Liberty Mosh Pit

is an amazing thrash band from Damascus in Syria. The metal outfit has a punishing new single out featuring Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth called “True World Order.” You can check it out on the band’s Reverbnation page. Anarchadia will soon release a new record called “Let Us All Unite” via Metal East Records.

We caught up with them for an interview to discuss music, the collaboration with Jon Schaffer, and what it’s like being a band and trying to reach new fans in the midst of a full-blown civil war. Check out the discussion below.

Barry: “What are the band members’ names, and what instrument does each person play?”

Anarchadia: “First of all, thank you Barry for having us. We are honored and can’t wait to watch the movie. The members are:
Nour : vocals
Siam : guitars
Alaa : bass
Raafat : guitars
Sami : drums”

Barry: “Tell us about the inspiration behind the band name Anarchadia.”

Raafat: “Well, basically the name came as a reflection of reality, we lived and grew up in a place that eventually became a literal hell hole, a place that feeds on chaos and disorder. So we thought we should define that in an expressively elegant way. The name is a combination of two words, anarchy, and arcadia, which is the precious beloved place, and so it became the precious beloved place of total anarchy, and it’s apparently the ultimate definition of how things are right now and how we are dealing with them — and the case of the absence of state’s authority we are facing here.”

Barry: “What is the message behind your new album ‘Let Us All Unite’?”

Raafat: “First, I want to clarify something, we intended for this album to be connected and organized in a specific way, each song is an escalation of events, and each song completes the previous piece. We start by showing the total destruction and atrocities that humans are applying in the song ‘Devolution’ which presents our idea of how people are twisting the definition of evolution and started moving backwards instead of forward, with all the guns and the explosions and the blazing tanks and all that shit, and of course with George Bush’s voice in it, to enhance the vision, because, in our opinion, he symbolizes one of the most corrupted leaders or presidents to ever walk this planet, and then we move on to identify how humans have been sort of hypnotized by all these morbid ideologies, and how they have blindly fallen into the materialistic death trap in the songs ‘Demoralize’, ‘Beasts Of Burden’ and ‘Narchaotic’ and then as the record continues, we are trying to present the possible solution to all this mess, how we should start to elevate beyond this limited misanthropic behavior and mentality. In songs like ‘Elevation Call,’ ‘True World Order’ and ‘Adagnitio,’ they are basically a motivation for anyone who cares to try and expand the meaning of oneness and consciousness, and how we should overcome the temptation of the shallow and the selfish desires by confronting our demons and uniting to try and identify the enemy that keeps us in conflict for deranged purposes of controlling mankind and all their natural resources, and, after that, comes a unique piece, and it was born to show support to  the non-violent movements around the globe and it’s called ‘Occupy the Wall.’ Obviously, the name speaks for itself. It was an utter dedication to this peaceful movement which came in a crucial time, especially when started last year, because it was the true and perfect example of unity among humans.  So if you want to define the big picture of this record, you can definitely say it is an aggressive wake up call — a cry out for humanity to unite against all forms of tyranny and oppression, which is vivid in Charlie Chaplin’s speech in the song ‘Let Us All Unite.’”

Barry: “What was it like working with Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth and Sons of Liberty on the track ‘True World Order?’ How did that come about?”

Osama: “Well, I think words will fail to express how honored and content we are with everything that’s been accomplished in this song, and what a magnificent experience this whole thing was. Jon is not just a metal head with a famous band, he is a down to earth man with a cause and honest principles. That is the main thing we have truly learned from this experience. He is a living example of how someone believes in something, and then applies it in every possible opportunity for the sake of spreading a word of truth. He didn’t hesitate one bit once he read the lyrics and heard the music — he was totally fuckin’ in! And we were just stumped by his enthusiastic reaction and how excited he was to be a part of this project, especially with all the shit taking place in Syria right now. The formula and the whole vision felt RIGHT to everyone. It was absolutely amazing and such a historical step in the Middle Eastern metal scene for sure, and we couldn’t be more satisfied!”

Barry: “I noticed Congressman Ron Paul was sampled in the song ‘True World Order.’ What do you think about Ron Paul? Do people in Syria know about and like Ron Paul?”

Raafat: “Not so many people here know exactly who Ron Paul is, no!! Some definitely do if they were following the US elections and all, but generally most people are already mentally and emotionally preoccupied with what’s going on here, and too damn invested to know that sometimes the real issue lies elsewhere, and the source might be where they least expect it to be. We believe Ron Paul was the last American hope, if you will! The man has been fighting the Federal Reserve and the occupation of other countries and the relentless expansion of the military industrial complex around the globe, especially in the middle east for years and years. We know that both parties, Democrats and Republicans, are controlled by the same corporate outfit, the wealthy banking cartel and… elite families like the Rothchilds and the Rockefellers and everyone with Goldman Sachs and the Bilderberg Group, and we are aware that Ron Paul was a Republican presidential candidate but we believe he was genuinely trying to make a difference. Maybe following the Lincoln and the Kennedy vision in this matter would define him best, and that is one of the reasons he didn’t win the elections and now, he cannot run for president anymore because of his age, and this comes in the best interest of the criminals in Wall Street. But we still felt it’s pretty adequate to use some of his words in a song that is strictly dedicated to opposing the New World Order design and suggest a form of life that everybody can share, and we believe that Jon shares the same vision when it comes to this topic and its background, and his mission that stands for non-violent revolution so Ron Paul was definitely the right man to be quoted in this song, and the outcome, in my opinion, could not be any better.”

Barry: “What is it like living in Syria during a civil war? Is it still possible to put on shows?”

Osama: “It’s pretty hectic, and it’s pretty dangerous too. Few weeks ago, and this is a true story, a missile landed on a building just a couple of blocks away from Nour’s building by accident, (or not), and killed an entire family right on the spot. And sometimes you might be walking by the street, and boom, a bomb explodes. Actually while I am writing this answer I heard one of these explosions. These are couple of the things that can randomly take place without a warning, people started adapting to this situation, which is pretty sick, and they just go by their day like nothing happened. I don’t know if you can feel the level of morbidity in this picture, but when people adjust their minds to the fact that other people are being lacerated just few blocks away, and they are still forced to behave normally and go to work and shit, then it is a depressingly gloomy picture. As for shows, well, believe it or not, some shows took place during all this, not big ones though, but some people are still trying to deliver some art, maybe inspired by what’s going on, and maybe not, but to a metal head I believe music can be a form of cure. Still you cannot really say we have metal shows and stuff, few gigs here and there every now and then, and that’s about it.”

Barry: “What is the music scene like in Syria? Have you guys done any tours? Are you considering future tours in the US or Europe?”

Osama: “The music scene is diverse, if we are talking about metal and rock. You will be surprised that a lot of bands are emerging in the last 2 or 3 years, and the scene is actually growing. Bands like us, Netherion, The Hourglass, Viiden and Brotherhood for instance, are trying to flip the odds and twist the norm as hard as possible. Every band is working hard on their albums and aspiring to spread their word and their music, and you just have to admire that. There are of course other types or genres of music in Syria, oriental jazz, and classical jazz, classical music and of course other pop music which you can’t run away from in any country. We try to follow everything that is coming out, but it’s pretty hard when you are busy on something that needs so much focus and means so much to you, because after all, it is a process of making your dreams come true you know. And well, we haven’t done any tours yet, we are working on the official release of the ‘Let Us All Unite’ album, and after that everything is possible, and a tour in the US and Europe would be a perfect reward, and we would do it without a second thought.”

Barry: “Which bands would you say have influenced your sound the most?”

Raafat: “It is a hard question, and it’s hard to be accurate because we are not only influenced by other bands, but we are also influenced by many factors as well. I mean we are definitely influenced by the good old sounds of thrash and NWOBHM and even psychedelic music and 80′s rock, but we also wanted to incorporate other factors and influences. Sometimes we add some synthesizer to certain parts when needed, and Siam is a genius when it comes to shit like that and has the passion for this in addition to the guitar. He always adds the right elements that can complete the formula of the song. We try to make the record more progressive, especially in the new songs that were added to the album. I think people will immediately notice the difference and the diversity, and we can’t wait to hear their feedback on the new stuff.”

Barry: “What are some other bands from the Middle East and Northern Africa that Americans should be listening to?”

Osama: “Well, as mentioned earlier, bands like Netherion, Brotherhood, and The Hourglass from Syria should be checked out, and there is a band from Egypt which is Raafat’s previous band Paindemonium that is also a must check project. They play melodic black/death metal and the message is also powerful. Also, a band called Vomit the Hate from Tunisia, this band fuckin’ rules! It is a one man band and they play technical death metal in the spirit of Necrophagist which is a very important school, and very rare to take place where we live, and they just nailed it. Rivergate are definitely one of the emerging bands that should be listened to, in addition to the Tunisian project ShallIshine which is a unique band that mix the flavor of different music styles from metal to oriental jazz, led by my dear friend and relentless revolutionist Heny Matar. And there are also some brilliant musicians and guitarists who are working currently on their solo progressive metal music projects such as our dear friend Sami Fraihat who released couple of songs in the psychedelic rock field and is working on a new album with a new band Six Degrees featuring members from Anarchadia. Also Hassan Tayshoori is a young talented guitarist from Syria working on releasing his new album, and according to what I listened to so far, I think it is going to be a huge success. I’m sure there are a lot of other great bands and musicians out there, and can’t wait to hear them all.”

