Meet the LATIN AMERICAN BANDS making sense of their lives through heavy metal in new documentary Songs Of Injustice.
The shadow of history looms large over metal bands in Latin America. New documentary Songs Of Injustice shows how they’re using music to forge a bright new future
The most startling moment in new documentary Songs Of Injustice tells of Yanko Tolic, frontman with Chilean thrashers Massakre. Thirty years ago, he was arrested and tortured by police, seemingly for nothing more than dressing like a metal fan. “They burnt my back with cigarettes, and performed the ‘dry submarine’ technique on me,” he says. “They place a bag over your head to asphyxiate you until you turn grey, and then they take it off. You can breathe again, colours come back to your face, and they do it again.”
In 2016, Florida International University academic Nelson Varas-Díaz and his filmmaking crew released Metal Islands: Culture, History And Politics In Caribbean Heavy Metal Music, a fascinating insight into the metal scenes in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and how political and social events impacted their evolution. Two years on, they’re poised to release the follow-up, and it’s even more intriguing and emotionally powerful. Songs Of Injustice: Heavy Metal Music In Latin America delves into the metal scenes in Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Peru: countries that have experienced a range of hardships, from brutal dictatorships and terrorism to the exploitation of indigenous populations and environments. As Nelson explains, it’s very different to its predecessor, not least because it’s dealing with much heavier subject matter.
“Part of that is due to the countries we went to, but I’d like to think it’s also because we’re getting better at telling a more compelling story,” he grins. “The countries were chosen because I started travelling to places where I knew the metal scene was super-big, like Chile and Argentina. They set the tone. That focus on social justice and metal music, through the experience of living under a dictatorship, for example, came from those very first trips. Some of them even said, ‘You need to go to Peru!’ so that’s how I linked the first two countries to Peru and Mexico – it was a pathway.”
It’s not hard to feel a twinge of guilt while watching Songs Of Injustice. From the attempted Communist revolution in Peru in the early 80s that led to years of bloody guerrilla warfare, to General Pinochet’s lengthy, US-backed military dictatorship in Chile that only ended in 1990, the stories that musicians tell of their countries’ suffering make most of our Northern European gripes seem a bit pathetic. But what we can observe here is how people in far-flung parts of the world are using heavy metal as a hugely important means of expression, to shine a light on their lands’ turbulent histories and indigenous cultures and also to ask difficult questions about what the future holds. As a result, Nelson’s documentary has provided bands like Peruvian prog metallers Flor De Loto with a way to demonstrate metal’s profound importance.
“Metal gives a voice to the peoples of Latin America that have been hit hard by years of terrorism, dictatorships, crimes and oppression,” says frontman Alonso Herrera. “We’ve found a creative way to elaborate our own history within this artistic expression. But a second and very important message of the documentary would be our integration with our own roots and with our racial and cultural origins. I think that the bands that Nelson’s highlighted all have a message of vindication through metal, and of the fusion of our history and our culture. That’s all very important.”
For many metalheads in the Northern Hemisphere, knowledge of heavy music from South America is largely restricted to Soulfly, Sepultura and – at a stretch – Slayer’s Tom Araya (who was born in Chile). Songs Of Injustice is not a documentary designed purely to pique our interest in cool music being made on the other side of the world. There are bigger issues at stake, and the ferocious intelligence of its interviewees may make you wonder why our own musicians are seldom this articulate or insightful.
But music lies at the heart of the film: from the absurdly infectious salsa metal of Mexican mob Acrania to Argentina’s Arraigo and their mind-boggling strain of Latin folk metal, these are messages of protest and hope delivered by musicians from a variety of social backgrounds, but with a shared passion for forging a positive path. In fact, the South American metal scene may be exactly what the world needs right now.
“In South America, it’s very varied,” says Nelson. “Depending on which country you go to, metal can be a very affluent social thing for the wealthier classes, like how it began in Chile, but then you go to Peru and it’s only the poorer kids doing this kind of stuff.
One way that I like to look at it is this year we saw Alien Weaponry from New Zealand, singing about colonialism. What they have in common with bands from South America is that they’re all people from what we call the ‘global south’. The music is a reflection on the experience of colonisation, basically. So they’re reflecting on the past, on 15thcentury colonisation, but they’re telling you that this shit is still going on. It’s going on with neoliberal policies and companies buying up all the land. So the music is a reflection on past and present, and that seems to be emerging primarily from the global south.”
Earlier we spoke of Yanko Tolic, of Chilean thrashers Massakre, who was arrested and tortured by police 30 years ago. Shockingly, he was not the only one. In fact, 30,000 people were arrested, tortured and, in many instances, killed in Chile during the early years of General Pinochet’s reign of terror. While Yanko survived, his experience has had a profound effect on concerns and attitudes of the country’s metal musicians. For Cinthia Santibañez, singer with Chilean prog metal crew Crisalida, the release of Songs Of Injustice marks a moment for cautious optimism.
“Artistic creation in this country was truncated after Pinochet’s dictatorship, but today we’re experiencing new and strong progress, with people willing to fight for what they want”, she says. “In a sense, musicians are at the forefront of this fight. The future remains uncertain. However, we believe that there are many more opportunities today than before. Understanding how invasions, dictatorships and economic policies have affected our countries, and how that’s reflected in our music, is not an easy thing to digest, but it’s a powerful scream of encouragement to move forward and never stop.”
This is a scary, unsettling time for the world (unless you’re insane, obviously) and it wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility for those of us in the smug, affluent Northern Hemisphere to soon find ourselves on the receiving end of some major social upheaval. Until that point, however, Songs Of Injustice reinforces the notion that metal coming from the Southern Hemisphere seems to exert greater emotional and intellectual weight; as if the experiences of ordinary
“they burnt my back with cigarettes...” maSSakRe’S yankO tOLic WaS tORtuReD fOR being a metaLheaD
people in Chile, Argentina, Peru and Mexico had been absorbed into the fabric of the music itself. The result is music that dares to suggest that humanity should work towards a better way forward, but with the weight of history backing up every righteous riff.
“People have different challenges, wherever they live,” states Nelson. “But there is a physical difference between being tortured and just not being able to pay the rent. There’s a huge gap there. What’s happened in these scenes in South America is that they have really long memories, so they remember the tortures that happened 30 years ago and they’re discussed like they happened yesterday. The idea of ‘never again’ comes up frequently, whether it’s in reference to the dictatorships, being tortured or the exploitation of the indigenous people. So that’s part of the scene. These bands are positioning themselves as part of a political reflection, but they’re not taking traditional right or left perspectives. They are trying to tell you that there needs to be a better way to think about these issues because both the right and left have dropped the ball on this.”
Although Songs Of Injustice has clear political undertones, it doesn’t hurl polemic into the air without thought. Instead, it will make you ponder your own relationship with metal and whether it means more to you than just another cultural accessory. For the bands in Nelson’s documentary, metal is both the greatest imaginable entertainment and a righteous form of political protest. With a third documentary already in pre-production, Nelson is happy to keep providing us with both.
“I think there’s a balance there,” Nelson notes. “As a metal fan, I feel like these are scenes that merit being looked at, because there is a lot of great music coming from them that is completely ignored by the global north. But also I hope you come away thinking, ‘Damn, these people are reflecting critically on their history and what it means for them…’ How do people learn to be critical subjects? For us, it’s through metal music.” SongS of InjuStIce: Heavy Metal MuSIc In latIn aMerIca will be available to watch on Youtube in FebruarY. For updates, see MetalhaMMer. coM and www.Facebook. coM/songsoFinjustice