Baghdad is seeing the return of death metal in band Dog Faced Corpse, whose members include a Kurd, a Christian and three Muslims, reports the United Arab Emirates’ The National.
Metal stores and garb, seen by insurgents and Shiite death squads as western corruption and “blasphemous,” largely disappeared after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, often violently: “One guy I knew, Omid, he used to be a metal head, long hair, too – some guy killed him in front of my eyes,” said vocalist Mothana Mani. “It was a cold-blooded killing.”
Even so, Dog Faced Corpse is not afraid to release their anger in musical format: “With this situation every Iraqi might turn to murder; with metal we can put this anger into music,” says Lateef Ahmad, the band’s drummer. “Death metal is the only style of music that can explain what I feel and what is happening here.”