Mental Health issues are a universal problem.
They don’t target a specific genre, race or sex, and it is sometimes the people you think are least likely to be afflicted that are actually the most in need.
It is something that can always be helped by awareness, and is also something which should never cause shame. Every one of us has had negative thoughts in their life, but, unfortunately, those thoughts manifest into things far worse for others.
Recognising this from personal experience and from hearing the stories of those around him, Minus Life front man Scott Moss has decided to put on a charity heavy metal concert to raise much needed funds and awareness for mental health.
The event, called Metal Health, will be held at The Back Room, Annerley on April 30, featuring Orpheus Omega, Freedom Of Fear, Eye Of The Enemy, Lycanthrope, Snake Mountain, Where The Devil, Minds End, Upon The Pyre, Tetrament and Minus Life.
It is the first of what is hoped will become an annual event, with Moss joining HEAVY to chat about Metal Health in more detail.
"Over the years we've had many friends in the metal scene suffer - the first person for me that hit home was a good friend of mine Snails. Back in the day many years ago, when the Basement was a hub of metal for Brisbane, Snails was that one guy that was always at every show. He unfortunately committed suicide and other people in the scene over the years have committed suicide or are always talking about their mental health and I started looking into things about mental health and noticed there wasn't many avenues for us to find somebody we could connect with. I looked around for about three months and I found Stride mental health services and out of all of them they deal with kids to older people, whereas most focus on 18 to 25 year olds. The idea was to put on an event that could raise funds and bridge the gap for us. People in the scene can know they (Stride) are going to be there at the show and maybe open up the lines of communication. Also while we are there at the show we are listening to music we love and there could be something there on the night that somebody that hasn't spoken about and thinks this is the perfect opportunity. You're in an environment where everybody is there for a reason and they could open up that night and maybe save a life. That's what it's all about. Developing pathways for us to get to those helpers and services that actually understand people from our community. The main lady that runs it, her husband is a metalhead, so it seemed like a perfect fit!”
In the full interview Scott talks more about Metal Health and his reasons for putting it on, the bands playing and how they have come together, the importance of awareness when it comes to mental health, the correlation between heavy metal and mental health, how you can contribute even if you can’t go to the show, understand mental health and more.