alex Skolnick
of Testament at Spin Studio in Astoria, Queens. Acrassicauda followed the release with Cannibal Corpse
, Voivod
, and other metal bands at the Scion Rock Fest in Columbus, Ohio, on March 13.
In July 2011, Acrassicauda embarked on its 2011 "Make it or Break it" tour. The band lived in a music studio in Orange County, California, for about a month and a half prior.
. The film was shot over three years. It began as a series of Webisodes for VBS, Vice
’s online network. Taping locations included Baghdad
and Erbil
in Iraq
; Beirut, Lebanon; and Damascus, Syria. Originally, it was not intended to be a feature-length movie, but a cut was accepted for the 2007
Toronto International Film Festival
. Its premiere was in September, and it was again shown at the Berlin International Film Festival
the following February. The film was screened at additional international film festivals throughout 2008. It was released on DVD after a brief theatrical run in New York and Los Angeles.
The film was well received with The New York Times
praising the film as "An intrepid, unlikely and altogether splendid feat of D.I.Y. reportage...both a stirring testament to the plight of cultural expression in Baghdad and a striking report on the refugee scene in Syria, this rock-doc like no other electrifies its genre and redefines headbanging as an act of hard-core courage."
An hour-long cut-down version of the film was shown in the UK
in December 2008 as part of the documentary series Imagine
. They were also featured briefly in the 2004 documentary Voices of Iraq
.
Members of the group have insisted that its focus is on the music and have expressed concern over some of the media attention received. Al Lateef told the Montreal Mirror
that it wanted to play as an "Iraqi heavy metal group, not as a refugee heavy metal group." He followed that with "all we care about is the music and playing heavy metal, and this is why we’re still living, because it’s the only way that we get our feelings out—by music."
, Slayer
, Iron Maiden
, Rage Against the Machine
, and Slipknot
. Heavy Metal in Baghdad shows the band playing covers ranging from Europe's "The Final Countdown
" to Metallica's "Fade to Black
." The first time members of the group saw a Western band live was a 2008 Testament
concert in Turkey. Skolnick of Testament has described Acrassicauda's music as "very heavy" and "raw".
According to Vice magazine, the conditions in Baghdad after the American invasion resulted in the band's music becoming "even more hate-filled and intense and fucked than ever before." Their music deals with war and suffering at times, but the songs are meant to be apolitical.
Former members
EPs
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band formed in 2001
2001 in music
See also:* 2001 in music Record labels established in 2001-Events:*January 1**Comeback of Guns N' Roses in House of Blues**Hum disbands.*January 17 – Bass player Jason Newsted leaves Metallica after 14 years with the band....
. It is often credited as being the first heavy metal group to emerge from Iraq. The band consists of three Arab members and one Assyrian
Assyrian people
The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...
(Tony Aziz Yaqoo). The band formed and played concerts under the regime of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
. It became well known outside of the local Iraqi metal scene after Vice magazine
Vice (magazine)
VICE is a free magazine and media conglomerate founded in Montreal, Quebec and currently based in New York City.Vice is available in 27 countries...
did a profile of the band. It received even greater coverage when it was profiled in a feature-length documentary about the band and its troubles in Iraq called Heavy Metal in Baghdad
Heavy Metal in Baghdad
Heavy Metal in Baghdad is a critically acclaimed 2007 rockumentary film following filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi as they track down the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda amidst the Iraq War.-Synopsis:...
. The band's first album was released on March 9, 2010.
Because of it increased fame after the Iraqi regime change, the band started to receive death threats from Islamic militants who thought that the band was worshiping Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
. Due to this and the increasing violence in Baghdad the members of the band fled first to Syria and then Turkey before being granted refugee status in the United States of America. Most of the band settled in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, but Tony Aziz decided to live with family in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, before moving to Richmond, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. They now reside in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Iraq
Born out of a basement rehearsal space in BaghdadBaghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, Acrassicauda consists of lead vocalist–guitarist Faisal Talal, guitarist Tony Aziz, bassist Firas Al-Lateef, and drummer Marwan Riyadh. The band was formed after Riyadh and Talal met Aziz in a Baghdad school where they were studying fine arts in 2000. The four members worked as journalists and translators before the American invasion. The band name is derived from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
name of a species of black scorpion
Fattail scorpion
Fattail scorpion or fat-tailed scorpion is the common name given to scorpions of the genus Androctonus, which is one of the most dangerous groups of scorpions species in the world. They are found throughout the semi-arid and arid regions of the Middle-East and Africa. They are a moderate sized...
common in Iraq. In Saddam's Iraq, the band was able to get inspiration from various bootleg tapes from heavy metal's 30-year history.
