Original subtitles

-[button clicks] -[♪ heavy metal music playing]

[Nikan Khosravi] First time that I heard any rock metal music,

it was very cathartic.

I want to be part of this.

♪ Let go ♪

[Trev McKendry] There's plenty of bands in the Middle East,

but as for Iran, they're underground

because of the fear of getting caught.

[Jason Rezaian] And there is no free expression in Iran.

Everything is up for censorship.

[Khosravi] Metal is too much.

They can't fucking get it.

Playing metal music is considered satanic,

and they started to call it blasphemy.

Blasphemy is punishable with death.

We've reported on 369 executions carried out in Iran last year,

which was-- it is deeply troubling.

When you're in a place that things are, like, forbidden,

when you get to experience it, you're just, like,

super excited for it.

And you're aware of all this risk, and you still go through it.

That's the definition of determination.

The Islamic Republic sees itself

as the messengers of God on earth.

It's insane that a court of law

is going to speak for God.

[cell door thuds]

A heavy metal group from Iran

could possibly be facing execution.

I'm just doing music, but you want to kill me for that?

Insane, I-- I have no idea what's gonna happen to me.

I just want to get the fuck out.

Those repercussions can either break you

or they can shore up your resolve.

[♪ tense music playing]

[♪ heavy metal music playing]

[McKendry] [on radio] That's right, here on Metal Nation Radio,

coming up in this next set, we have some Slayer,

we have some Pantera.

[McKendry] I was just a DJ,

just doing what I loved,

getting the word out about unsigned bands,

and it's just, it was a passion I had, right?

One day, I'd received quite a bit of music

from a band up and coming out of Iran

called Confess.

[♪ "You Will Payback!" by Confess playing]

I was the first DJ to play Confess outside of Iran.

[McKendry] They were just young kids,

and they were just ecstatic

that they finally got some radio play.

But what you're hearing

could kill the band, literally.

[♪ "You Will Payback!" continues playing]

[McKendry] The band was speaking out against the rule of the government

and how it was treating its people.

[Rezaian] Authorities do not like to be called out

for their abuses of power.

For people who dare to express themselves

in ways that are beyond the societal comfort levels,

they can expect the harshest punishments.

[projector clicking]

I'm Jason Rezaian,

I'm a journalist with the Washington Post.

[crowd cheering]

When the revolution happened in 1979,

the Islamic Republic was founded.

Pre-revolution, people were exposed

to a lot of Western culture.

And when that stopped,

it didn't mean people's interests stopped.

It just meant that their access was closed off.

The Ayatollah Khomeini banned all musical broadcasts,

but that ban, according to...

[Rezaian] When the Islamic Republic came into existence,

it wasn't a popular movement.

There was a revolution against the monarchy,

and these Islamists very opportunistically took the moment,

ran with it, and seized power in a way

that became very absolute, very quickly.

Today, Iran is one of the leading executioners

in the world.

You can't just walk down the street

and be who you want to be in Iran.

[♪ thoughtful music playing]

[♪ heavy metal music playing]

♪ What's inside ♪

♪ No one cares ♪

♪ Everlasting fight ♪

We didn't start with expensive equipment,

a good place to rehearse.

We started from nothing. Nothing.

[Khosravi] And the rehearsal space was my bedroom.

Where I was writing, recording music was my bedroom.

That room was where everything

was basically come to reality.

It was literally like my sanctuary.

[singing indistinctly]

My name is Nikan Khosravi.

My name is Arash Ilkhani.

Lead vocalist, guitar player...

DJ sampler and original member...

...of the Iranian metal band Confess.

[whistles] Go fuck yourself.

[Khosravi] Me and Arash, we go way back.

We grew up together.

[Arash Ilkhani] Our family know each other,

so as long as I remember, we've been friends.

I was the one who introduced Arash to metal music.

[Ilkhani] One day, Nik, he was like,

"Come on, I want to show you something cool."

[Khosravi] When you're in a place that things are, like, forbidden,

when you get to experience it,

you're just, like, super excited for it.

I was like, there's this music called heavy metal.

This is so intense.

So I had just, like, a "proud dad" type of look on my face.

I was like... I played it for him

[button clicks]

♪ Life is a waterfall ♪

♪ We're one in the river and one again after the fall ♪

And he was like...

