Heavy Metal and Mental Health Links
Sully Erna from Godsmack has formed The Scars Foundation as an awareness raising site around mental health, particularly related to suicide prevention. They are also on social media.
Heart Support are a web resource, also on social media, who offer support for young people experiencing mental health difficulties (so you can contact them on social media, for example) and were founded by Jake Luhrs from August Burns Red. They have the support of a number of bands and link to recovery programs.
The You Rock Foundation produced a number of videos with metal artists talking about mental health; including Corey Taylor, Jim Root, Jonathan Davies and Randy Blythe.
Wes Geer, who was in Korn and Hed P.E. founded the US based addiction recovery project Rock to Recovery, they promote the role of performing music in recovery from substance misuse and have benefits concerts.
Corey Taylor set up a The Taylor Foundation based in the USA for veterans who are experiencing PTSD.
People from Northern Ireland may also be interested in the Metal for Life project, formed by a family bereaved by suicide. They raise awareness and run a support group for metalheads, they often have stalls at metal events in the UK as well, you can buy T-Shirts and such. Or, for a support space for men (not metal specific but a few metalheads go there) try Andy’s Man Club who have support groups across the UK.
We have been very pleased to have had the support of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation who have shared our resources at their stalls at heavy metal festivals. The Foundation was formed after the death of Sophie, who was killed because of her ‘alternative’ appearance. They now raise awareness of hate crime towards alternative people and provide education programmes to schools and for the police. They also have some very cool merchandise
Metal Research
The International Society for Metal Music Studies is a hub of metal research, they produce the journal Metal Music Studies and have been very supportive of Heavy Metal Therapy.
In 2019 there was the first international World Metal Congress in London, allowing scholars, musicians and industry professionals to come together to discuss all things metal! Hopefully there will be more Congresses in years to come.
Holistic Approaches
Our good friends at Open Minded Online have an excellent website looking at holistic approaches to managing mental health and wellbeing, and a comprehensive links section that covers a wide range of related projects.
Various videos from our YouTube channel related to mental health and metal music:
Heavy Metal Therapy 