With original lead vocalist Waleed Moudhafar, the band performed under the Saddam regime, but because of censorship restrictions, it had to write a song that praised Saddam Hussein. Called "The Youth of Iraq," the song included the lyrics "Following our leader Saddam Hussein, we'll make them fall, we'll drive them insane!" Other restrictions on the band included the banning of headbanging
Headbanging
Headbanging is a type of dance which involves violently shaking the head in time with the music, most commonly in the rock and heavy metal music genres.-Origin:The term "headbanger" was coined during Led Zeppelin's first US tour in 1969...
because of its similarities with the head movement of orthodox Jews (davening) while praying. In early stages of the American presence in Baghdad Vice magazine
Vice (magazine)
VICE is a free magazine and media conglomerate founded in Montreal, Quebec and currently based in New York City.Vice is available in 27 countries...
(Vice 2004 Vol 11 no1) did a profile on the band that claimed that it was the only heavy metal band in Baghdad. Since that time, other bands have emerged from the Baghdad heavy-metal scene. Moudhafar left the group in 2003.
After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War, Acrassicauda staged a concert at the Al-Fanar Hotel
Al-Fanar Hotel
The Al-Fanar Hotel is a hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. It is popular with independent travelers to the city. It is also the place where the Iraqi Heavy Metal band Acrassicauda played their last concert inside Iraq....
amid heavy security in the summer of 2005. After stringent security, the concert was able to go on, but several power cuts interrupted the show. The band members would practice in a basement of a store complex until 2006, when the building, basement, and all the band's equipment was destroyed when it was bombed. Due to threats against their lives and increasing violence in Baghdad the band members individually moved to Syria.
Syria and Turkey
The band members fled IraqIraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
to Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
because of the violence in Baghdad. They, like most Iraqis, were forced to use the dangerous 16-hour bus route from Baghdad to the Syrian border. During the voyage, there were buses that had been hijacked and passengers kidnapped along the side of the road. While the group was in Syria, over 3,000 Iraqis were entering the country every day as refugees.
While in Syria, the band was able to hold a concert for metal fans in the basement of a Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
hotel. Because of Syrian government restrictions, the band wasn't allowed to call its concert heavy metal and, therefore, used rock music on concert advertising. At the concert, the band performed mostly cover songs because the Syrian audience wasn't familiar with the Acrassicauda sound. In Syria, the members of the band lived in a small room in an apartment basement with no windows.
During the taping of Heavy Metal in Baghdad in 2007, it was revealed that the Syrian government did not intend to extend the visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
s of the band. The country had changed its immigration policies, forcing Iraqis to apply in Baghdad instead of the Syrian border. The filmmakers campaigned to raise funds to relocate the band in a safer country rather than having it return to Iraq. The band members also sold their equipment to make the trip and for living expenses. The members of the band fled to Turkey when the visa change took place to apply for refugee status and wait for a third country to accept them.
While on the move, Vice magazine tried to resettle the members in Canada and Germany while also providing money from the Vice corporation. Some $40,000 from Vice sponsors and donations collected online helped out with living expenses of the four band members, according to Suroosh Alvi, one of the founders of Vice and director of the film profiling Acrassicauda. Alvi went on to say, “We had outed them and endangered their lives. They were receiving threats from Iraq while they were in Syria. We had a responsibility.” It was with Vice's help that the band was able to use a Syrian recording studio to record three tracks for a demo recording that included “Between the Ashes” and “Massacre.” Turkish musicians also lent the band a fully equipped recording studio after hearing of the band's plight while in their country.
