Our friend Grim Kim over at MetalSucks did an interview with Syrian Metal Is War documentarian Monzer Darwish and it's ridiculously interesting to say the least. The premise of the documentary is not so much about a metal scene in a war torn country and how the music brings fans closer together, but a focus on the bands, their music, and life in general. Basically everything you'd want to know about the scene.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lkg2q7n8J8[/youtube]
Darwish talks about the non-acceptance of metalheads in Syrian culture:
"In general, metal music up to this very moment is unaccepted and not correctly understood in Syria or the Arabian countries, although somehow the same society can accept a video clip from any other musical genre featuring nearly naked girls, explicit sexual hints and degradation towards women with certain terms and swears.
Some people consider metal to be strictly about Satanism, and others believe it to be against religions and holy figures; another group thinks that it encourages “moral decay.” So up to this very day metal music is a music that is fought, and is kept from spreading. Having said that, it is possible that a person who has the belief that metalheads are threatening to shake his faith, religion, and dogma would blow himself up among us, or, in lesser occasions hurt us."
How he got into metal despite what you just read above:
"When I was in the seventh grade, I took part in a programming contest that took place in a school in the city of Hama. It was in summertime and the heat was unbearable that you could crack an egg on the sidewalk and fry it!. I was wearing shorts, and the supervisors had problems with such an apparel because there were girls present, to the extent of adding camphor oil in our tea as a sexual suppressor. Anyway, I refused to change the way I was dressed, and therefore I was kicked out of the contest.
I was so angry at the time that I could’ve hurt myself, but then an older friend of mine talked to me as I was packing my things. He gave me his headphones and said “This’ll drain your anger,” and in the headphones, Metallica’s “Battery” was playing. At the time, it worked. The first thing I did when I got back home that day was search for this kind of bizarre, overwhelmingly thrilling and beautiful music that made my anger magically vanish! That day went quite well for me, and thus I got to know and love a genre that became a huge part of my life.
Metal music with all of its genres and subgenres, is powerful, genuine, and passionate, What I love about it is that you get hooked until the day you die, it’s not something you love for a month and then leave it. There will always be a few songs that will bring you to tears or give you euphoric happiness. It never changes, it’s for a lifetime."
And even female metalheads in the scene, which has recently become a pretty hot topic given a certain stupid blog post over on MTV2's website:
"Yes, there is a decent number of female metalheads in Syria, starting with my fiancee who happens to be a doomster. I would say, the experience of female metalheads here is a bit difficult, as they have to face the same suppression they face in our society among their peers and especially from male metalheads which dominate the overall scene (suppression in terms of sexism and arbitrary prejudgments), but I know a few girls who are really experienced in metal and are able to topple many male metalheads."
The documentary seems really interesting because it's not this feel-good "everyone likes metal and it gets us through the day" kind of thing. This shit is serious and Darwish not only wants everyone to know about it, but he knows how to make it extremely evident. Keep up with the film on Facebook.
