Photos by Pep Bonet - Retouch by Joan Roig
Spared by civil wars and dictatorships, Botswana stands as the quiet child of a tumultuous African continent. Nonetheless, the country hosts a strange kind of freedom fighters and independent souls. It is a tattooed community, all leather dressed, heavy-metal fans. Welcome to Motswana! Ten years ago, one group existed. Today there are more than ten.
The Hellbangers, those “Enfants Terribles” of a sleepy, diamonds rich country, see themselves as the representative a social justice. Rather than being ‘Hells Angels’, they stand as guardian angels. With names like Demon and Gunsmoke, it would be easy though to think they are thugs, “We try to be exemples. Rock is a wild thing, but also something for the heart”, says Gunsmoke, the heavy metal head. Here too, the lyrics of the songs are very critical towards societies, just like their western peers. Metal in Botswana is rebellious movement against authorities. Metal Orizon write songs about brainwash and Wurst about imperialism and a god who doesn’t care about humans any longer.
The world is so divided right now. By misconceptions, by a media which stigmatizes entire communities, by a developing culture of fear. Divide and conquer tactics are becoming a greater part of society day by day. Music remains one of the only elements which can (at once) dispel fears, entertain the masses and unite people of all types, of all stations and of all nations.
This is the story of what looks at first to be an unlikely union, yet one which powerfully illustrates how music, how heavy metal music, has become a positively unifying force in an unlikely part of the world. This is the story of Overthrust, a heavy metal band from Botswana, Africa. And this is the story of how heavy metal came to be created, enjoyed and venerated by the increasingly fervent and passionate Batswana who are helping (with Overthrust) develop a growing, exciting and thoroughly organic heavy metal scene.
Most people don’t know much about Botswana.
The first image they might typically have when you mention this nation (which is 60 years independent of British rule) is of the typical ‘African’ clichés, where the ‘predominant characteristics’ of daily life revolve only around poverty, struggle and sadness. Imagine instead seeing Batswana who loudly and proudly wear leather jackets, leather trousers and play heavy death metal music. Imagine a scene, and community, where people have the freedom to explore their creative dreams and passions. Imagine the DIY ingenuity of ‘costume creation’ involving harvested animal skulls and other natural elements. Imagine witnessing towering 6ft overlords looking like Mad Max Spaghetti Western warriors, brandishing names like VULTURE and DAWG THRUST, SUICIDE TORMENT and GODFATHER…
…Welcome to the band OVERTHRUST, who deliver stunning, searing death metal music with a passion and precision matching the US forefathers of death metal, such as Obituary and Death, in Tampa, Florida. Their raw, pure, unfiltered, utterly DIY music and heavy metal ‘Hellbanger’ lifestyle is rapidly uniting people across Botswana…and beyond.
