While working for the International Rescue Committee, Emily Holland ’01 helped members of a heavy-metal band from Iraq, Acrassicauda, come to the United States.  

Heavy metal wasn’t tolerated during the Saddam years, and the band’s struggle to rehearse and play without being killed is the subject of a documentary film called Heavy Metal in Baghdad.

Here is a link to the band’s Myspace page; click on “playlist” to hear several of the band’s songs. The page also includes the movie trailer for Heavy Metal in Baghdad.

http://www.myspace.com/wwwacrassicaudas5com

Here is a link to an NPR interview with lead singer Faisal Talal, drummer Marwan Riyadh, and the co-director and producer of Heavy Metal in Baghdad, Suroosh Alvi.    

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101948030