Arsames, an Iranian band whose members were recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for playing metal, have fled their home country to avoid persecution.
The band provided a statement to Loudwirem detailing their escape, and delving into their mislabeling as a Satanic band.
“Our music is about our past culture, history… that 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,” the band shared.
“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.”
Following their escape, Arsames shared a video to their official YouTube channel, detailing the sentence that was handed down to them by Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mashhad.
“Is it a crime that we are playing metal music!?” they begin. “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?!”
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Back in July, two members of Iranian band Confess —Nikan “Siyanor” Khosravi and Arash “Chemical” Ilkhani— were sentenced to a combined 14.5 years in prison for playing heavy metal.
The pair were released from prison in Evin in 2017 after they made their $30,000 USD bail. They then fled to Turkey to appeal against the charges. Confess have since been granted asylum in Norway, where they will continue to make music.
