Al-Namrood, The Saudi Arabian Band Risking Their Lives for Black Metal
Genre: Black Metal/Middle Eastern Folk Metal
Themes: Ancient religion, evil, darkness, apostasy, anti-religion
Band Location: Saudi Arabia
Al-Namrood translates to “the non-believer” and comes from the name of a Babylonian king. He ruled the world maliciously and defied the ruler of the universe by claiming to be a God.
In Saudi Arabia, three men with hidden identities have defied theocratic law by daring to make black metal. For you see, in Saudi Arabia their actions are not only illegal, but are punishable by death.
The band started with with the idea of combining the Arabic scale with black metal and Arabic lyrics. The results are definitely quite interesting.
The members of Al-Namrood do not tour or play live shows (for obvious reasons). They make their music in secret and use fake names: Mephisto, Mudamer and Ostron. Quality equipment is hard to come by, and they have to smuggle much of their stuff into the country by secret. The bigger their fame, the bigger the risk of being found out, and yet they continue to make music and promote themselves anyways.
Al-Namrood represents the true spirit of apostasy. I regard these guys with the highest praise for having the courage to do what they do. If playing music under threat of death isn’t black metal, I don’t know what is.
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April 30, 2015 | Categories: Black Metal, Music | Tags: al-namrood, arabia, Black Metal, saudi | 1 Comment
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