A few weeks back, Osama Bin Laden was killed in an action by an US army team. And while we wait for Disney to make a game out of it (fo’ real-real), I’ll be spending time answering the question that you probably have right now in your heads: What the fuck does that have to do with metal?
Well, make the jump, I’ll let you in on the secret.
Before I even start with this one, be warned, this post is going to be seeping with ignorance. I’m not sure myself if I’ll be fighting it or condoning it writing this, but I wanted to give you the heads up right in the beginning.
A friend of mine actually let me in on this one, and I didn’t believe it until I saw it. So, what exactly does this have to do with metal? Here’s what:
No, I didn’t make this up, the guy is actually on the FBI’s website, and he is claimed to be one of the possible successors to Bin Laden. Don’t trust me? Click here for his FBI page.
Death metal and religious fundamentalism, works great hand in hand, right? Well, there’s a first for everything. Or maybe not.
Here’s some info on the guy, courtesy of The Gauntlet:
Gadahn was the son of a Jewish father but was himself an atheist. He converted to Islam at age 17 while living in Santa Ana, CA. After beating up his mentor and failing to follow through on his community service, Gadahn fled to Pakistan where he joined up with Al-Qaeda and became a main propagandist for the terrorist group. He went on to inspire and be directly involved with Bin Laden’s videos and terror warnings.
What is interesting about Gadahn was as a teenager in Santa Ana, he formed a death metal band called Aphasia. In the early to mid-90’s, he also was a contributing writer to a local Southern California metal zine called Xenocide where he interviewed bands, wrote album reviews and drew artwork. Maybe if he’s ever captured, the CIA should think of other bands to play for him as a form of torture besides death metal.
I wanted to look for his band and see what that sounded like, but unfortunately, Aphasia is used by a few dozen original bands for their name. Well, not really few dozen, but a lot in any case. You can, however, read a few of his reviews on the article I provided earlier.
That’s it. Not that ignorant, really. Unless you say that he turned Taliban because of death metal. Or if you start lecturing me on the difference between Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Or if you say I implied earlier that religious fundamentalists shouldn’t be listening to death metal can be seen as ignorant by itself. Or you can play the Islam card. Or you can play the Christian card. Or, or… Anyway, a quick FYI, if you happen to see this guy at a Cannibal Corpse concert, you can leave the show with an extra million dollars in your pocket.
