Geodissonance

JANAZA: A Hoax, or Case of Metal Self-Preservation?

janzana-collage-615

Geo·dissonance: the metal movement is proliferating to all corners of the globe. In its relentless display of vitriolic truths and the ugliest questions of existence, we can hear the resounding riffs of heavy metal in the most conservative pockets of society. As your Punjabi, riff-worshiping correspondent, I've created Geodissonance to report the controversy: as metal unveils dissonance in cradles of brutality around the world.

Almost exactly one year ago, we raved about the emergence of a black metal artist unlike any blasphemers within the scene: Janaza, a young, female-fronted black metal band from Iraq. Given a political regime as shamelessly conservative as its terror-driven bearers of violence, many metalheads around the globe supported front-woman Anahita's decision to lay low. With recent and emerging evidence against the authenticity of this so-called, groundbreaking Janaza – however – the metal media has begged the question of whether the group truly exists, and if so, how they could justify their blatant plagiarism of album artwork. This, coupled with a history of brief interviews, conducted exclusively through Facebook, has fed a long trail of speculations regarding the validity of Anahita's spawns of (questionable) possession. (more…)

Geodissonance

JANAZA: A Female Blasphemous Black Metal Solo Project From Iraq

janaza-2010

In a country that boasts of our first amendment, we've taken our liberties to speak, shred, and blast beat out – in the name of anti-clerical, anarchic causes, and pure metal blasphemy. This anti-clerical expression is far from confined to the states; we get such doses from the finest black metal bands of Finland, to the "Antichristian Phenomenon" riffs of Poland-based Behemoth. Yet in Iraqi society – where to wear outfits even the least bit revealing (and by revealing, I mean a few cubic centimeters of flesh) is taboo, it takes an iron pair and a hell of a lot of strong-will to conceive an anti-religious band. Speaking of such daring, meet Janaza: a newly surfacing female-fronted, black metal "solo project" that's inverting its stakes, redefining blasphemy, and delivering it in record form.
(more…)