By: Cal Roach

Acrassicauda

Acrassicauda is named after a species of scorpion, and it rolls off the tongue in a metal sort of way. They’re not the only heavy metal band to come out of Iraq, but they’re certainly the most well-documented. You can find their story in The New York Times, or in the 2007 documentary Heavy Metal In Baghdad, or in Vice magazine as far back as 2003. In fact, Vice helped to raise $40,000 in donations to facilitate the band’s eventual relocation to the U.S. Pretty typical story: band’s practice studio and equipment destroyed by bombs; death threats force exodus to Syria; Syrian government changes refugee laws, prompting band to flee to Turkey; band is finally granted asylum in the U.S. in January 2009.

Lead vocalist-guitarist Faisal Talal doesn’t want his band defined by its backstory, though; he wants the music to speak for itself. The group’s first EP, Only The Dead See The End Of The War, an almost retro blast of thrash metal, was released March 9. JamBase spoke with Talal a couple days after Acrassicauda’s first major show in the U.S. (at the Scion Rock Fest in Columbus, OH) about his band’s arduous musical odyssey and the people who have helped along the way.

JamBase: How was the Scion Rock Fest?

Faisal Talal: Oh, man, it was awesome, one of the awesomest nights ever! We had a jam with the greatest bands, legendary bands, awesome people. We made a lot of friends, a lot of family. You know, it’s a small community over there, but they all support you from the bottom of their hearts; there’s no hiding, there’s no faking. You can get lost here in New York, but in Ohio, there’s not as much crowd to get lost in, you know? So you can see people’s hearts, whenever they talk to you and tell you, “You guys rocked,” or “You guys sucked.” You can make a difference. Plus, it’s a metal fest, so it’s the metal community all around you, surrounding you. That’s one of the greatest opportunities ever, you know? So, we try to take advantage of it and stick to it tooth and nail as much as we can.

JamBase: Did you get a chance to check out a lot of other bands?

Faisal Talal: Oh yeah, we had the chance to meet with Voivod and Cannibal Corpse; we got to see bands like Dead Sea, Struck By Lightning, Yob. You had a good vibe over there, even the bands over there, trying to support you, surrounding you. They come to your concert, listen to your shows. A good vibe, good people.

Was that your biggest U.S. audience so far?

So far, yeah. I hope it will increase in the future, but it’s one of the biggest and one of the [most] loveable. We really enjoyed being there. Nobody just sits there watching, doing nothing; they do whatever they can to make you feel that you’re playing for them, not for somebody else. Some of them mosh-pitted, some of them banged their heads as much as they can. It was nonstop, the whole venue was moving on one vibe, and it’s so great to see all these crowds moving to your music, jamming on it. It’s really awesome.

You guys were required under Saddam Hussein’s regime to write a pro-Saddam song, “The Youth Of Iraq.” Do you still play that song?

Acrassicauda by Scion A/V Video

Oh, no. It was something that we had to do in the past, and… it’s just like we’ve said before, we had to do anything and everything to keep the band running, just for the sake of the music. It’s not about giving everybody some kind of credit to make him feel better just because we want to do our music, but it’s more… something passionate. In our hearts, we had to do something for this band, because we owe it all to this band. We had to do it in the past, and it stays in the past; we stopped doing it. It’s one of the starters. Every band had to face it, just to know what they are up to, really, which style they’re struggling with right now. So, we finally discovered it, and we’re still learning. We learn every day from each band, from each style. We keep going, and now, since we’re working with legendary musicians, we have to pay attention to each detail they say, each move they [make]. There’s nothing left in this world for us except paying attention to what updates our music to keep us going.

My understanding is that it was tough to get your hands on much Western music under Saddam’s regime. How did you discover the underground metal scene?

Each one of us had his own way for discovering this kind of music. Some of us had friends; some of us had big brothers who discovered it before them. A lot of us had brothers who used to talk about good bands who’d played in the past [and] created their own music. And we kept going after these rumors until we discovered that there were actually [Iraqi] heavy metal bands that had been created before us. But none of it has kept going further, because the life procedure kept blocking their way, blocking their music. Some of them got married, some of them left the country, [and for] some of them it’s not working for them this way. With a community surrounded by tradition and religion, you can’t spread the music of rock & roll and foreign music all around it that easy. You have to find the right place and the right time. Plus, it’s not very easy to keep playing and practicing loud. A lot of people don’t accept that. Even here, you [only] have certain places you can play this kind of music.

So, we had to find the right people, the right places to do that. We kept searching and searching. Some of the bands who started just before us didn’t have the motive or something to keep them carrying on, so they just got depressed and desperate from it [and] said, “Okay, it’s not gonna work, why the hell are we still going?” But we couldn’t lose the faith. Something kept us going. Something kept pushing us. I don’t know what it is, but it’s something really strong that made us leave our country and leave our lives and our families all behind just for the sake of it. Something justified the need, and our need was this kind of music; it had already justified what we had been through.

In the early days of the band, were you already thinking that some day you would have to leave the country in order to succeed?

Faisal Talal from VBS.tv/Vice Films

Well, I would lie to you if I said, “Yeah, I did,” but no, we had never thought of leaving Iraq. We might’ve had the thought of going on a tour. Let’s say we have passports [and] can go play as musicians in each country, but it is a lot of struggle and a lot of moving. We just wanted to do something, but the political situation had blocked our way. So we had to apply for asylum as refugees to get a good passport, to get a good opportunity in life, to keep playing this music around.

You did play some shows in Syria and Turkey, right?

Yes, we did.

Had word of mouth spread to those areas? How did audiences react to you there?

Well, Syria has limited waves of metal. They can’t spread because they had certain problems with the government in the past because of Satan-worshippers. They kept having demonstrations because of it – that’s what we heard from Syrians themselves. They kept telling us to keep this music underground, so we did what the natives said. You can’t just resist or do something against the law to make your music grow faster. We just wanted to do it as a test. Plus, we had nowhere to go because Syria was kind of our basic home at that time. We lived there, our passports [were] going back and forth between the two governments [Syria and Iraq], and we didn’t know if they were going to kick all the Iraqis out or keep them there. We didn’t want to take any risks. We just wanted to be careful about it.

But, we did a couple of concerts. The first concert, like 30 [people] showed up; second concert was almost like six people, and four of them were our best friends. It almost sucked, you know? But as soon as we got to Turkey we had four or five shows, and we made good money out of it; good people surrounded us. The rock community over there surrounded us with their love, and also their support, but Turkey was just a temporary residency. You don’t even know if you’re going to be able to stay, if your month visa will be extended or not, so you can’t expect anything over there anyway. Police surrounding you, every time they stop you they give you a heart attack. It’s a matter of fear, depression, pressure, conflict, all surrounding you at the same time, but you’d rather just play your music to spread this anger all around it. You can’t go there and keep killing people just because you’re angry.

I guess we had to go through a lot just to start this music, but we saw a lot of the metal scene in Turkey, we learned a lot from Turkish cultures. We had to play in different types of venues. People helped us find our way through music, through bands, through equipment we needed in the past. But after all, in Syria and in Turkey, we had to sacrifice our own instruments and equipment just to pay the rent.

Continue reading for more on Acrassicauda…

  Something kept pushing us. I don’t know what it is, but it’s something really strong that made us leave our country and leave our lives and our families all behind just for the sake of it. Something justified the need, and our need was this kind of music; it had already justified what we had been through. -Faisal Talal  

You’ve gotten a lot of support through Vice and others in order to get to the United States. Has it been easier to find the support that you need since you’ve been here?

Acrassicauda

Easier in [terms of] the music, yeah. Politically, being away from everything, I doubt that. [There are] certain positions for every refugee – you can’t go further in any place until you get certain papers, certain passes, some sort of ID that the government gives you until you [can] get insurance. So, we had to suffocate for about a year, but Vice was all around us, surrounding us, giving us all help until we had to do the album. They hooked us up with all the equipment that we needed. A lot of people have been supporting us so far during this year – giving us free equipment, helping us spread this music, keep it going, not waste any time.

In the end, you have to be patient just to make anything possible. It’s not very easy, it’s not very clear, but you learn. As time passes by, you learn a lot. You start adjusting, fitting in the community, knowing your way, knowing what’s right, what’s wrong. Plus, we’re still new over here, [so] we don’t know a lot about laws. We had to struggle for a long time to learn how to use a debit card or bank account or whatever. It’s kind of hard. Living in Turkey and Syria made them easier steps for us to carry on. Four Iraqi guys came from an abandoned country, almost destroyed, just to learn about a new civilization, new technology, how to accept those [things]. So, I guess Syria and Turkey were good stations to learn from, at least just a little bit, to keep going. Now, we have to keep going, we have to learn more. It’s like we’re forced to because this is our end; the story ends here. We need to find our own asylum and make it worthy, make every attempt.

How were you introduced to Alex Skolnick [Testament], who produced the EP?

