We were stunned to report, earlier this month, that another metal band has come under charges from the Iranian government. Iranian death metal band Arsames were arrested and sentenced to 15 years in jail for the crime of "being in satanic metal band and being against the Islamic government." Thankfully, they were able to make bail, and in a new update reveal they have fled the country.
Speaking to Loudwire, the band clarified they are not a satanic band, and they believe they were characterized as such because they had skulls on their merchandise. “They think when we growl and play fast music we are into Satanism! The skulls on our t-shirts means the same for them as satanic musicians.”
Arsames explained how the arrest happened. “We [were] arrested in 2017 when we were in our studio during rehearsal. They moved us to jail that day and [did] not [tell] our family about where we [were] for a week. Finally after nearly a month later we paid bail to come out of prison and they told us you should not work, release [or sell] your merch until your final court … and do not talk with media! Our Instagram page, official website … banned and they shot down all for a year, but we built a new Instagram again and [started] to be active until few weeks ago [when] the court called us again and they gave us 15 years [in] prison. So we had to escape from Iran.”
After escaping the country, the band released a video on Youtube explaining the situation. While they do not reveal their current location, the video asks “Is it a crime that we are playing metal music!? Is it [a] crime that we are talking about Persian history?! Is it a crime that you think we are into Satanism when we have songs about Cyrus the Great and monotheism!? Is it a crime that we love music and our country?!”
We are very happy the band is safe and sound and you can support them by buying some music on their Bandcamp and following them on Facebook and Instagram.