Barry: “With respect to politics, are there Syrians who consider themselves a part of the growing Liberty movement? Do some people there subscribe to political movements such as libertarianism, voluntaryism, or market anarchism?”

Raafat: “This is a very good question. Look, the way I see it is that people in Syria, in the time being, are just exploding because they have suffered years of oppression, police state authority and lack of actual freedom of speech, so, I don’t want to label what’s happening now under any specific terminology, because the way they exploded came about just randomly. Poetic — yes, yet the execution is completely chaotic and unstable. I mean yea people needed to revolt, no doubt, but it needed a more organized strategy and a more sophisticated approach. It needed an actual LEADER if you may. And yes people do subscribe to political movements and all, and yes some of them are yearning to make a difference by altering the status quo of the system, but I can’t help but admit that there is a huge level of ignorance towards the ultimate purpose of the whole cause. We have a lot of political parties like the communists, liberals, socialists and capitalists etc, and now a new wave of Arabic anarchists are evolving through this stage. Unfortunately most of those people remained underground or under the regime’s wing, and still don’t have a clear policy or agenda of how things should really turn out to be, so I basically can’t say that the liberty movement is ‘growing’ at all in the first place! It saddens me to say this, but this is a fact; it is becoming more chaotic and more RACIST and dysfunctional than ever. The people who rose up against the idea of the ‘one leader of the state and society’ are totally absent and their voice is oppressed again whether it was by the regime or the acclaimed opposition we have inside and outside Syria, and of course we can not forget to mention that there are so many egos and political parties who are asking for an open discussion between the conflicting parties who are oppressed too by these major forces — the regime and the armed opposition. In the end, bearing arms against each other is not the solution. Take for instance Lebanon and their stupid useless civil war, and FARC who engaged in a nearly five-decade struggle to overthrow the government of Colombia which ended up by sitting on one table and stopping holding arms against each other after this backward war that harvested countless lives of innocent people.”

Barry: “What are your thoughts on how social media has helped encourage political change all over the world?”

Osama: “Well, social media brought so many people from so many different countries and ideologies together, shared their thoughts and ideas, some of them have useful material and some of them are utter bullshit, but when it comes to political change we have to look at different aspects; in some countries social media helped more people to connect and to share their passion for freedom, and make a change in their countries. I believe that Occupy Movement wouldn’t have survived without this tool, especially when it comes to peaceful movements. Thankfully the awareness level of how corporations and banks are corrupted and the amount of damage was created by them under the umbrella or behind the veil of a capitalist system, wouldn’t have increased without the internet in general, and it is the best alternate and fastest way to receive knowledge and comprehend new aspects of life, definitely better than TV which has been corrupting more minds than ever in the human history. Still, this tool depends on which minds are using it, from my experience so far, it could be also a deadly weapon and a way to spread and share ignorance and collective madness, and unfortunately I would say that Syria, within this situation, is a living example of what I am talking about here and as of every technological advancement, it depends on the user. But what really frightens me the most about social media that it would drive people more away from books, which I believe are the most genuine and most reliable source of knowledge.”

Barry: “What is it like working with Metal East Records?”

Raafat: “Well, it is definitely exciting, and the fact that we got a record deal and are starting out with this indie label itself is pretty cool. Moutasem, the owner of the label, is doing an outstanding job in helping out the middle eastern metal bands, and he is trying to take this whole movement to a different level and he truly wants to spread this music in a more professional way than it has ever been, starting in this region, and ending on a global scale. Things are just starting to happen. However, we see a very bright light at the end of the tunnel, and we can’t wait to see the fans reaction when the record is officially released.”

Barry: “What are you future plans as a band?”

Raafat: “I’ll keep this one short and simple, we are looking forward to spreading the message as far and as intense as possible, looking forward to touring the world and getting to discover areas we have never been to. And most of all, we are hoping that what we are doing could really make a difference one day. It is not just music to us, it is a package of tunes and words combined to define who we are and what we believe in. It is a way of life, man. That is what it is. Since we really appreciate what your team is doing in this field, we would like to wish Silver Circle and the whole crew the success they deserve and to become an outstanding example of how real, meaningful and true messages can be delivered to the audience and finally achieve their goal in burying The Federal Reserve. Happy Holidays, Love and total support from Anarchadia.”

Visit http://www.SilverCircleMovie.com to learn more about our upcoming 3D animated film. Also, the Silver Circle graphic novel is available now at the following hyperlinks in full color and black and white.