In a story we have been following, Iranian death metal band Arsames who were were arrested and sentenced to 15 years in jail for the crime of “being in satanic metal band and being against the Islamic government”, escaped the country to an undisclosed location and are now safe and sound
.
In an interview with Loudwire, the band clarified they are not a satanic band, and they believe they were characterized as such because they had skulls on their merchandise. “They think when we growl and play fast music we are into Satanism! The skulls on our t-shirts means the same for them as satanic musicians.”
Arsames explained how the arrest happened. “We [were] arrested in 2017 when we were in our studio during rehearsal. They moved us to jail that day and [did] not [tell] our family about where we [were] for a week. Finally after nearly a month later we paid bail to come out of prison and they told us you should not work, release [or sell] your merch until your final court … and do not talk with media! Our Instagram page, official website … banned and they shot down all for a year, but we built a new Instagram again and [started] to be active until few weeks ago [when] the court called us again and they gave us 15 years [in] prison. So we had to escape from Iran.”
“Is it a crime that we are playing metal music!? Is it [a] crime that we are talking about Persian history?! Is it a crime that you think we are into Satanism when we have songs about Cyrus the Great and monotheism!? Is it a crime that we love music and our country?!”
Please consider making a purchase from the bands’ Bandcamp and supporting them with a follow on social media.
Follow Arsames: