Report: Iraqi Heavy Metal Band ACRASSICAUDA Finds New Home In NJ And NY

March 7, 2010

Jay Lustig of The Star-Ledger reports: Not long after the United States-led invasion of Iraq, the Baghdad heavy metal band ACRASSICAUDA received a death threat. "You are Americanized, playing Western music," it read. "You either quit or you will be dead."

Band members Faisal Talal Mustafa, Marwan Hussein, Firas Abdul Razaq and Tany Yaqoo didn't quit, but did start scheduling band practices randomly, rather than at regular times.

They didn't quit when mortar shells battered the area around the hotel where they were presenting a concert: they just turned the volume up. And they didn't quit when their practice space was turned into rubble by a Scud missile.

It's hard for a Westerner to comprehend the sacrifices they have made, and how much their music means to them.

"It's our life," says bassist Razaq, who now lives in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Read the entire report from The Star-Ledger.

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