This story looks familiar.
October 29 - USA Today: Nothing else matters: Iraqi heavy metal returns
At a private dinner club on the banks of the Tigris River in Baghdad, Muthana Mani screamed threats at a wild-eyed crowd of young Iraqis.
“I’ll see you die at my feet! Eternally I smash your face! Facial bones collapse as I crack your skull in half!” he roared.
November 16 - Times of London: Metalheads defy Baghdad militias
Outside, the rain drummed down. Inside the Pharmacist’s Club, a private dinner venue on the banks of the Tigris, the beat was as relentless. Sweating fans thrashed, writhed and banged heads. Heavy metal was back, alive and kicking, in Baghdad.
For the first time in five years the hardest of hard rock was back in a city that has been more accustomed to the sound of artillery and suicide bombs than the deafening chords of a metal concert.
The USA Today piece was written by Charles Levinson and the ToL piece was by Ali Rifat.
I can understand the novelty factor leading two western journalists to write abuot the same concert, but hell… these two pieces really seem similar. What do you think?
