A WAY BEYOND THE MADNESS PART 4
METAL: IRANIAN HEAVY METAL CULTURE
BY DAVE DEEDEVIL
We just were starting to grow long hair and trying to tear our jeans up for some kind of obligation or 'unity as metal'.
You wouldn't know what it’s like to hang out in those rebellious outfits in a country which claims everything Islamic even
a guys beard unless you lived that kind of life there. I remember I had to hide my hair under my shirt every time I came
across one of those grumpy bearded faces to not get caught. You could get whipped in public for having long hair and
jeans on. We watched out most of the time because we used to wear jeans and t-shirt with leather boots and that was
completely against their rules not to mention the meaning of the deal which was 'PURE EVIL' to them (and still is)
Well, this whole dangerous thing with outfits and make up never made us desperate or failures, but just the opposite. It
was the absolute motivation for every one of us who had ever been into this lifestyle. "Wave the flag, no matter if you
get caught, just deliver the good!" we totally believed this and lived it 24/7. I was waking up to Wasp's 'WILD CHILD' just
to pass out that night with Ozzy's 'SHOT IN THE DARK' every day of the week and I never got enough of it.
Those days you couldn't contact your heroes being as simple as there was no internet, no address and no cell phone. We
could rarely find a tiny black and white picture from a magazine or artwork and copied it thanks to Xerox. You just kept
your feelings to yourself and dream about the day you got the chance to spit them all out to your heroes. Finally, addresses started coming around in the 90s and we started writing even though we weren't sure if the addresses were for
real but who cares? That was the only hope anyway! A light at the end of the tunnel! So many letters were sent to
Metallica's and Sepultura's office back then. None of the letters ever got a response, but nothing changed, we still loved
those people.
No regrets!
Never!
Those guys are the reason we have stayed strong and pure through the years.. through the clashes.. through disorders..
We all been more like Skid row's '18 n LIFE' meets Slayer's 'RAINING BLOOD'
and as Hlaford true said:
'The journey never ends it's just begun
The lies that never learned
The needles in my heart
And things will nev