It's never been easy to be a metalhead in Turkey, where they're forced to exist under the ominous glare of a conservative culture and a state riddled with authoritarian tendencies. A lack of venues has plagued the country's DIY music scenes even in its biggest cities, and the few that do open their doors to metal music often have terrible sound systems. But these setbacks haven't stopped a vibrant underground metal scene from flourishing in Turkey, where a handful of active groups are playing killer black and death metal.
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Turkey is firmly under the control of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose AK Parti party has led the country for a decade and a half, dominating the political arena; they've become known for their violent repression of the country's Kurdish population, and lack of hesitation to jail dissidents on the flimsiest of charges (including actual elected members of parliament). Now, a critical election is approaching, one that Erdoğan called over a year early. If elected again, he will preside over a newly-installed presidential system designed to grant him even more power, and the suffocating chokehold he has over the country will remain for years to come. Add all that to a Turkish lira that has been plummeting rapidly this year, and you get an atmosphere that feels mildly apocalyptic—something that has bled into its underground metal scene.
Despite its authoritarian government, Turkey is no Turkmenistan or North Korea, and there is still just enough freedom and space for underground scenes to thrive. The vitality of the underground metal scene was no more evident than at a recent festival in Ankara that brought 14 bands to the stage over the course of two days. Hundreds of metalheads came out, many traveling from cultural capital Istanbul. Showcased were among some of the country's best active metal units, who delivered passionate and thunderous performances in a basement rock bar where the stage was buttressed with a row of barrels that seemed to encourage stage-diving and crowd surfing. Not every band featured below appeared at the festival that weekend, but all are among the most important and exciting of their kind active today.
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Though opportunities to play are indeed few and far between, this hasn't thwarted Turkey's underground metal groups from cultivating a rich scene. They rage on.Perhaps the most brutal performance of the weekend came from Engulfed, an Istanbul death metal quartet that formed in 2010. Hot off 2017's debut LP, Engulfed in Obscurity, the band ripped through an airtight set and sounded like a pack of speed-addled rhinos pounding down a dusty road. Vocalist/bassist Serkan elaborately described the band's sound as, “the noise you hear while being dragged inside a dark tunnel, when everything positive in the universe is annihilated within eternal darkness, while taking pleasure in suffering and when everything sacred is being mercilessly destroyed.”The band's usually frenetic pace is punctuated by slow, grim breakdowns laced with demonically appealing leads. Serkan cites visa problems as being one of the major inhibitors of the scene, preventing Turkish band from showcasing their sound abroad (Turks have to apply for Schengen visas to visit Europe; the application fees are expensive and arbitrary rejections are common.) Nevertheless, he appreciates the close-knit ties that bind the scene together and keep them motivated. “The numbers are small, but we have a metal scene composed of friends that are totally connected and look out for one another,” Serkan says.Another powerfully talented Istanbul death metal outdit, Diabolizer, shares two members with Engulfed but opts to take more of a gratuitous, exuberant approach that doesn't lack in brutality. Their most recent effort is 2016's bruiser Apokalypse EP. Defiant, cackling melodic guitar parts dance effortlessly around a bottomless pit of doom. Headbangers in Ankara and Istanbul have been fortunate enough to catch the dazzling Diabolizer on stage at recent shows this year.
ENGULFED
DIABOLIZER
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BURIAL INVOCATION
HELLSODOMY
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