Before The War - Syria, with musician Jake Shuker

Singer and guitarist Jake Shuker was nine when he first discovered death metal, despite the genre being banned in Syria. From that moment on he was hooked. He formed death metal band Maysaloon as a teenager living in Damascus, before being forced to leave the city as war escalated around him.

If you’d like to see a visualisation of Jake’s story, head over to @thefakepan.

To learn more about the war in Syria, check out our main podcast feed.