‘It’s the language of rebellion’: the story of Slave to Sirens, the all-female Lebanese metal band

‘There’s a lot of name-calling. They’ll curse us, call us sluts’ … Lilas Mayassi and Shery Bechara. Photograph: Image courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

To Lebanese guitarist Lilas Mayassi, heavy metal music speaks a language. “It’s the language of power,” she said, “the language of rebellion.”

For Mayassi and her band, Slave to Sirens, those two languages have given her group a voice in a country where power has been widely abused and rebellion has become increasingly dangerous. The dramatic challenges Mayassi and her group have faced over the last few years – exacerbated by their role as the first, and only, all-female heavy metal band in Lebanon – are chronicled in a bracingly frank new documentary titled Sirens. Directed by Moroccan American film-maker Rita Baghdadi, the doc immerses the viewer in the world of the musicians, the better to “present a more authentic, raw and complex portrayal of Arab women”, the director said.