“Heavy Healing“, a documentary on heavy music and recovery, arrives digitally on 22 September through MVD Entertainment Group.
Heavy Healing, a documentary built around people who leaned on heavy music while recovering from serious illness and mental health conditions, reaches digital platforms on 22 September through MVD Entertainment Group. The film runs 98 minutes and marks the directorial debut of author and former A&R executive Howie Abrams.
Metal, hardcore punk and underground hip-hop have spent decades being described by parents, teachers and religious figures as noise rather than music, and blamed for disorder, violence and harm to young people. Heavy Healing sets out the opposite case, through testimony rather than clinical claim: artists, fans and industry figures describing how they relied on aggressive music while working through cancer, anxiety and depression, strokes, heart attacks, cerebral palsy, blood diseases, diabetes and HIV/AIDS.
Co-filmmaker Seth Abrams, whose own medical history prompted the project, framed it this way:
“I’ve survived several severe, life-altering medical ordeals. When you strip away the doctors and family and friends’ support, it’s the music that gets you through it all. In my case, I specifically leaned on Suicidal Tendencies‘ ‘You can’t Bring Me Down‘. ‘Heavy Healing‘ gives a voice to those who have relied on heavy, aggressive music to recover from any number of things — medical, emotional or both.”
Howie Abrams added: “As someone who has worked with underground bands for over four decades, I’ve encountered far too many musicians who are forced to cope with one disorder or another. That said, it’s incredible to see how they’ve been able to rely on the extreme music we grew up with to help them remain motivated and to recover. Our hope with the film is that others can draw just as much inspiration from the music as our interviewees have.”
Speaking to Vice around the festival screenings, the director put the idea more plainly: “Ultimately, whatever gets you there. If it’s like I’m going to listen to Slayer on the train to get me to go, then that’s what you should do. It can be anything, whatever keeps you motivated.”
Who Appears
- Jesse Leach — Killswitch Engage
- Lou Koller — Sick Of It All
- Jaret Reddick — Bowling For Soup
- Mike IX Williams — Eyehategod
- Vinnie Stigma — Agnostic Front
- Eddie “Sutton” Pomponio — Leeway
- Jesse Malin — Heart Attack, D Generation
- Jimi Hazel — 24-7 Spyz
- Michael Alago — former A&R executive, Metallica, White Zombie
- Michael “Kaves” McLeer — Lordz Of Brooklyn
- Jimmy G. Drescher — Murphy’s Law
- Brian “Mitts” Daniels — ex-Madball
- Adam Blake — H2O
- Seth Abrams — co-filmmaker
Talent manager Kenny Gabor, who has been treated for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, also features, describing the records he turned to during treatment.
Koller died on 24 July at 59, four months after the film’s premiere and two months before this release. The Sick Of It All founder had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in June 2024 and spoke openly about his treatment throughout, announcing in May 2025 that he was cancer free before disclosing that September that the disease had returned. His band would have marked their 40th anniversary this year.
His contribution to Heavy Healing is among the last filmed interviews he gave. Abrams had already written a book about Lou and his brother Pete, one of ten titles the director has published since 2013.
The People Behind It
Seth Abrams has worked in street promotion, marketing, A&R and tour management. An aortic dissection followed by a stroke that paralysed his left side at 34 planted the idea for the film. In spring 2019 he had seizures and a brain infection that erased his short-term memory. He has said he used both recorded and live music throughout his recovery.
Howie Abrams held A&R, product management and publishing roles at In-Effect Records, Roadrunner Records, Jive Records/Zomba Music and Warner Chappell before moving into books in 2013. His published work includes biographies of H.R. of Bad Brains, Vinnie Stigma and the Koller brothers, plus “The ABCs Of Metallica“. He has worked with Shelter, Vision Of Disorder, Nuclear Assault, Sepultura, Type O Negative and Misfits, among others, and has produced television for MSG Network and Fuse.
Jammi York, the third filmmaker, is a New York photographer and videographer of more than two decades whose work spans live music, portraiture and fashion alongside protests in Nicaragua and the war in Ukraine.
Heavy Healing premiered in New York in April at the ReelAbilities Film Festival, the largest US festival devoted to films by and about people with disabilities. It screened on 25 April at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem and on 27 April at Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn.