Yo, this is crazy, I like this.

It sounds so raw,

it's full of anger.

♪ Aerials in the sky ♪

System of a Down, "Aerials."

♪ When you lose small mind you free your life ♪

I fucking love that song.

[Khosravi] That time, I think I was like 16 years old.

I was listening to a lot of Pantera and Slayer

and Slipknot to Lamb Of God.

This genre of music, it was just something frowned upon.

It was something alien.

You can't even, like, play shows.

It was pretty much like "underground," completely.

If you were playing it, they will label you,

"Oh, what is this? This is Satanic."

[♪ somber organ music playing]

I think the aggression and the energy

of metal music was very moving.

This sound of rebellion,

it inspired protesting spirit.

It, like, woke something up.

[protesters] We want freedom!

We want freedom!

[protesters shouting indistinctly]

[Khosravi] We were being fed by the whole energy

that was around us.

Like, you could feel that the grip is getting tighter.

-[sirens wailing] -[people shouting]

Everything is suffocating and driven by religion.

[protester screaming]

It was like, "Okay, you guys be quiet.

You-you-- you're gonna get into trouble."

There's always a fucking fight, you know?

I don't believe in your shitty god.

[whistle chirping]

[Khosravi] When you see a cop...

[♪ tense music playing]

..."Come over here.

What is that you're wearing?"

[indistinct shouting]

[Ilkhani] Cops were just harassing us.

It's like putting gun on some kid

and tell them that, "If you do anything...

[distant gunshots booming]

...boom, I shoot you."

Things happening right in front of you,

and you just look away?

Like, no way, not me.

[♪ heavy metal music playing]

[Khosravi] My idea was that I'm gonna fight back,

and metal music was my weapon.

I knew the direction that I want to go is very political,

and I want to speak about my own truth.

I feel like I have this confession to make.

[Ilkhani] One day, it was like, "I have too much to say."

We have no limits.

We write about everything that we think

is correct to talk about.

[♪ solemn music playing]

[Khosravi] This is my sound, this is my message.

I don't give a fuck what anybody thinks.

All I knew was that I just need some equipment

to be able to record somehow

with an okay quality

and just put it out there.

[♪ heavy metal music playing]

To make sure that my message is heard,

I was translating the lyrics,

and posting them.

And one of those songs was called Thorn Within.

[Ilkhani] When you write a song called Thorn Within,

you're questioning the existence of God...

in a Shia country...

so you know what is going to happen for you.

Under Sharia law, you can't write music against religion,

because you're speaking against the rule of Islam.

So, it was very dangerous.

They were just like, "Look, it's not right.

We don't agree with it."

They were advocating for people's rights.

That's basically the message,

and they're underground,

because of the fear of getting caught, right?

So I was like, "You know, let these kids get heard."

That was the, uh, the beginning of the relationship with these guys.

Right here on Metal Nation Radio, coming up in this next set,

we have a band coming out of Iran called Confess.

Somebody out there is supporting me?

All of this was so inspiring,

'cause we knew that what we're doing really matters.

[Ilkhani] This is a sign.

We are doing it, the path is correct.

♪ Hands of your god ♪

-[exhales] -[♪ song ends]

[♪ somber music playing]

[Sina Winter] Living in Norway, I was following the Iranian metal scene,

and I was seeing their posts.

I was surprised, like, "Oh, these guys,

[chuckles] what are they doing?"

My name is Sina Winter.

I'm a black metal musician from Iran,

living in Norway.

While I was living in Iran and doing music,

my band, we're just releasing all albums secretly.

We had to hide our identity.

I was worried because I knew how serious it is.

The consequence, it can be even execution.

If they feel like this is what they need to do...

they will do that.

Nothing will stop them.

I got an email from these unknown sources,

started with a sentence from Qur'an,

my name, date of birth, place I live,

my parents' name,

and at the end, it says,

"If you are not going to stop what you are doing,

"we are coming for you

and we are gonna execute you."

I had to leave my country and move to Norway.

Me having this experience, I was thinking,

"Maybe these guys don't know what is waiting for them.

"Or maybe they are so brave,

and they just don't care." [chuckles]

[people chanting indistinctly]

[Khosravi] One day, there was this guy

with a Barcelona jersey on.

It was very visible,

like not something that you forget.

