Combat Rock

A metal band in Iraq? The notion was so incomprehensible that, in characteristic bemused fashion, Vice magazine co-founder Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti, executive producer of Vice’s VBS.tv, journeyed to Baghdad in 2006 to meet the members of Acrassicauda, who bill themselves as the only metal band in Iraq. Intending to film a travel segment for VBS.tv, the pair instead wound up making a feature-length documentary that presents an unvarnished look at life during Operation Iraqi Freedom through the prism of four earnest headbangers.

As Heavy Metal in Baghdad—which made its U.S. debut at this year’s SXSW festival and will be released on DVD in June—unfolds, the members of Acrassicauda (Latin for “black scorpion”) experience a series of heart-wrenching challenges, from the destruction of their cherished practice space to life as refugees in nearby Syria. (The bandmates have since relocated to Istanbul, but their future remains uncertain.)

For the filmmakers, getting the story was a dangerous prospect. Alvi and Moretti had to wear flak jackets, hire a security detail and, most of all, know when not to push their luck. “This was the most challenging story that I’ve ever been a part of,” Alvi says. “And it’s an important story to tell. I feel like we went there to get a story of a band, and we got the story of displaced Iraqis—the story of a nation.”