Iranian Musicians Jailed, Facing Possible Execution For Playing Metal

Music is what that unite us all. No matter what the genre is it s the way of expressing your view and thought. But what if music is accused of something irrelevant. 

That's exactly what's happening to Iranian band Confess  members Nikan Siyanor Khosravi and Khosravi Arash Chemical Ilkhani. Both men were arrested by the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and are facing charges of blasphemy, advertising against the system, running an illegal and underground band and record label promoting music considered to be Satanic, writing anti-religious lyrics and granting interviews to forbidden foreign radio stations. These serious charges resulted in the two band members, aged 23 and 21 sitting in solitary since last November until finally making bail on February 5th, paying the equivalent of $30,000 US.

The musicians are lawyering up and could face a minimum of six months to six years in prison, and worse, if they are found guilty of the blasphemy charge, they could be executed! It's easy to see how they could be charged with blasphemy.

On behalf of entire S N R M B crew we stand by the brothers of metal. Metal is for passion, heavy metal unite us all as one and moreover, its not a crime.. Let us all act as one for their safety and release

#Freeconfess..

Interview with Parash Shakya frontman of Nepalese Black metal powerhouse Antim Grahan

Metal is for Passion. It’s your determination and as well willingness that helps you out continue your passion even though you have a very hectic schedule. Being one of the most influential name in both business sector as well as in the local underground scene here is a short talk that that our front man had with none other than Antim Grahan’s front man Parash Shakya. So, without any delay the interview with him is below..

Greeting Parash dai, before we begin, we will like to know how are you these days?

Greetings brother!! Days are going by good; work, family and very small amount of time for music I suppose.

Haha we can understand your schedule dai. It’s a well known fact that everyone is aware of Antim Grahan as one of the pioneering black metal act of the country. From our research we even found out that the band made a debut in early 2003 v.i.a METAL MANIA, tell us dai about how the journey of AG begun?

We actually started playing from 2002 and METAL MANIA wasn't our first gig. Our first gig was at Bishalnagar and organized by some local guys. We were not “Black Metal” band as such at the first gig. We played an original and covered songs from Kreator and Six Feet Under. We were allowed 3 songs. It was a proper sit in gig with people in sari and suits and the headlining act was Nabin K. Bhattarai. We heard people say “you duplicate band hokikya ho”.

The second one is even more amazing. We played a gig at Sankata and it was a Shivaratri gig. All the bands cancelled for some reason and there were only 2 bands. AntimGrahan and a band named “Cruentus”. We heard about them being a Black Metal band and by that time we dropped the whole death/thrash outlook and were predominantly into the whole Black Metal genre. And then we saw Allan Shrestha (Cruentus’s drummer) at the sound check. All our jaw dropped. Literally, that guy is still the number one drummer for me in my list. And as for the reference to your question about being a pioneering a black metal act in Nepal, well I strongly believe it was not just AntimGrahan but also a major influence of Cruentus, if not even more then us.  Sadly they didn't stick around very long but somehow we did. And hence we kept playing I suppose.

We were supported majorly by KtmRocks (UmesShrestha) at that time and without his support it would probably have been difficult to rise amidst the underground circuit.

And before you know it, we had 6 albums to our name. And still we are going at it.

Being one of the oldest metal band from the nation what inspired you all to start a black metal band cause back in those day’s heavy metal and rock and roll was in hype. Is there any incident of shows or crowds response from that point of time that you want to share with us?

Black Metal circuit, even now in our local scene, I believe is very small. It never had been big. And the time when we started playing, it was definitely very very rare. MAYA was there and even if it quickly vanished with a song, it was very influential not only for us, but for the entire scene. Cruentus was there was but they too didn't stick around for long. And perhaps there were few other bands too but no one really stayed long enough unfortunately.

The whole inspiration for a “Black Metal” band to start with was because we always liked the sound of it and we never could get enough out of it. We wanted to make music and sound like how they sounded when we started, and to get hold of good music cd’s was not really easy. But we never had this idea of becoming a “band” as such when we started. But somehow one thing led to the other and hence AntimGrahan truly came into existence. Crowds were always very supportive but it so happened that at one of the gig, we noticed the crowd singing our songs and it was a good feeling in fact a really good one.

AG is considered as one of the 1^st Nepali metal act to get international response and even shared international areas with global giants, even considered one of the only powerhouse of the Nepalese Underground scene who have made a total of 6 releases i.e the 1 EP in 2004 and 5 full length studio albums released in 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010 and the last release in 2012 sep 8. The band went on hiatus after NEPFEST Decapitated tour and recently when we had a talk you have mentioned about the upcoming new album, can you tell us about in brief about the upcoming album as well as by when will it be releasing?

We consider ourselves to have made 6 albums and no EP haha. The band went into hiatus because there were lots of things happening. We just needed a keep ourselves off for a while to sort out things. But it resulted in widespread news that we broke up.  But yes, we are definitely coming back with a new album and slight new changes with few member because of obvious reasons. But one good thing is, the old members would be helping us no matter where they are now, namely Pankaj, Surya and Govinda.

But the new album will take some time. We have just started to get AG into new order and we will start working on the new songs now. But now we will keep all of you who are interested to know out where about via out fb page which hasn't been so much active as of yet.

We experimented out last few albums with death/grind. But this album is going back to roots. Black Metal.

Talking about the lineup of AG, dai can you tell us about the New lineup as we all know that Pankaj dai as well Surya is abroad. So can you update us regarding the new lineup?

As I mentioned before, they will help regardless where they are. Pankaj would be writing music and so will Surya. The new line up would be updated very shortly in our official fb page.

Coming beyond Antim Grahan, dai tell us how your journey in Metal music begun?

Nothing extraordinary really, i mean the same way how every kid who loves metal starts a band. The love for music, little belief that a band could be made, group of college friends who shared the same love for music and a lot of free time as we were pretty much horrible students! HAHA

Dai, i won’t consume much of your time. I just want to ask you any message to the young bands as well as to the young generation out there who are inspired to start a black metal band being influenced by you as well as AG?

 It not about starting a black metal band per say, its about starting a band for making the music that you love.  All I can advise is to stick to your passion and never let go. Things will get difficult but if you love it enough, you will find a way to hold onto it.  Perhaps a bit of a cliché statement but I guess this is what it is and I never have been good at giving out advice anyways!!

Any message to the fans dai?

They have supported us for 16 years and counting. We are what we are because of them and we are coming back only for them. They are not our fans but our brothers and sisters in arm. Our Legion. Keep supporting us and we will bring you back the music you love.

Thank you for your valuable time dai..

Anytime!