[♪ unsettling music playing]

He's there in the subway,

and then we went to this park, he was there.

Having noticed this guy, he's like, everywhere we go, he's there.

This is suspicious.

And at one point,

I think half an hour or an hour later,

we also saw him somewhere else.

[♪ unsettling music continues]

I was start to feeling...

mm, like, not safe anymore.

I could feel that something was about to happen.

[♪ tense music playing]

I noticed some suspicious activities.

I could feel that my phone is bugged,

I could hear this tap on the other end.

[static hissing]

I keep telling myself, like, "I'm being paranoid."

[♪ tense music continues]

[knocks booming]

One morning, a couple of months later...

[door clicking and creaking]

...my mom opened the door,

and I never forget her face.

She was as pale as possible,

shaking, out of breath,

saying, "Nikan, they are here for you."

I was like, "Damn,

so that's how it happens."

[♪ tense music continues]

[♪ foreboding music playing]

[Khosravi] There were, like, seven, eight people.

My mom standing there, crying.

He just pulled out this paper out of his pocket and he said,

"We have a warrant to search."

It's like, "Why?"

"Illegal music activities."

The other people went inside the bedroom.

The attitude was hostile.

[♪ foreboding music continues]

They were, like, searching the room.

[metal door squeaking]

They're trying to find a door

to a hidden ward somewhere,

that we serve blood and, like, crazy stuff.

[♪ foreboding music continues]

This whole process took some hours.

I was just looking at the clock, and I was worried

because Arash was supposed to meet me.

What if he just shows up here,

and then they arrest him as well?

[♪ tense music playing]

I knew they were gonna come.

It's just a matter of time.

I've got a backpack.

I put my laptop and everything that I knew in there.

Told my mom and dad, "Some people are coming."

[♪ dramatic music playing]

All of a sudden, a car stopped in front of us,

and he started fucking doing Tom Cruise stuff,

he went backwards, and there was another car there.

[♪ dramatic music continues]

[Khosravi] Guitars, my books, CD,

a-anything that you can name,

uh, they-- they were just taking with them.

And they said, "You can go and get dressed."

[♪ dramatic music continues]

My mom asked them, "Where are you taking my son?"

"Evin Prison."

And that was a moment that I was like,

"I'm here for a ride."

[♪ somber music playing]

I have no control over this.

I have to go somewhere that is pretty scary.

Not only just a prison, but Evin Prison.

[♪ somber music continues]

They took me there all the way with the blindfold.

[Khosravi] We got to this massive gate.

So, I just looked up, I see it says, "Evin Prison."

I'm going in there.

It's a place where hope goes to die.

[♪ somber music continues]

[camera buzzes]

I know what it's like to be locked up,

and to have your future be extremely uncertain.

♪ Die ♪

♪ It only fell apart 'cause you let it ♪

My name is Randy Blythe,

I am the singer for the heavy metal band Lamb Of God.

[audience cheering]

[reporter] Lamb Of God singer Randy Blythe faces manslaughter charges

in connection with the death of a fan in 2010,

and faces five to 10 years in jail.

[Randy Blythe] I was arrested in Prague.

My situation was different,

but I think that had to be something similar

to how they felt.

Going to prison, it's heavy, man.

It's not for the faint-hearted,

I can tell you that much.

Because it is a constant inescapable environment.

Their government, it's run by a, uh, fundamentalist religious group,

and this government is allowed

to prison or even execute them,

and that only feeds that system.

Yeah, ver-- very serious.

[♪ somber music playing]

From now on, you are just gonna go

wherever they're gonna take you to.

I'm not responsible for my life right now.

[chains clinking]

They gave me a number. I was 94172.

94170.

[Ilkhani] They took me to this hallway,

someone is there waiting for you.

[♪ foreboding music playing]

[Khosravi] Could hear voices in the back

shouting at me left and right.

Only person you are talking to is your interrogator.

"Tell us who you are, who are you working with?"

"What is this fucking satanic things you were talking about?"

-"Why did you say that?" -"Are you connected with Israel?"

And I'm talking about hours of hours of interrogation.

They bring you down, down, down, down, down, down...

[hands clap]

[blows] ...until there's nothing left of you.

[Khosravi] Everything that you were saying at the end,

you had to write it down and sign it.

