I am not, never was, and probably will never be into heavy metal music. As much as I love hard rock like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and others, heavy metal is just not my type.
But I like music. I like culture. I love it when people have ideas and they express these ideas in their own way. I don’t care if I don’t find heavy metal particularly awesome; I’m happy to acknowledge that it’s awesome for other people. In a society as suffocating as ours, I also appreciate social circles that allow different kinds of people to feel safe when they’re being themselves.
The metal scene in Jordan did all of those things.
Once upon a time.
Then the Jordanian government shot it down, after falling prey to some crappy journalism in local media.
Here’s a great mini-movie about the now-dead Jordanian metal scene:
I recommend that you watch it (and I never make video recommendations). It’s a beautiful and sad exploration of how our culture kills everything that doesn’t conform.
I was never really involved in the metal scene, but I did check it out a few times in 2005 and 2006. It was strange. It was different. It was beautiful.
Then it died.
