Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation

Apparently there are multiple studies that show a link between listening to heavy metal and being 'happier' and/or 'less angry':

  - What Makes Metalheads Happy? A Phenomenological Analysis of Flow Experiences in Metal Musicians [0]
  - Extreme metal music and anger processing [1]
  - The effects of heavy metal music on arousal and anger [2]

[1]: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/arti...

[2]: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-05014-002

Not surprised.

The imagery and the aggression involved in the music can make it seem daunting and somehow damaging, but the metal community is surprisingly chill and friendly, and, sometimes, just so damned silly.

E.g. here's Slipknot's singer live in concert singing the SpongeBob Squarepants theme song, because the audience really wanted him to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5OLtoY70AI

Or, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Devin Townsend signing this thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z1isK2MYWI is not the same Devin singing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsd4ZkFVOHY

Metal music offers a sort of catharsis for people that can't scream into the void, but feel a need to. It's not about manifesting violence, but containing it and directing it into a creative outlet.

I often have the feeling that kids today lack the experience of being part of something.

Metal can provide this, especially live concerts and the fandom is pretty stable: You meet the same people again and again in your tiny very noisy social bubble.

The whole 6-7 or „chicken jerky“ madness felt very similar to classical group formation dynamics: Be part of it by knowing the secret rites and separate yourself from outsiders that don’t.

The sad thing about those TikTok movements as opposed to metal is: The feeling to belong is an illusion. There isn’t real group just a set of strangers that share a fleeting experience that rarely creates something lasting, a „one-night stand“ like experience if you will.

I remember hearing for the first time Dillinger Escape Plan's Calculating Infinity over 20 years ago, life changing record indeed.

A moshpit is the only consensual form of non-sexual violence outside of sports.

> “Your homework tonight, and I’ll remind you of this later, go listen to the song ‘43% Burnt.’”

Why weren't my teachers this cool? I would have assigned the entire album though.

Why no one talks about the real issue (root cause) of why they feel this way? And where’s Sitting Bull