Acrassicauda, Only the Dead See the End of the War

Whether it's Dee Snider tossing an irate parent out a second story window or the members of Mayhem burning down old Christian churches in Norway, metal is — in its very DNA — confrontational music. So it's perhaps no surprise that Acrassicauda, the Iraqi thrash band generally regarded as the country's first metal outfit, ran up against their share of conflict. Initially performing stealth concerts under the Hussein regime, the band actually gained more enemies after the American invasion, when the country's hard-line Islamic elements accused the group of being Satanists — or, worse, Western sympathizers — and threatened to kill them. They were turned out of their home country, forced to live as refugees in both Syria and Turkey before arriving safely in the United States in 2009.

Backstory is one thing — and Acrassicauda have already proven to have both physical and emotional fortitude and willpower — music is another matter. Fortunately, as their provocatively-titled Only the Dead See the End of the War EP proves, Arcassicauda are not simply floating on lore. Its four songs have all the power and potency of classic thrash — think Slayer or Bolt Thrower or Napalm Death. The guitar work is spectacular, low chugs that give way to high, wailing solos, a taut, snarling package that perfectly complements Faisal Talal's low-throated grunting. The silvery guitar lead that shoots up the center of "Message from Baghdad" is itself enough to prove the group's bona fides, but Arassicauda (who take their name from a species of deadly black scorpion) unleashes that kind of fury over and over. Acrassicauda's is a violent story with a happy ending, one where confrontation yielded a safe haven — and a stack of ferocious songs.