THE METALHEADS OF BAGHDAD

For his passion in music, Latif Ahmed was once dragged from his engineering classes in Baghdad and threatened with death by Muslim fundamentalists. But Ahmed, 22, defied them and recently saw a dream come true: the revival of heavy metal music in the violent Iraqi capital. It was a modest start: a concert by Ahmed’s band, Dog Faced Corpse, in the Pharmacists’ Club, a private hall on the banks of the Tigris River. Ahmed, who plays the drums, says he admires Black Sabbath and Metallica, and his band practises with the same energy: “It’s very, very loud and our rehearsals made my neighbours very angry.” Despite the danger of a metalhead show in a country torn by religious disagreements, 250 headbangers converged on the hall to listen to Ahmed’s ear-splitting music, mosh and bust furniture, just as their Western counterparts do. “It was great,” Ahmed recalls. “Seven tables were broken. It was a full metal night—the day I’ve always dreamed about.”