What I was writing was not "up to par,"

so they were tearing up the paper and giving me another one.

[Ilkhani] They were trying to get you on the charges

that you insulted the Prophet,

because if they can prove that, they can hang you.

[♪ unsettling music playing]

[Khosravi] You are being arrested on charges

of propagating against the state, blasphemy.

We knew that what we're doing is our right.

Just doing music, nothing else,

I'm innocent.

[♪ unsettling music continues]

[Khosravi] I knew that I'm not gonna cooperate.

I knew that I'm not gonna back down,

and I knew that I'm not gonna say I'm sorry.

I threw the piece of paper, and I said,

"If you are not happy with this, write it yourself."

He leaned over and said,

"You know where you are?

"This is Evin, this is end of the world.

I'm your God now."

And I'm Your God Now! is the name of one of our songs.

[♪ tense music playing]

He put me in a cell, and I was locked up for 23 hours a day.

It was a room, I don't know, maybe like five square meter,

a piece of carpet on the floor.

There was a bathroom over there.

[camera clicks]

Nothing else.

Windows up there in your cell, boarded up.

All you can see is, it's daytime, it's nighttime.

[electricity buzzing]

[Ilkhani] The lights were on 24/7,

and this place is so silent.

[♪ eerie music playing]

Silence.

The worst feeling that I had in there,

sometimes it's like I was forgetting where I am.

My mind was telling me, "Okay, go out,"

and the door was fucking closed.

[♪ tense music playing]

[Khosravi] The urge of, want to break through the wall

and just get out sometimes is-- is, like, suffocating you.

[♪ tense music continues]

You just want out of that cell.

It's like literally a torture.

[cell door clangs]

I was keep telling myself, I'm not gonna cry in here.

[♪ tense rock music playing]

Solitary confinement...

it's...

it's like being in a casket.

You're just frozen in time.

[♪ eerie music playing]

[♪ foreboding rock music playing]

[Ilkhani] I always knew deep inside

that Nik is in the solitary with me

somewhere in this building.

[Khosravi] I-- I could feel his presence in a way.

I could, like, feel that he is in one of these cells.

This keeps going on and on for three months.

Until one day, somebody came and said,

"Get ready, you're going out."

[door squeaking]

I was blindfolded again.

We walked and walked and walked until we got to this car.

[engine rumbling]

I noticed there's somebody on my left,

it's Arash.

I did a metal horn, and I put it on his lap.

Yes!

Yes!

Fuck, yes!

We fucking made it, man.

They're gonna release us.

[♪ foreboding music playing]

But then, one of the soldiers, he said,

"We are going to public sector of the prison right now."

[Ilkhani] The government doesn't like political prisoners,

so they put them with the dangerous prisoners as well.

So if they get killed in there, nobody can take responsibility for it.

[Khosravi] We got into another building,

and at that moment, this soldier said,

"Now, this is the real prison."

It was just like, "What the fuck?"

[♪ foreboding music continues]

[Khosravi] Not long time ago, I was a musician living with my family,

all that, and now I'm here.

I would close my eyes

to think about my family...

[♪ melancholic music playing]

...as if they were sitting right next to me in that cell.

I remember thinking about the day that we bought my guitar,

the happiest day of my life.

I just came back home and plugged it into my amplifier.

Just looking at it, I was like, "Oh, my God."

Took it to 11 all the way.

I could, like, almost see myself on stage.

[♪ melancholic music continues]

I started writing music in jail,

it was all ideas in my head.

I was focused on one thing.

And it's taking my revenge with my music.

I started to get more and more worried,

you know, days and weeks and months going on,

and we were not hearing anything from them.

It was like radio silence.

Basically, the messages stopped.

Until, out of the blue,

I get a message from a stranger...

and it says, "Hello, I have important news for you.

"Nikan and Arash have been arrested.

"The charges, forming and running

"an illegal underground band,

"political anarchistic lyrics,

blasphemy, and interview with foreign media."

[♪ tense music playing]

The chances of the foreign media

being my contact with them was very real.

I felt partly responsible.

[♪ tense music continues]

[Rezaian] Speaking to foreign media is equated

with cooperating with hostile governments,

which is a crime punishable with a very long prison sentence.

[McKendry] Now I'm left with the options, how can I help these guys?

