Arsames, Sentenced to Fifteen Years in Prison for Playing Metal, Flee Iran

The Iranian metal band Arsames, whose members were recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for playing “satanic music,” have fled their country to avoid that imprisonment, Loudwire reports.

Says the band in a statement:

“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.

“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.”

The band has not yet revealed their current location, presumably for safety reasons. But they have released the below video, which further details their current plight:

“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?!”

If you wanna help out the group, MetalSucks encourages you to buy something from their Bandcamp page — Immortal Identity is $7, while a series of cover recordings are all name-your-own-price. You can also follow them on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.