The News Review:

- Baghdad band on the run
- … Minor Times & More: Metal File – News Story | Music…
- Iraqi rockers need help

Baghdad band on the run
guardian.co.uk – Sep 28, 2007
” Unbreakable it may be but in a country where wearing a Slipknot T-shirt is akin to Satanism and headbanging is suspected of mimicking the Jewish act of prayer making heavy metal music is either extremely daft or extremely brave. That is why Acrassicauda’s members – Firas Al-Taleef Tony Aziz Marwan Riyak and Faisal Talal – have to write blog in “purgatory” otherwise known as in exile in Damascus though their MySpace page reports that their Syrian visas expire on ctober 10 and will not be renewed. Unless they can raise the money to move somewhere else they will have to return to Baghdad. It’s fitting then that the documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad – which premiered this month at the Toronto film festival – begins with the band’s last live performance in Iraq in 2003 one of only three shows they were able to play.

… Minor Times & More: Metal File – News Story | Music…
MTV.com – Sep 28, 2007
It’s not a question of ‘Do I want to play this kind of music?’ because I still totally love metal. I would love to do it. And the stars seem to be aligning already according to Amott who said the ex-members of Carcass did hook up last year to rehearse. “We thought ‘Let’s just try to get our schedules together jam a little bit and see if it’s even feasible’ ” he said. “The question always comes up in interviews and we kind of all became intrigued ourselves if it would actually work.

Iraqi rockers need help
Jam! Showbiz – Sep 28, 2007
“If we can get in trouble for this then so be it” says Alvi who has followed his convictions since starting the edgy counter-culture magazine Vice in 1996 out of Montreal. Acrassicauda dubbed “Iraq’s only heavy metal band” because it is the only one known to have performed on a stage is the subject of Vice Films’ moving documentary “Heavy Metal In Baghdad” co-directed by Alvi and fellow Torontonian Eddy Moretti and executive produced by Academy Award-winning director Spike Jonze (“Adaptation” “Being John Malkovich”). Right now the band members are living in Damascus Syria where the government has refused to renew their visas. “They’re going to start kicking Iraqis back and their visas are expiring in the middle of ctober” says Alvi who is based in New York but traveled to Iraq and Syria.