In my previous article (which was published in Hmas.org) I had written about the Metal Scene in Iran and how it was like in a few years ago. However in the past few months everything has changed so drastically that I have to write a follow up to that. In the previous article I had discussed that since there are no record labels in Iran, the people here have to ask their friends and relatives who live in the other countries to bring them the albums they want. However as Internet has become wide-spread in the recent years in Iran, Iranian metallers have found a better way to get the metal albums. There are some sites that sell these albums in very cheap price and one can download the albums that he wants from them in MP3 format. Some of these albums are free, but one has to pay for others by means of certain credit cards that are available in the market. Trading is one of the other ways that metaller can get the albums they have been searching for. You can site the lists of one of the biggest traders of Iran here: www.icedheart.com.

Also lots of new bands have been formed in Iran and some of them have been quite successful in blending metal music with Iranian folklore in order to oppose the ruling ideologies. Midgard and Aras which are from Shiraz have tried to render an Iranian version of black metal and use it as means to criticize the dominant ideologies and demystify the religious constitutions that seem to be sacred for the hardliners. Asvaran has tried to make standard black metal music in his demo, Ancient Sea Rise Again, however they seem to be a promising band, and I am waiting for their next album. Kahtamayan has nothing new to offer and the band’s mastermind, Homayoon, seems to have been lost in the glory of the past years when theirs was the only active band in Iran. Abathur is also a one-man project and has nothing new to offer. Its demos are like the rehearsals of the old-school black metal bands, such kind of production has been abandoned by even the bands that were originators of that like Bathory and Darkthrone. Another worthy Iranian Metal band is Avinar, which is the best Iranian metal band I have ever listened to; its style is melodic black metal with clean production. This band has been quite successful in making black metal music according to the standards of the genre and even trying to make some innovations in the instrumental tracks.

Although metal music has found a larger fan base, but (fortunately) it is still underground in Iran and when you speak of metal music to a person who is not a metalhead, s/he will ask; "are you talking about Metallica?" After being banned for almost a decade, the first Iranian metal album was officially released a few months ago. This album which is called Penhan (Hidden) is in the style of Heavy metal and when I listened to that for the first time I was reminded of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. Farshid Araabi has played all the instruments in this album in addition to writing the music and making the artworks. Altogether this album is not a piece of cake for the persons who are searching for something new in the black metal scene, but those who have been waiting to see a heavy metal album with Persian vocals may enjoy it.

Finally some people have tried to make fake bands and publicize for their bands too. Funeral God and Trophy Bride were examples of such bands, when I listened to the albums of the latter band, I became quite happy to know that there are some underground bands in Iran and I tried my best to help them. According to the information Faraz (the person who claimed to be the vocalist and mainman of Trophy Bride) had given me I wrote a biography for them and I even went so far to write a review for one of their albums. But as me and other metallers listened more to TB’s album, we discovered that their songs have been stolen from other bands such as Gates Of Ishtar, and Callenish Circle. This has made all of us more conscious about the new bands who claim to play metal music. As for this writing, live performances are still forbidden in Tehran and other cities. However the metal scene will develop more and more in the coming years, against all the obstacles.

Mehdy Sedaghat Payam