SYRIAN METAL IS WAR.

• Author: Ciaramella, C.J.
• Position: DOCUMENTARY - Movie review - Brief article

The DIY documentary Syrian Metal Is War, released in February for free on YouTube, is an intimate look at the day-to-day lives of Syria's small but dedicated metal scene amid the chaos of that country's brutal civil war.

Prior to the war, Syrian metal musicians faced jail time and persecution for "satanism." During the war, they face new challenges, roadtripping along dangerous highways and dodging snipers to make it to shows at the one remaining cafe in Aleppo where live metal music still lives. They try to record amid the rumble of bombs and regular power outages. "The symphony of Aleppo," one musician tells the camera, "is generators and bullets."

Filmmaker Monzer Darwish, a Syrian metalhead who decided to document the scene before it disappeared altogether, shot the footage on a DSLR...