What I did was just help them

with what I knew best,

and that was the media

and the heavy metal community.

[reporter 1] Iranian thrash metal band Confess...

Have been flying the metal flag in some dangerous territory.

Heavy metal is never a crime.

Free Confess, blow it up.

[♪ tense music playing]

Then, all of a sudden, this news was huge.

#freeconfess really became viral.

This becomes a human rights issue

outside of Iran at this point.

Having the rest of the world be aware of this

is the only thing that keeps those prisoners alive.

It felt important for me to reach out, and at least let them know

I was aware of their situation.

I see you, I understand, I'm thinking of you.

[Khosravi] During the time that we were in jail,

we noticed that news has been leaked out.

Media is talking about our case.

A lot of tweet accounts,

metal musicians speaking about us.

I was overwhelmed seeing that people

really, like, supported us,

but we were worried,

'cause it could make the case even bigger.

It was scary, to be honest,

'cause that was a time that we learned

about who the judge is.

Mohammad Moghiseh.

His record, back in the days,

he had 1,372 years of imprisonment

handed out to the people.

Dozens of people got executed by this guy,

and he's our judge.

They're gonna make an example out of us to say,

"This is what will happen to you

if you go that far."

[Rezaian] In Iran's revolutionary court,

when you are being accused of blasphemy,

there's no such thing as a fair trial.

They have already decided

that you will be convicted

of whatever it is

that they say that you're being convicted.

[indistinct yelling]

When you're in a prison,

that interrogation process is designed to break you,

so that you'll confess to things

that you didn't do,

and to gather enough information,

not evidence,

information for them to fashion together a story to say about you.

It's maddening.

[♪ unsettling music playing]

[Ilkhani] There's no lawyers.

Nobody, it's just you.

Arash literally froze up.

[Ilkhani] I was just staring at this guy.

He doesn't have a gun. He has a fucking pen,

and he ruins your life with this pen.

You are there for him, so he can just walk around you

like a fucking vulture and see how he can bite you.

[Khosravi] First question was, "How long you've been having

these satanic activities?"

Wait a minute, if this is going to be about justice,

you should ask me, "Have you had any satanic activities?"

[♪ tense music playing]

He kept interrupting me

and keep telling me to shut up and get to the point.

At that point, Nik volume was going up with the judge.

Judge was shouting, he was shouting, too.

Arash been hitting me on my leg to keep it down.

Shut up, just bring your voice low.

You don't need to go as high as the judge.

You know this guy hanged more than hundreds of people.

[Khosravi] That moment, I could feel uncertainty.

Out of control.

I-- I can't tell you how was I feeling.

It was something way more than stress,

and the stress turned to pain.

This, this could go bad.

[♪ tense music playing]

[♪ unsettling music playing]

[Khosravi] Something that made another twist in our story, was that

the possibility of execution is off the table.

They couldn't prove that we insulted the Prophet.

If you insult the Prophet, you're gonna meet the rope.

But if you insult God, God is graceful.

God forgives you.

[Khosravi] It felt like we're being treated by laws

of 2,000 years ago.

It was so... unbelievable.

This is the unfortunate strength of systems like the Islamic Republic.

They're capricious as hell.

You don't know what they're gonna do sometimes.

We were like, "Okay, so what's gonna happen now?"

And they told us that, "You guys can get out,

but you are not allowed to leave town," and all that stuff.

"You have to wait till verdict comes out."

They're gonna sentence us,

like, "Okay, we just want to get out."

[♪ unsettling music playing]

The Revolutionary Court is known

for incredibly harsh sentences.

For people like Nik and Arash,

the likelihood that they would be re-imprisoned is higher,

and a worse fate than they've already suffered

might await them.

[Khosravi] We know that we could receive

long prison sentences and lashes.

Anything could be possible.

They can do whatever they want.

Next time, it's gonna be much worse.

[motorcycle engine buzzing]

[Blythe] It's ludicrous that in this day and age,

anywhere on the face of the planet,

that someone would speak with the voice of God

and put someone in prison

over some ridiculous blasphemy charge.

It makes no sense whatsoever.

God is not a 12-year-old.

[producer speaking]

[♪ pensive music playing]

[Ilkhani] [on video] I came home, I have no phone, no nothing,

everything is gone.

And...

And my mom had a simple phone.

