Metal For A Cause: Baroness, Impact Music Festival Raise Money For Suicide Prevention

Progressive metal band Baroness was at the forefront of the Impact Music Festival in Bangor, Maine, a three-day event with major rock bands that raised money for suicide prevention efforts after the band’s frontman, John Dyer Baizley, started his own campaign to raise money after losing a family member to suicide.

The July 27-29 Impact Music Festival at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor, Maine, which also featured Slayer, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and others, benefited Music Matters, a Maine-based, nonprofit organization focused on mental health awareness, education and suicide prevention.

Save.org’s Dan Reidenberg said the band wanted to make a statement and that artists have a unique ability to connect with fans on a personal level.

“Music is a universal language, and often in music it doesn’t matter who the artist is or what the genre of music is, (artists) are very interested in partnering with us because we speak a language for the public that helps translate that difficult topic into something that they can learn about and not be afraid of,” Reidenberg told Pollstar. “The music they play and sing allows them to express them things that are difficult sometimes, painful sometimes, that are scary sometimes, in a way that fans can listen to and don’t have to be afraid of.”

Save.org, short for Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, is the leading nonprofit for the prevention of suicide, providing public awareness, education, training and consulting as well as grief counseling for those affected by suicide.

“Baroness wanted to take this on as a personal mission,” Reidenberg said. “They wanted to do more and use their voice and opportunity with their audience and said ‘We have to talk about this.’”

Save.org has a close relationship with Seether and frontman Shaun Morgan, who lost his brother to suicide. The two partnered for the Rise Above Festival in Bangor, Maine, which has become the largest suicide prevention gathering in the world, according to manager Danny Nozell, who said plans are in the works to expand the event into multiple markets in 2019.

Last year’s fifth annual Rise Above Festival, produced by Danny Wimmer Presents, featured Korn, Stone Sour, Seether, Shinedown, Halestorm and many others at the Darling Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor.