Iranischer Death Metal: Interview mit Hamed "Fetusgrinder" Azizi (IRANIAN/PERSIAN DEATH METAL MILITIA)

Recently I found myself  browsing my favourite myspace band profiles looking for new and fresh brutal stuff. So suddenly I happen to listen to Arthimoth, a band not known to me until that day.

When I discovered they were from Iran I saw they were linked to PSDM/IRDM, which stands for Persian/ Iranian Death Metal Milita.

So I contacted the guy who runs the show there. A very friendly and supportive Hamed Fetusgrinder, already featured in METAL HAMMER & TERRORIZER Mags, invited me to take a closer look on the exotic world of  Death Metal behind a somewhat Iron (or should I say Iran?) courtain, so check it out…

Greetings Hamed,

according to your myspace-profile you’re the President of PSDM/IRDM, which basically stands for Iranian/Persian Death Metal Militia. Please introduce yourself and what you do.

Cheerz, Alex. Cheerz, Alex. This is Hamed “Fetusgrinder”Azizi, I’m a Death Metal and brutal Death Metal Fanatic, Vocalist and President of the aforementioned Iranian Death Metal Militia. I also support the  1987 established New York Death Militial (NYDM) guys by  running the local chapter here in Iran. I created PSDM/IRDM to promote the Iranian Death Metal scene and let the metalheads all around the world know more about  local brutal bands and the Iranian scene.

Obviously you’re deeply into the Persian / Iranian Death Metal Scene – which bands can you especially recommend to us? What are your personal favourites?

I don’t want to recommend a specific band here, all the bands in PSDM/IRDM myspace page are  fucking aweosme and I’d like your readers to check out the page where they can find a hell of a lot Iranian  Extreme Metal bands that I support.

Personally I like extreme music, and besides that watching movies,  especially horror shit, I travel a lot, keep doing some sports..quite the usual I guess….

As for the Situation of Extreme Music in your Home Country, are there any suppresions religiously or politically motivated?

As you probably know we live in a country that is an Islamic territory. So we see ourselfes surrounded by religiously motivated critizism and stupid superstitious about this kind of music. For the lot of people here Metal is a satanic and harsh music style with bloody and creepy thoughts and longhaired, drug-addict fans and alcoholics and more fucking poor and funny beliefs like this. So keeping up extreme music in our land is so hard without a doubt.

How’s the scene reacting to that?

Everything is just pure underground, no promoting and selling CDs and DVDs, no live performance and …there’s not much we can do really besides shutting the fuck up and stay underground !!!!

Teilen

Whoa, that’s heavy shit, I hope a change is in sight and one day your government and the people will relax and calm the fuck down. Ok, so my next question is when started Death Metal in Iran and what started it?

Death Metal in Iran started basically with my own brutal Death Metal band called Wile (disbanded) in 2001 and also Arthimoth in 2003 so when they released the first sick death metal music video called “Baptized”  so that basically started Death Metal, since then it grows littel by little.

As our blog BrutalSounds.TV specializes in the technical approach of brutal music, are there any famous Studios in your area that specialize in Extreme Music?

Unfortunately there are no famous or professional big studios in our area willing to record extreme music. So you’d have to record your songs in studios that don’t know shit about extreme metal or even metal or you end up recording everything yourself or in some home studio.

Is there anything you can tell us about how closely you are connected to the international Death Metal Scene – I can see you’re supporting almost every Death Metal Militia there is, are you in personal contact and how are the reactions on your work?

I try to get in touch with as many as possible death metal guys/societies all around the world to promote Iranian Death Metal and introduce our scene to sick fans around the globe. Also I’m interested in the global scene!

Reactions on my work are great because not many people know of the  Iranian scene yet. So we’re growing to become a part of the fucking global Death Metal . As you see, I’m closely connected with the New York Death Militia ( N.Y.D.M ) and all NYDM chapters in US or out of US  and it’s PSDM/IRDM’s pleasure to be supporting NYDM in Iran .

You were recently featured in the well known Metal Hammer and Terrorizer Magazine, how did this happen? Do you see Iranian bands slowly getting the attention they deserve from the worldwide scene?

Yes i had interviews with two of the most awesome and famous metal magazines on our Metal planet and they really support Iranian/Persian death metal militia(PSDM/IRDM) and our death metal scene. When i had contact with them and they saw that Iran is a part of death metal worldwide with some awesome death metal bands and also when they saw what I’m doing is much like other death metal scenes all around the world they asked me to do an Interview  and certainly it’s a big progress and honor for me and the Iranian Death Metal scene! Much appreciate to Metal Hammer and Terrorizer magazines and everybody supporting Iranian Death Metal.

Do you personally know or favour any Brutal Bands from Germany, since that’s where we hail from?

Yeah sure I know many Death Metal and Brutal bands with several death metal styles from Germany and many of ‘em are my fucking favorites. I think Germany has a huge Death Metal scene with the most awesome, brutal ,harsh and sick Death Metal styles. Personally I believe that Germany is one of the most important fan-bases for Death Metal worldwide.

What criteria has a band to fulfill to fit into IRDM/PSDM?

Nothing special, really. I try to support Iranian death metal bands mainly but if I find an extreme band in Iran which leaves an impression I add  them to my roster and support them. Personally I like to make sure the bands has lyrics in English because I know Metal is not a local music and we should not keep it to ourselves  using only our native language. For this reason i think English is the best language to be connected with other Metalheads and fans worldwide.

I think Iranian Death Metal is quite different from US or European Death Metal, in a quite refreshing way. ARTHIMOTH (one of my favourites on your Site) are strongly influenced by oriental melodic patterns which is unusual to our ears, but very cool. Where do you see differences and similarities between US/EU-Band and the ones presented by you?

To be frank  I can see differences only in the way our music is treated here, with all the regulations and repression we have here that slows down development a little as you see.

As some of our readers might be interested in Persian/Iranian Death Metal by now, where can we order the Music, and the Merch and is there any chance to book gigs in your area?

What about booking persian/iranian bands to the US or Germany? Is there a Booking Agency of name or should one try via direct contact to the bands?

The most important thing for the bands would be a label or distribution  company to promote their CDs,  DVDs & merchandise officialy in & out of Iran but unfortunately there is no such company in Iran !!!! And  it’s fucking hard  to find a good one out of Iran, since it’s still hard for them to operate inside Iran.

If anyone is interested in booking the bands that PSDM/IRDM supports for shows, just contact me (Hamedfetusgrinder) via one of the following websites:

http://www.myspace.com/hamedfetusgrinder

http://www.myspace.com/psdmirdmofficial

Thank you so much, Hamedfetusgrinder, for the interview. Is there anything you’d like to say before it is over? Here’s your space.

Thanks, brutalsounds.TV for your brutal support and your attention to Iranian death metal scene.Keep Death Metal alive worldwide! (We completely agree – You’re very welcome and respects to you and your work! d.Red.)

Hamedfetusgrinder/PSDM/IRDM President