I asked her, "Can I have this phone?

I want to listen to music."

Got the phone.

You know what was I listening to, first song after all that time?

Broken Hands by Lamb Of God.

[Ilkhani] "Right now it's do or die.

How do you choose to live?"

I-- I chose this, so...

And if I die in it, I don't give a fuck.

[♪ "Broken Hands" by Lamb Of God continues playing]

He gets it.

That's heavy, man. That's heavy.

Uh...

[♪ somber music playing]

I think when I wrote those lyrics,

I did not have a specific person in mind at all...

but that song was written with the express intent

of providing emotional support.

You're gonna get through this.

People who have been institutionalized

and then eventually got out,

it makes it a whole lot more difficult for them

to come back to reality.

[Khosravi] When we got out of jail,

it'd been 15 months in Evin Prison.

We were in shock, you know?

A year of my life is gone.

[♪ somber music continues]

[Khosravi] I was expelled from university.

All my friends, they were gone, everyone.

[Ilkhani] When you are a political prisoner,

you are the problem.

You are alone after that. You are all alone.

It's just me and Nik.

[Khosravi] Of course, I'm not in jail and I'm happy for that,

but I was not prepared for any of this,

so I'm just trying to live day by day.

[♪ somber music continues]

Being so alienated from everything and everyone,

so detached,

waiting to receive the verdict from the court.

-It was so difficult. -We were just thinking that, uh,

what is going to happen?

[♪ brooding music playing]

We went back to this local court.

[Khosravi] This secretary just opened the case

and read the verdict, and he said...

"You are sentenced to six years.

You are also sentenced to six years."

They gave it to us like candy, you know?

"Yeah, it's this and that."

[Khosravi] Closed the case and he told Arash,

"Keep this for your appeal."

There is a veneer of real judicial processes.

When a verdict comes in,

the convicted can appeal the sentence.

More often than not, the sentence is reconfirmed.

[♪ dark music playing]

[Khosravi] I never put myself in that building again,

not over my dead body.

That day, my mom told me,

"I'd much rather to know that I cannot meet you

"if you are in another country somewhere else,

than knowing that I cannot see you because you are in jail."

I had lengthy conversations with Arash, he couldn't really leave.

He had financial reasons,

but I wanted to make sure that he understand.

Okay, one of us, at least has to go.

I can't.

[♪ brooding music playing]

[Khosravi] He was the person who told me, "Go,

"'cause if something happens to me,

I want you to be my voice."

You just imagine someone you grew up with all this time,

you don't know if you're gonna see this guy again or not.

He told me that,

"This is not gonna be the end."

[♪ brooding music continues]

[Khosravi] I had found someone that was illegally smuggling people

out of the country.

The guy said, "If you get caught,

they will hang you by your throat right here."

And that moment, I was like,

"Oh, my God.

"I'm going through all of this,

I can't die."

[♪ brooding music continues]

[wire cutter snaps]

When we cross the border,

I'm standing in the middle of nothing,

and I turn back,

and the last scene from my country

is this bunch of hills and mountain.

[♪ foreboding music playing]

From the moment that they arrested me in my bedroom,

to that moment,

it's like, "Wow, this is me right now."

More than I was thinking about the past, I was thinking about the future.

You need much more to stop me.

[♪ brooding music playing]

[♪ tense music playing]

[Ilkhani] There is no fucking justice here.

Everything is going down the drain.

You're just trying to stay alive.

It was like a...

a moment that I was like, "Okay, I gotta go."

I called my parents and I told them,

"Arash is in trouble."

[Ilkhani] They got my ticket out of the country.

They said, this is just money in exchange for his freedom.

His ticket is just one way. There's no round trip here.

[Ilkhani] I packed my bag that day. We went to the airport.

My mom came, my dad came.

She was just crying and crying.

[♪ tense music continues]

That was the last time I saw my mom.

[♪ tense music continues]

In the airport, every steps that I was taking,

I was thinking someone is gonna say, "Hey, you!"

At that point, everything was a risk for me.

[♪ tense music playing]

It's just different gates of security.

One is the police, the other one is Guardian of Revolutionary,

just everywhere.

Fucking airport security wears that pig uniform.

Anyone who's wearing that uniform in any position, I fucking hate you,

I just want to get out of here.