United States of America
After applying for asylum, the United States government granted the band refugee status, which allows it to apply for green cards after one year. Tony, Faisal, and Firas went first. Tony went to Michigan to handle some family business and started living there. Faisal and Firas settled into their new lives in New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. A humanitarian relief and refugee resettlement agency, International Rescue Committee
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee is a leading nonsectarian, nongovernmental international relief and development organization based in the United States, with operations in over 40 countries...
, placed them in an apartment in the town of Elizabeth
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...
. Then, in the early morning hours of January 30, 2009, Marwan arrived. On the band's second day in the United States, they were able to watch Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
at the Prudential Center in Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. Each band member met the group backstage and James Hetfield
James Hetfield
James Alan Hetfield is the rhythm guitarist, co-founder, main songwriter, and lead vocalist for the American heavy metal band Metallica. Hetfield co-founded Metallica in October 1981 after answering a classified advertisement by drummer Lars Ulrich in the Los Angeles newspaper The Recycler,...
, Metallica’s lead singer, presented the band members with one of his guitars, a black ESP
ESP Guitars
, located in North Hollywood, California, is an American-based, Japanese-owned manufacturer of electric guitars and basses.- History :In 1975, Hisatake Shibuya opened a shop called Electric Sound Products in Tokyo. It provided custom replacement parts for guitars. In 1976, ESP gained a reputation...
, after signing it Welcome to America. The Metallica concert was the band's second-ever stadium concert—the first being the band Testament
Testament (band)
Testament is an American metal band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1983. They are often credited as one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene...
, which the band saw a few months earlier in Turkey.
The band's first officially released album, Only the Dead See the End of the War
Only the dead see the end of the war
Only the Dead See the End of the War is the debut EP released by Iraqi thrash metal band Acrassicauda on March 9, 2010. All 4 songs featured on the disc are about the war in their native country, Iraq.- Track listing :...
, is a four-song EP Released on Vice Records on March 9, 2010. It was produced by Alex Skolnick
Alex Skolnick
Alexander Nathan Skolnick is an American jazz and metal guitarist. He was a member of the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal band Testament from 1983 until his departure in 1993...
of Testament at Spin Studio in Astoria, Queens. Acrassicauda followed the release with Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band from Buffalo, New York. Formed in 1988, the band has released eleven studio albums, one box set, and one live album...
, Voivod
Voivod (band)
Voivod are a Canadian heavy metal band from Jonquière, Quebec, Canada. Their musical style has changed several times since the band's origin in the early 1980s...
, and other metal bands at the Scion Rock Fest in Columbus, Ohio, on March 13.
In July 2011, Acrassicauda embarked on its 2011 "Make it or Break it" tour. The band lived in a music studio in Orange County, California, for about a month and a half prior.
Documentary
The story of the band was the subject of a documentary called Heavy Metal in Baghdad, which was made by Canadians Eddy Moretti and Suroosh AlviSuroosh Alvi
Suroosh Alvi is a Pakistani Canadian journalist and film-maker who was among the co-founders of Montreal-based Vice magazine alongside Shane Smith and Gavin McInnes in 1994. As well as being a media critic, Alvi has also worked on creating documentaries about places deemed dangerous in the Middle...
. The film was shot over three years. It began as a series of Webisodes for VBS, Vice
Vice (magazine)
VICE is a free magazine and media conglomerate founded in Montreal, Quebec and currently based in New York City.Vice is available in 27 countries...
’s online network. Taping locations included Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
and Erbil
Arbil
Arbil / Hewlêr is the fourth largest city in Iraq after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul...
in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
; Beirut, Lebanon; and Damascus, Syria. Originally, it was not intended to be a feature-length movie, but a cut was accepted for the 2007
2007 Toronto International Film Festival
The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival was a 32nd annual film festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It ran from September 6, 2007 to September 15, 2007. The lineup consisted of 349 films from 55 countries, selected from 4156 submissions...
Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
. Its premiere was in September, and it was again shown at the Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
the following February. The film was screened at additional international film festivals throughout 2008. It was released on DVD after a brief theatrical run in New York and Los Angeles.
