Apr 202012
 

It’s 4/20, and Reefer Nation will be mostly mellow today. But since we already ran BadWolf’s post about Mastodon and Feist, I think we’ve tipped our hat to mellowness, and so it’s time to get pissed off again.

Nedā Āghā-Soltān was a beautiful young Iranian woman whose death during protests over the phony 2009 Iranian elections became a rallying point for people around the world. If you were paying any attention at all to the news of what was happening in Iran during those tumultuous days, you couldn’t miss the video of her bleeding to death in the street from a chest wound.

Mortad is a London-based metal band whose 2012 debut album is called The Myth of Purity (the album was included with the February 2012 issue of Metal Hammer magazine, but will be getting an official release later in the year. According to a press release, the band was formed by an Iranian vocalist and songwriter named Somi Arian, “whose lyrics take aim at the hypocrisy of religion and the government as well as seeking inner truth and strength in the face of such oppression.”

Today, Mortad released an official video for a song called “The Voice”, which takes as its theme the death of Nedā Āghā-Soltān. It’s a good song, a thundering slice of Scandinavian-style melodic death metal with hints of Eastern melody, and Somi Arian’s harsh vocals build an aura of caustic vehemence and rage.

The video is well-made, splicing footage of the band performing the song with clips from the 2009 protests and related atrocities by the Iranian theocracy. At the risk of spoiling your 4/20 chill, have a look:
 

  2 Responses to “MORTAD: “THE VOICE””

  1. I actually really dug that tune, some of the synth hits seemed a bit cheap and off place though.

    Don’t worry, my numerical methods exam tomorrow has harshed any possible mellow.

  2. The vocals seem off to me…its like theyre modulated to give her a deeper growl, and double tracked on top of that. Musics pretty good though…definitely has possibilities

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