Nina Saeidi performs with metal outfit Lowen while wearing a green, gold-encrusted robe and wielding an antique Turkish Ottoman dagger as stage ritual. She is a Briton of Iranian descent whose parents fled Iran after the 1979 revolution, and she was born in exile. Her aunt was imprisoned and tortured for socialist activism, instilling political awareness. She sings in English, Farsi and extinct languages on the album Do Not Go to War With the Demons of Mazandaran, and uses the tahrir vocal technique. She collects historical items from Silk Road regions because travel to Iran is restricted.
Nina Saeidi is wearing a green, gold-encrusted robe and holding an antique knife above her head. After unsheathing the blade, she pokes it into her stomach, then makes a slitting motion across her throat. Although these may seem like the ritual actions of a priestess, Saeidi is actually performing on stage at Bristol festival ArcTanGent last weekend, singing with her metal outfit Lowen in a crammed tent.
Saeidi is a Briton of Iranian descent, her parents having fled their home country to seek asylum following the 1979 revolution. She was born in exile and does things every day that would break the law in Iran. It is forbidden for women to sing by themselves in public; in 2015, members of thrash metal band Confess were arrested for blasphemy and propaganda against the state simply because they made anti-establishment music.
Through Lowen a twist on the word lion, as the band believe the animal symbolises power in eastern and western cultures Saeidi expresses her passion for Iranian history and her disdain for the country's authoritarian regime. On last year's second album Do Not Go to War With the Demons of Mazandaran (named after a chapter from the epic Persian poem the Shahnameh), she sings in English, Farsi and extinct languages such as Sumerian.
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