The film was well received with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
praising the film as "An intrepid, unlikely and altogether splendid feat of D.I.Y. reportage...both a stirring testament to the plight of cultural expression in Baghdad and a striking report on the refugee scene in Syria, this rock-doc like no other electrifies its genre and redefines headbanging as an act of hard-core courage."
An hour-long cut-down version of the film was shown in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in December 2008 as part of the documentary series Imagine
Imagine (TV series)
Imagine is a wide ranging arts series first broadcast on BBC One in 2003, hosted and executive produced by Alan Yentob. Each series usually consists of 4 to 7 episodes, each on a different topic...
. They were also featured briefly in the 2004 documentary Voices of Iraq
Voices of Iraq
Voices of Iraq is a 2004 documentary film about Iraq, created by distributing cameras to the subjects of a film, thus enabling subjects to film themselves...
.
Members of the group have insisted that its focus is on the music and have expressed concern over some of the media attention received. Al Lateef told the Montreal Mirror
Montreal Mirror
Montreal Mirror is a free English language alternative newsweekly based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a circulation of 70,000, and reaches a quarter of a million readers per week. It is published by Communications Gratte-Ciel Ltée....
that it wanted to play as an "Iraqi heavy metal group, not as a refugee heavy metal group." He followed that with "all we care about is the music and playing heavy metal, and this is why we’re still living, because it’s the only way that we get our feelings out—by music."
Style and influences
The group was inspired by bands such as MetallicaMetallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
, Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
, Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
, and Slipknot
Slipknot (band)
Slipknot is an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. Formed in 1995, the group was founded by percussionist Shawn Crahan and bassist Paul Gray...
. Heavy Metal in Baghdad shows the band playing covers ranging from Europe's "The Final Countdown
The Final Countdown (song)
"The Final Countdown" is a rock song by the Swedish band Europe released in 1986. Written by Joey Tempest, it was the first single from the band's third studio album which was also named The Final Countdown. It is considered by some to be the band's most recognizable and popular song. The song...
" to Metallica's "Fade to Black
Fade to Black (song)
"Fade to Black" is a song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the first promotional single from its second studio album, Ride the Lightning...
." The first time members of the group saw a Western band live was a 2008 Testament
Testament (band)
Testament is an American metal band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1983. They are often credited as one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene...
concert in Turkey. Skolnick of Testament has described Acrassicauda's music as "very heavy" and "raw".
According to Vice magazine, the conditions in Baghdad after the American invasion resulted in the band's music becoming "even more hate-filled and intense and fucked than ever before." Their music deals with war and suffering at times, but the songs are meant to be apolitical.
Band members
Current members- Faisal Talal Mustafa (born c 1983) – lead vocals (2003-present), rhythm guitar (2001–2011)
- Tony Aziz Yaqoo (born c 1979) – lead guitar (2001–present)
- Firas Al-Lateef (born c 1981) – bass (2001–present)
- Marwan Hussain Riyadh (born c 1984) – drums (2001–present)
- James Al Ansari - rhythm guitar (2011-present)
Former members
- Waleed Moudhafar – lead vocals (2001–2003)
Discography
- 2004: The Black Scorpion Demos, Beginning of the End (3:12), Psycho (2:58), Underworld (4:37) (Demo, 10:48 Minutes)
- 2006: The Damascus Demos, Message From Baghdad (3:32), Between the Ashes (5:07), Massacre (3:47) (Demo, 12:28 Minutes)
- 2007: Heavy Metal in Baghdad OST (Film Soundtrack is unreleased so far)
- 2009: Flowers in the Desert, features a short version of Message From Baghdad from The Damascus Demos (3:12 Minutes)
- 2009: Garden of Stones Promo Single, features an EP version (4:44), Promo version (4:48), and the video version (4:49) of Garden Of Stones (14:22 Minutes)
- 2010: Only the Dead See the End of the War EP (20:58 Minutes)
EPs
- Only the Dead See the End of the WarOnly the dead see the end of the warOnly the Dead See the End of the War is the debut EP released by Iraqi thrash metal band Acrassicauda on March 9, 2010. All 4 songs featured on the disc are about the war in their native country, Iraq.- Track listing :...
(March 9, 2010)