Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Acrassicauda, Out of Baghdad

You can’t make this stuff up: Acrassicauda, a Saddam-era Iraqi thrash band, survived the war but lost their equipment — and the entire building they practiced in — to a missile strike. They suffered death threats and retaliation at the hands of religious fundamentalists who considered them and their music to be Satanic (it is not). When they’d finally had enough, the band fled their homeland and holed up first in Syria and then Turkey before the U.S. granted them asylum. The band lives here now. That they managed to hone their chops and even record a demo while growing up in the rock-and-roll exile of Iraq makes them seem ripe for Hollywood. Indeed, a Canadian filmmaker made Acrassicauda the subject of the documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad in 2007.

Their sound? Straight out of the thrash-metal textbook, meaning no shortage of super-technical Yngwie-flavored pentatonic scale blasts on guitar and dazzling whole-band meter shifts with those (for lack of a better descriptor) Cookie Monster vocals. Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Slipknot all figure into the gene pool of Acrassicauda’s music, which makes sense — the band is said to have learned the craft of heavy metal from listening to bootleg tapes of U.S. bands. Acrassicauda’s unwieldy moniker comes from the bastardization of Androctonus crassicauda, the name of a species of scorpion common to the deserts of Iraq.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Touring now behind their March 2010 debut EP Only the Dead See the End of the War, the Acrassicauda experience is to confront the fresh memories of the violence and destruction that the band members and their families have lived through. “All that I have known,” growls singer/guitarist Faisal Talal, “Now buried beneath the garden of stones.”

Found Face Down, Ruines OV Abaddon, and A Battle to Fight also perform.

ACRASSICAUDA: Brick by Brick, Sunday, May 29, 8 p.m. 619-275-5483. $10.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Second largest yellowfin tuna caught by rod and reel

Excel does it again
Next Article

Pie pleasure at Queenstown Public House

A taste of New Zealand brings back happy memories

You can’t make this stuff up: Acrassicauda, a Saddam-era Iraqi thrash band, survived the war but lost their equipment — and the entire building they practiced in — to a missile strike. They suffered death threats and retaliation at the hands of religious fundamentalists who considered them and their music to be Satanic (it is not). When they’d finally had enough, the band fled their homeland and holed up first in Syria and then Turkey before the U.S. granted them asylum. The band lives here now. That they managed to hone their chops and even record a demo while growing up in the rock-and-roll exile of Iraq makes them seem ripe for Hollywood. Indeed, a Canadian filmmaker made Acrassicauda the subject of the documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad in 2007.

Their sound? Straight out of the thrash-metal textbook, meaning no shortage of super-technical Yngwie-flavored pentatonic scale blasts on guitar and dazzling whole-band meter shifts with those (for lack of a better descriptor) Cookie Monster vocals. Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Slipknot all figure into the gene pool of Acrassicauda’s music, which makes sense — the band is said to have learned the craft of heavy metal from listening to bootleg tapes of U.S. bands. Acrassicauda’s unwieldy moniker comes from the bastardization of Androctonus crassicauda, the name of a species of scorpion common to the deserts of Iraq.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Touring now behind their March 2010 debut EP Only the Dead See the End of the War, the Acrassicauda experience is to confront the fresh memories of the violence and destruction that the band members and their families have lived through. “All that I have known,” growls singer/guitarist Faisal Talal, “Now buried beneath the garden of stones.”

Found Face Down, Ruines OV Abaddon, and A Battle to Fight also perform.

ACRASSICAUDA: Brick by Brick, Sunday, May 29, 8 p.m. 619-275-5483. $10.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

In-n-Out alters iconic symbol to reflect “modern-day California”

Keep Palm and Carry On?
Next Article

Tigers In Cairo owes its existence to Craigslist

But it owes its name to a Cure tune and a tattoo
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader