India, Nov. 8 -- For decades, heavy metal has been vilified as the soundtrack of aggression and societal deviance. Parents have worried, critics have scoffed, and psychologists have warned of its supposed corrupting influence.

But what if everything we thought we knew about this genre was wrong?

In December 2021, British Medical Journal published a remarkable study out of Finland (the ideal laboratory, since it is a place of 70.6 metal bands per 100,000 people; the world's highest such concentration). Researchers from University of Helsinki tracked over 3.6 million respondents aged 15 to 70 across 311 municipalities over 15 years, examining the relationship between heavy metal band density and health outcomes. The results indicated that...