Vice contacted Alex Skolnick as soon as he heard about the movie. Alex is one of the most intelligent musicians that I’ve ever known. He reads a lot; he listens to a lot of musicians, a lot of stories. As soon as Alex heard about this music, he contacted some friends, and these friends led him to Vice, which had already collected donations to help the band survive in Turkey. And while he was there Vice had already made a deal with him to help us produce the album whenever we had the chance to come to the U.S. He said, “No problem, I will do it. It’s good to see these guys playing again.” And when he heard we had a tour in Turkey, he called Vice and said, “Let me know if I can meet these guys in Istanbul.” Vice contacted us, gave our phone numbers to Alex, and told him to contact us when he came to Turkey. The first day he arrived, he called us and said, “Guys, I want to see you,” and we were almost not believing what was happening. It was a complete shock for us. At the time we were watching Testament on a bootleg disc, a concert from London, and they were mosh-pitting and jamming like crazy, and we were like, “Did we just get a call from Alex Skolnick? That is fucking crazy!” Yeah, it was beyond expectations, and we had to struggle just to figure out if it was true or not.

When the [Testament] concert happened, Alex called and said, “I’m going to be just passing [through] the audience. Just say your names and I will [let you] through,” and it happened. After a kicking-ass concert, Alex passed by and we said, “We’re the Iraqi guys,” and he told security to pass us by. We had to come one-by-one. We met the guys from Testament. We hung out with them. We drank. We told them a lot of stories; they told us a lot of stories. It was a fun night.

We got to know Alex more and more because he is such a generous, nice guy. He was so willing. He was so giving. He was trying to help as much as he can. He said, “Whenever you guys are in the U.S. give me a call to help with the new album. I will do anything for you guys to make it easier for you.” And there it was, the beginning of a new start, a real musician’s life. It is crazy.

So, your first big concert was Testament. You get to meet them. Your next big concert was Metallica, and you got to meet them as well.

Acrassicauda

Believe it or not, after the last band member arrived in the U.S., the second day, they took us to the Metallica show and we met one of our biggest, legendary bands ever. Every Iraqi teenager or musician would not even dream to meet them. And not just shaking their hands, getting from them more gestures, getting a precious gift like James Hetfield‘s guitar, which has changed my entire life. It made me flip around 360-degrees above my head. I didn’t believe it. I was speechless. I kept getting the shock over and over again. He was so generous. He was trying to tell me, “Dude, wake up, you’re in the real world right now. All I need you to do is shred that guitar, write some good riffs out of it.” All I wanted to say was, “I wish I could tell you that even without this guitar, just you standing right in front of me, has just inspired me like crazy, man, inspired me to write good riffs, given me the motive to do crazy things.” It was more than we expected, more than we needed. Meeting these bands gives you the real feeling that you are in the right place.

Which show was better, Testament or Metallica?

Aw, man, why do you have to do this? That’s like, “Which one do you love, your wife or your girlfriend?” [laughs] Metallica and Testament [each] had their own ways of showing me the way. I was into Metallica since I was 13 or 14, and I wanted to become a musician as soon as I heard about them. In 2000, I saw the symphony concert [the 1999 S&M DVD] and I realized that it is the time to make the move around this music I want to do. Finding the right people was hard, but watching this picture, these scenes, and seeing the big stage around the symphony, was giving me the motive to keep going. I started this band because I wanted to become a musician, because of Metallica.

I kept going to a lot of carpenters just to do the same custom body of [Hetfield's] guitar because I was so inspired by this music. Anyway, it was a long, long journey with Metallica, a long relationship. I still respect them; I still respect their music. It’s the kind of music that never dies, never gets old. Every teenager, still, in Iraq, as soon as he’s starting to listen to metal, Metallica would be the first stage. Metallica will be his kindergarten, high school and graduation from university. When you hear “Jump In The Fire” that’s like a mosh-pit in my head, going around in circles. I wanna shred!

It’s very easy to accept a band like Metallica from first sight, but when you go deep you start looking for more, and here is where Testament comes [in]. I wouldn’t call it a second chance, more like a second level. Testament has the spiritual/classical/jazz/blues/metal styles all over the music. It’s not for everybody, only for good musicians and good listeners who really want to learn. I mean, come on, Eric Peterson, Alex Skolnick, Chuck Billy, Paul Bostaph [are] some of the craziest musicians ever. When they [play] music, they do it with a whole symphony in their heads. You get to know the feeling as soon as you listen to the music. It never ends. The tune never goes in one way, it’s like a whole bunch of lines, and if you get distracted you’re like, “Where are we right now?”

So, it’s a good feeling that you learn from each band. And it never ends. There’s, like, how many bands? Aerosmith, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne. All these legends, you could never [choose] a “best band.” When I was 14, I didn’t listen to any band except Metallica, but now I know every band, every year. You stick with it, you learn from it. It has to be this way or you won’t learn shit. Sticking your ear in [only] one part of the tunnel, you won’t expect what’s going on in the other part. You won’t discover anything.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad | MySpace Video

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