When I was in Iran, I spent a lot of time with the members of Farzad Golpayegani’s extended prog metal family, in particular his self-described “heavy metal percussionist” Arash Jafari, who was my Virgil through Tehran’s underworld. Farzad has developed a precise, intellectual style of progressive metal that hints at Secret Machine and Mars Volta, but ultimately transcends them.

I shouldn’t need to mention how difficult it is for Farzad to carve out some artistic space for himself in Iran; musicians who don’t fit the bill as either “classical” or “traditional” are asking for trouble, and Farzad has of course found it. Visit Farzad’s site here; there are several demos of his new record Three, which he has spent the past three years (hence the title) working on. Because of the almost mathematical precision involved in Farzad’s music, he gives his tracks numerical assignations, which to my mind adds somewhat to the mystery encoded in his work.