Iraqi Heavy Metal Rockers Get Help From Montreal Art Lovers

October 27, 2007

Mike Boone of Montreal, Quebec, Canada's The Gazette reports that the proceeds of a photo exhibition on St. Antoine St. in Montreal will benefit an Iraqi heavy-metal band that has sought safe haven in Syria.

The four-man musical group is called ACRASSICAUDA, which is Latin for "black scorpion." They got together in 2001, united by a common appreciation of such bands as SLAYER.

Heavy metal was not a popular genre in Iraq, where the despot did most of the slaying. Nor did the situation improve after the United States-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.

As the situation in Baghdad worsened, the band was targeted by insurgent groups and religious fundamentalists accusing them of Satan worship. Eventually, it proved impossible to find any safe performance venue.

Bottom line: After playing six shows in six years, ACRASSICAUDA fled to Damascus. Their plight is the subject of "Heavy Metal in Baghdad", a documentary that was featured at this year's Toronto Film Festival.

Ben Pobjoy is a 26-year-old photographer/ entrepreneur. He and his partners run a design firm in Montreal and a marketing business in his native Toronto.

His latest venture is Emporium, an art gallery on St. Antoine near Atwater Ave. The enterprise Pobjoy describes as a "little DIY operation" (as in do-it-yourself) will be the venue for a fundraising event that begins tomorrow.

Pobjoy is a longtime fan of Vice, a hip lifestyles magazine launched in Montreal 13 years ago by Suroosh Alvi, Shane Smith and Gavin McInnes. The magazine, which initially focused on fashion, moved to New York in 1999 and branched out into a record label, book publishing, online TV and film.

Alvi, a Torontonian of Pakistani extraction who studied philosophy at McGill University, has travelled extensively in the Middle East. His debut as a film director is "Heavy Metal in Baghdad", tracing the travails of ACRASSICAUDA.

Vice, Pobjoy says, takes "a head-on approach to journalism you don't see on CNN."

"It's a film on a heavy-metal band," Pobjoy said, "but it's also about the effect that war and insurgency have on daily life. These guys had their practice space bombed."

Read the entire article at this location.

"Heavy Metal In Baghdad" theatrical trailer:

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