And he was staring back and I was like,

"What the fuck do you want from me?"

[♪ tense music playing]

The moment you get into the airplane,

there was this guy standing there

with a fucking AK-47,

right beside the door.

I was scared in that moment.

I just want to get the fuck out.

[indistinct yelling]

[♪ light music playing]

All of a sudden, that door closed,

and I felt the airplane is moving.

I was like... [deep sigh]

I don't know, the feeling was so strange. I can't describe it.

It's-- it's just-- it's not a simple travel.

[♪ light music continues]

I was sitting by the window and I was just listening to music,

and I was just looking at this ring

that I always wear.

My mom, she gave it to me,

and I told her that, "One day, I'm gonna give this back to you."

Six years passed. I hope I can give it back one day.

And the moment that they said on the speaker that,

"Okay, we are leaving Iranian border now..."

[mimics page turning] ...new chapter begins.

After 15 months in jail and 15 months in Turkey,

I got an invitation from an organization,

and they said, "We help artists who are persecuted in their countries,

and we replace them in different corners of the world."

So, they asked if I want to move to Norway.

I remember, first thing that I thought about was like,

"Scandinavia, it's gonna be cold. That's fine.

I know there's heavy metal there."

[♪ heavy metal music playing]

I was just having one objective, in my head was Arash,

I'm just doing this for him.

A few months after I arrived, he joined me here.

And I got to the airport, and I saw him.

[Khosravi] Just smiling at each other.

To see your friend right next to you, standing with you,

knowing that this is what we went through

for a passion and what we believe in.

[♪ hopeful music playing]

It was very, very amazing.

It was one of the moments I can never forget.

[♪ hopeful rock music playing]

[McKendry] They managed to get refugee status in Norway.

They haven't looked back. They're soldiers, they really are.

[Khosravi] The way I learned this job

was the same way that a soldier learns

how to go to war.

There is so much rage, so much anger,

so much stuff, that we need to put it out.

[Khosravi] Now, we want to go full on.

What is the weapon? Heavy metal.

One, two...

[Khosravi] We released a song that is called Evin,

and it's about living inside the jail.

[♪ "Evin" by Confess playing]

Every time they play here in Oslo, I'm, like, in the front row.

It's a type of thrash metal that you would just drink a beer

and bang your head to.

[♪ "Evin" continues playing]

They have improved so much.

Getting out of Iran did them the world of good.

♪ Ah, let go ♪

They could not have done that had they stayed at home.

Mission accomplished.

[Khosravi] The first major show that we did,

I remember that I turned around to Arash,

I said, "We did it. We did it!"

We are giving it all that we have.

♪ I saw my faith stepped on ♪

[audience applauding and cheering]

[♪ brooding music playing]

[Rezaian] What happens if you leave and go back to Iran?

This is the million-dollar question.

[Khosravi] A few months after he joined me here,

they add additional charges to my sentence.

Twelve years and six months in prison,

plus 74 lashes.

And then, reduced our sentence to two years.

Going back there and living there,

my answer is no.

[Winter] I have sacrificed a lot.

Because of my music, I had to leave my country.

I never had the chance to see my family for over 10 years.

[Khosravi] I want to make music and speak about my own truth.

I don't want to be separated from my family at the end.

It's not just music, it's fucking personal.

In 10, 15 years from now,

I have a story to tell.

I bled for it.

We are proud of it.

[Rezaian] Living the life that you want to live,

creating the art that you want to create,

that's the spirit of the place that I know.

That spirit usually wins.

[Blythe] You find out a lot about character

when people are put to the test.

You find out who's real.

Obviously, these two guys are very fucking real.

Thank you, man. Thanks for having me.

If I'm having this chance, this platform,

I should be using it for something better,

that makes some positive changes.

It's rough, man. Don't care what anyone says.

I don't want to see another 16-year-old kid

to experience the same thing that I experienced.

If you like something deeply, don't stop.

Do it as much as you can,

small or big, it doesn't matter.

Be the best version of yourself.

Be sure that there's going to be struggles

and be proud of the beauty of that struggle.

Maybe you cannot resonate with the story of going to jail for music,

but you can always resonate with the story

of going from tragedy to triumph,

to not giving up, to standing up for your dreams.

That is the bigger message at the end

that can resonate with anyone around the world.