LEYLA FORD TAKES YOU ON A TOUR OF THE TURKISH METAL SCENE

I’d like to take you to a place. A place where trends might come a few years late, but are wholeheartedly embraced when they hit (Children of Bodom, Dimmu Borgir, and the WWE are recent arrivals). A place where metal is cool and metal fans are the cool kids (even if it’s just in their own heads). A place bands tend to skip in favor of clearly inferior countries, like Bulgaria. (No offesne to Bulgaria, but who really wants to play to goats?)

I’d like to take you to Turkey. Or Türkiye for those better informed.

It’s always a thrill to seek out metal spots around the world. There are the obvious places like Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, but then there are places you might over-look like India and Turkey. Right smack in the middle of Asia and Europe and boasting a small, but dedicated, metal scene.

In terms of local talent, Turkey is still developing. There’s Pentagram, who have been around since 1990 and are known as the pioneers of metal in Turkey. Though they’re only known as Pentagram in Turkey — outside the country, they go by Mezarkabul for the obvious, avoiding lawsuit reasons. Combining Anatolian elements, like Turkish folk music, with thrash, they might not impress the most jaded, but stand alone in a country that needs more metal. The song “Bir” is their famous hit.

There’s Catafalque, whose operatic female vocals sound kind of like Within Temptation, and Hayko Cepkin, who names Pantera as his biggest inspiration, but actually sounds like bizarre, rapping Marilyn Manson.

Like I said, the scene is developing. But bands like Manga and Kurban sing in Turkish, and have a harder edge to their music that most bands from the country never have never had. Manga’s song “We Could Be The Same” actually came in second in the Eurovision contest this year.

Though affectionately known as the worst-song competition it still demonstrates the growing trend of Turkish bands embracing English more and more, presumably in order to appeal to a wider audience. And hey, Lordi entered the contest a couple years back, and say what you will about them, but their song “Hard Rock Hallelujah,” is damn catchy.

Beyond the music, there’s the metal scene. Walk down the busiest Istanbul streets and you will see at least one Behemoth, one Vader, and one Metallica t-shirt. At least. Take a ferry out to the islands, and you’ll be seranaded by little kids on bikes singing “The Number of the Beast,” assuming that you’ve established your metal solidarity by wearing an Iron Maiden shirt.

Of course, to get all these shirts you need a thriving bootleg industry. There are so many little shops and out of the way places that are filled to bursting capacity with screened t-shirts. The records, CDs, and, yes, even cassettes, are pretty legal, but when you don’t have that many tours coming through, you make do with your own t-shirts. It’s probably not ideal for the bands, but you can get a pretty sweet Amorphis sweatshirt for a really good deal. And in addition to the t-shirts, there are bags, skirts, and all matter of “metal outfitting” that would put Hot Topic to shame.

Now more and more bands are adding Turkey to the tour roster. Sonisphere actually hit Istanbul this year, and featured bands like Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Manowar, and Accept, along with local bands. Tickets for shows sell out in minutes, as the community is basically starved for live, non-Turkish music. In an interview back in 1997, Jon Bon Jovi even commented that Istanbul has some some of the best crowds, because they know every word and will scream themselves hoarse.

Which they also do at DoRock (“durak” literally means station or bus/train stop), the local metal bar in Istanbul. Located on Istiklal Street, in the heart of the city, it’s the place for metalheads to go in Istanbul. With an entire wall devoted to a cripplingly ugly 3-D Somewhere in Time mural, it’s a tiny little hole in the wall, usually crammed with people, blasting metal day and night. It’s gotten a facelift recently with a sponsorship from Efes, a local beer company, and added TVs and a slightly better sound system. Most weekends cover bands enthusiastically massacre metal hits with bad English, but it’s always a good time. The beer is cheap, the music is loud, and the tattoos… well, they’re getting more popular, but the quality still has some evolving to do.

So add Turkey to your around-the-world-with-metal trip, because it might not be up there with the big boys, but it’s an excellent time. Besides, have you had Turkish food? Delicious meat galore.

-LF