“THE HEALING POWER OF DEATH METAL”
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 1:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
While our government has used death metal to torture and interrogate prisoners, classically trained pianist-turned-music therapist Arthur Bloom has discovered that the br00tlest of the br00tal can actually serve another, more positive purpose: helping injured veterans of the war in Iraq recover from serious injuries.
Via Anne Applebaum’s fascinating article on Slate.com:
Bloom’s project isn’t standard music therapy. On the contrary, after working with a few Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] patients, he realized that what a severely injured person needs isn’t just a few guitar lessons or some soothing sounds, but rather what he calls “real” music: serious, one-on-one, customized training, ongoing collaboration, professional mentors who can give their co-musicians a sense of purpose, of moving forward. In pursuit of this idea, he persuaded donors to give him instruments, got Steve Jobs to donate computers, and set up what looks like a small recording studio in one of the residential houses at Walter Reed. Bloom started hanging around the house, ready to teach, practice, or produce original music with the vets—or, if so required, to rewrite a piece of piano music so that a one-armed veteran could play it with his artificial hand.
The result? Well, there are halls of residence at Walter Reed where depressed young men sit in their rooms and stare at the walls. And then there is the music session I watched, during which a young soldier with an artificial leg, shrapnel wounds, and no prior musical training practiced complex electric guitar riffs to the pace of an electronic drumbeat. A visiting guitarist kept setting that beat faster and faster, forcing the vet to play faster and faster, until all broke out in howls of laughter. Meanwhile, another soldier, also with an artificial leg, tinkered with his rap lyrics. He hopes to get one of his songs, mixed and recorded at Walter Reed (”it’s about being blown up in Iraq”), played on the radio.
The phrase “the healing power of death metal” apparently comes from one of Bloom’s students. And while there’s no mention of specific bands (or, really, even of death metal specifically), it’s really interesting that fast, technical music can be used as a means of physical (and, apparently, psychological) therapy. So tell that to the next person who gives you shit for loving Cannibal Corpse.
Read the rest of the article here.
-AR
I love this. It’s totally logical, too. It’s difficult to explain to people who don’t take the time to listen actively or already have their minds made up that it’s all just useless noise made for and by boneheads, but this does indeed provide new ammunition in my arsenal. More importantly, now that I know about this project, I will look into what I can do to support it.
Related (sort of, not really, but kind of): http://www.operationward57.org/
…And before any of the elitist hipsters that post to this blog tear up the bands/artists that have lent their support to this project, check your shit.
fucking awesome.
good stuff
This really is bad ass.. it’s true as hell too. I found myself in deep depression at one point in time and all the pills and therapy would just put me in deeper. Music was the only thing that kept me from losing it.. haha. The healing powers are definitely real talk.
Dude, I had the same problem. I think the only thing that kept me form going over the edge was the regular dose of metal, lol. This article is fucking great.
Hell yeah man!.. haha praise the music!!!!
“Without music, life would be a mistake.” -Nietzche
I kind of did that to myself. After I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (triggered by an “experimental” vaccination I received while in the Marine Corps) I picked the guitar back up after not playing for five years or so. Now I play better and more often than I ever did before. It helps keep me focused on something worth thinking about, and my left hand (which I have almost no feeling in whatsoever), has come leaps and bounds back towards being usable.
excellent post, even if I already knew that =)
Ahh death metal…it can be used for torture or therapy, it’s some of the best type of music ever!
I guess giving them some shitty yahmahas is better then keeping at the hospital for the minimum amount time till they are ready to either go back to post or enjoy a fruitless life as a vegetable(with plenty of anti depressants) thats if the va even pays you on time blah lame
As a 2nd year Music Therapy student, I see this article as a tremendous inspiration. I’ve learned so many aspects of the healing effects of music, but it’s incredibly badass to finally see death metal involved with music therapy!!!