Music is such a beautiful thing. It’s always there for us when we need a pick-me-up. It moves us and helps us push forward when we feel like we can’t. It makes us happy and makes us smile. It helps us cope through the sadness of tragedy that we all face at some point in our lives. Speaking from experience, my mental health journey would’ve had a tragic ending years ago with music, but for one specific genre: hardcore. Hardcore saved my life. It’s kept me alive. It showed me compassion and family in a way I’ve never seen it before. I owe my life to hardcore. I owe my life to a band called Bane.
This past week Massachusetts hardcore band Bane released their documentary titled “Holding These Moments” which documented the history of the band, member changes, and going through the writing process of their discography while also following them on their final tour and documented their break up and what in to it and what came from it.
If you haven’t heard of Bane, put down this review right now and have a discography play through right now! Bane started up in 1995 by Aaron Dalbec (also of Converge) and later recruited Aaron Bedard as the vocalist and not long after hit the studio with some friends to record a demo, and the rest was history.
Bane went on to release 4 full lengths and a bunch of demos and EPs during their twenty year career and shaped hardcore in their own special way. Bane brought compassion and love and family to hardcore in ways never seen before and this documentary shows that so well. Throughout Holding These Moments, fans and friends of the band got the chance to speak about what Bane means to them and it was so apparent how important Bane was to their lives and everyone else’s. On top of everything this documentary covered, it also showed the hardships the band went through. Losing friends and family to death, losing band members and having to replace them for tour and recording, and coping with the realization that it was finally time to hang it up.
Bane is absolutely one of the most monumental hardcore bands of all time and there is no doubt about that. Their final show spoke volumes to that when it sold out in a matter of minutes so they planned a second final show so people could have more chances to come see them one last time.
Holding These Moments perfectly captures who Bane truly is and how much they mean to us all. It shows how much Bane loved us all and loved hardcore. There will never be another Bane. There will never be another band that means that much to hardcore like Bane did.
Bane saved me on several occasions in my life. I’ve said it before, without hardcore I would’ve committed suicide years ago but it was songs like “My Therapy” by Bane saying “This is my therapy. You breathe life into me. My only sanity. Within these walls is where I’m free” that kept me looking up, that gave me hope. Music is so important to mental health. It can reach corners of our minds that people or therapists never can. Find your hardcore, find your Bane, and let it help you carry on. We are all In this together.
Thank you Bane for everything, even though I doubt the band will ever see this, I owe you so much.
Give More. Give Everything. Give Blood.
If you or someone you know is reading this right now and you are struggling with suicide, depression, addiction, or self-harm - please reach out. Comment, message or tweet to us. Go to victimsandvillains.net/hope for more resources. Call the suicide lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Text "HELP" to 741-741. There is hope & you DO have so much value and worth!
Victims and Villains is written Josh "Captain Nostalgia" Burkey (and produced by) and more. Music by Mallory Johnson and others. This review was edited by Cam Smith. Bane’s music can be streamed on all major music platforms. Bane: Holding These Moments can be streamed for rent on all major digital platforms.
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