Members of heavy metal band Arsames fled Iran after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for playing “Satanic music”.
In a statement to Loudwire, the band said:
“We [were] arrested in 2017 when we were in our studio during rehearsal. They moved us to jail that day and [did] not [tell] our family about where we [were] for a week. Finally after nearly a month later we paid bail to come out of prison and they told us you should not work, release [or sell] your merch until your final court … and do not talk with media!
Our Instagram page, official website … banned and they shot down all for a year, but we built a new Instagram again and [started] to be active until few weeks ago [when] the court called us again and they gave us 15 years [in] prison. So we had to escape from Iran.”
Arsames also posted a video to YouTube claiming to be patriotic Iranians and offering details of their trial.
“Is it a crime that we are playing metal music!?,” states the band in the video. “Is it [a] crime that we are talking about Persian history?! Is it a crime that you think we are into Satanism when we have songs about Cyrus the Great and monotheism!? Is it a crime that we love music and our country?!”
