REVIEW
Accrassicauda
Sunday, July 17 | Black Forest | Photo by Trask Bedortha
More photos at blogs.eugeneweekly.com
THE BLAST FROM BAGHDAD
Iraqi heavy metal burns up Black Forest
It was shoulder-to-shoulder and thigh-to-thigh with raging strangers in
uncomfortably tight quarters — the crowd thrashed and fl ailed. Accrassicauda
continues to make history.
On the tail end of their fl agship tour, Iraqi metal band Accrassicauda lit up the
Black Forest with metal so raucous that ears rang, mosh pits erupted, stage divers
writhed and photographers were knocked off balance, left to fend for themselves in
a sea of elbows and two-pronged hand salutes.
“This is why we left home, to do this. To get on stage, to burn the stage and melt
people,” says bassist Firas Al-Lateef, who is full of a jovial enthusiasm that almost
makes one forget how intense of a history he and the band have.
Accrassicauda, refugees from a country the U.S. has made war upon, now chase
one of the most quintessential American dreams ever — professional musicianship.
With more than enough talent to make it happen and a rapidly growing fan base,
these boys from Baghdad command a sound that is reminiscent of Metallica’s Black
Album, and they look like something straight out of that time period as well.
Lead vocalist Faisal Talal Mustafa is a lion of the stage, facilitating a dynamic that
is masterfully orchestrated chaos. The energy the men of Accrassicauda release
upon the audience is war-torn and feral, and witnessing their rise to notoriety is not
only noteworthy but also spectacular. They can shred with the best of them. They
have impeccable timing and rhythm, with a cohesion that could be felt and heard
all the way down 11th Avenue. You come home from their live show with your ears
feeling like they’ve just survived the sound of an indoor shotgun blast.
Seemingly reluctant to be a cultural ambassador, Al-Lateef speaks briefl y on the War
in Iraq. “War is war, we don’t really know what countries do,” he says. “We just want to play
music. It is a great honor to be able to do this and we want to see how far we can go with
it.”
It is unknown whether Eugene will see Accrassicuada come through again,
because within a year or so you may have to take a drive in order to see them live
at the larger venues of bigger cities. For now, they remain on a rocket-propelled
trajectory with support from companies such as Peavey, Guitar Center and Yamaha
helping to fuel their ordinance. It may only be a brief matter of time before they
completely explode upon the American metal scene. — Dante Zuñiga-West
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