Acrassicauda Gathers Kickstarter Sources to Crowdfund Debut Album 'Gilgamesh'

The talk of the internet in the last week has been Unlocking The Truth, a metal band made up of Brooklyn teenagers who signed a $1.8 million deal with Sony. But let's flash back to the viral metal band of the moment in 2007, who also happens to be dwelling in Brooklyn at the moment: Acrassicauda.

The group generated headlines by playing metal in Baghdad, a genre less than popular in the Middle East, at a point when the United States was well into its occupation of the state. The band gathered the attention of proponents such as Metallica and would inspire the documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad from Vice. The band came to the United States and recorded an EP with Vice Music but then things somewhat ground to a halt. The band continues to play shows in the New York area but recently raised enough money via Kickstarter to fund the recording of a full-length album.

The record will be titled Gilgamesh and will follow in the concept of the original Mesopotamian epic that it borrows its name from. The new version will feature adjustments based on the current strife in Iraq, a situation that the members of Acrassicauda know all too well about.

"They used to say, 'Don't worry about us, we're okay,'" said drummer Marwan Hussein regarding his relatives still in Iraq. "Then they began to say, 'If there's any way you can get us out....' That's when I knew it was serious."

The members are hoping to get their families out of Irag as the ISIS-led insurgency heads southward, not to mention pad their own bank accounts, as day jobs in New York haven't been able to fund touring. Hussein says that he holds onto the dream of playing Baghdad again.