Banger Films Official Blog

This is the first of what I hope to be many stories submitted by YOU! As you may or may not know, Sam and Scot did make attempts to visit Iran to film sequences for Global Metal. Given the atmosphere and the nuclear concerns and pressure from some of the world leaders including Canada, the lads weren’t able to acquire tourist visas.
Well, given the vast diversity of the fans that are visiting our Banger Films and Sammy FaceBook pages, I thought we should tap into your unique and challenging experiences as metalheads in countries where persecution is a party of daily life. Something that we in the west and most of Europe rarely ever come in contact with.
Our first story comes from a young fellow from Iran who shared with us some brief experiences of being a Metal supporter in Iran. I’ve removed any names just because. Please enjoy a few words from LORD LUCIFER .

Well, Metalheads in iran are facing lots of restrictions like:

The Religious Authorities:

In all universities in all schools the clergimen are trying to misguide the youth about the reality of metal music. They abuse the religious thoughts of people in order to lead them away from truth. Below are some the shits I’ve heard:

1. Metal music appreciates satan and all of metalheads are enemy of God!

2.The bands fear not any guilt! like slaying people right on the stage and raping the children and ….

3.metal music equals drug addiction!!!!! All metalheads must be blind drunk and must use drugs in order to enjoy music!

4. They call many bands to be satanist! bands like Metallica Slayer Megadeth Children Of Bodom and many more are known to be satanist and criminals

Police:

Yes you heard me right POLICE. We have MORAL POLICE in Iran!!!! They pick on the girls with non-Islamic clothes or boys wearing metal shirts and so on. Let me tell you a real story.

I had a friend on the internet who had long hairs and an electric guitar. Once he was walking in the street the moral Police caught him and started beating him in the middle of street. Then they took him to their office and shaved his head and broke his guitar!
they told him that your instrument is HARAM (forbidden in Islam!).

He was lucky enough not to be imprisoned!

The People!

Fortunately ( you will realize later about it) people are mostly fan of pop music and rap or hip-hop shits.That’s because these kinds of music are not complex and they are can be called lovesongs. people just wanna dance or use them in the parties. So they don’t want the essence of music which is the identity,the community,and the prosperity of the music.
they just listen to singer for today and throw the CD tomorrow!
It’s like an old shirt for them.
But metal becomes more precious day by day.

So metal community in Iran is too small to be compared to other stuff.
But I am happy with it. I feel so good when I compare my iPod songs with those ordinary people. Yes, I am not an ordinary person cuz I listen to an extreme extra-ordinary music.
It feels so good to be different from the society and knowing things that others don’t.
In my idea, Metal is not meant to be listened and loved and understood by all people.
and also people block everything western. They label everything western to be bad or anti-moralistic or anti-islam!!

Wow! I wrote too much! I’m sorry dude.

Well let me talk about myself a little bit!

I’m *****, 21 and I study English Literature and Iive in Qeshm Island which is very very
close to Dubai!

There are lots of foreigners from Dubai who come to qeshm for few month in order to re validate their visa.

I think it’s easy to enter Iran this way. It’s one of my fucking dreams to meet you guys here and talk about everything METAL.

I have been listening to metal for about 8 years or so. Before that I wasn’t into music at all. But now music is a part of me.
The only way I can get the albums is by downloading them. I feel so ashamed when I think about it. But it’s more essential than food for me more than any kind of vitamin… I am addicted to it and I think it’s the best type of addiction in the whole universe.
My friends know me as LORD LUCIFER. It’s my artistic and metal identity.
I have written some poems in English and I have quit Islam and set myself free.
God, religion,prophet,heaven,hell are summed up in one word for me: METAL.

Enough said! I talked too much..

Send my regards to Dear Sam And other fucking Metal crews.

Take care and bye.

with best METAL wishes,

(LORD LUCIFER)

“Thanks LL. We appreciate you sharing your story with us -Admin”

Halifax, Canada – September 22-25, 2005
The Atlantic International Film Festival was our second film fest and let’s just say that Nova Scotians know how to put ‘em back, eh. The “hospitality suite” was certainly that; hospitable. We went hard…
But on a more serious note, we had two screenings of the film, one in downtown Halifax and one in the nearby Dartmouth. A friend from Dartmouth describes it as “Not the end of the world, but you can see it from there”. Ha! The crowds were small but totally metal. I got in touch with some local metalheads through chat rooms before we arrived and it was great to see the Halifax metal community in full effect. At first, we were a little worried about attendance at the Dartmouth screening. In the end we had a good crowd and got excellent feedback.
We also did some generic tourist stuff and got the guards at Citadel Horns to throw the devil horns. I guess they had heard about the film on the radio news that morning. (I think that was the earliest interview I’ve ever done: “That’s interesting what you say about Slayer, Sam, but now let’s look at the local weather forcast…” Pretty surreal.) But the hands down hilight of the Halifax trip was that I got to check out two Relapse Records bands, Undand anb Buried Inside, at the Attic. Buried Inside was killer – Totally gritty, totally lethal. The Attic was a wicked little rock/metal club where i got to hang out with some people who came to the screenings. Seems like Halifax has a cool scene going on…