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How heavy metal and head banging can help your mental health
If listening to heavy metal provokes disturbed behaviour and angry outbursts, then Liam Frost-Camilleri could be considered a maniac.
He's been listening to metal legends like Machine Head and Dark Tranquillity since he was teenager.
"Heavy metal has always been underground and that's the point of heavy metal; it is an offshoot subculture different than the norm and against authority," Mr Frost-Camilleri said.
"If it wasn't shunned a little bit, it might not be what it is."
. . .While playing shows with his band, Fall and Resist, Liam said the topics of depression and anxiety would come up in conversations with fans and fellow musicians.
"I was amazed at how often once one person started talking about it, another person would start talking about it," he said.
"It seemed to be a pretty big problem amongst musicians in particular, in the heavy metal genre."
Mr Frost-Camilleri said metal could offer an escape and a way to process negative emotions.
"I think the reason why people with anxiety and depression tend to gravitate towards heavy metal is because of the catharsis of the emotion," he said.
"It's more about exorcising demons and less about suggesting what you should be doing."
While not all metal fans have mental health issues, Mr Frost-Camilleri said the community around the often misunderstood genre of music, could offer support during tough times.
"Sometimes the aggression is dialled up, sometimes the sadness is dialled up but they're the two extreme emotions and I think people who are suffering with depression and anxiety understand what is meant by that," he said.
"They listen to it because they go 'Jeez, I wonder what he was feeling when he wrote that?' or 'Wow, he really gets me'."
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I thought the article was sort of interesting. I don't know about the catharsis, but metal has so many flavours and I love all of them. Nothing ticks all the boxes like metal. Also kinda cool that the ABC covred this.