May is Mental Health Awareness Month.No person is worthless, no situation is hopeless. Please consult our Direct Help Resources page if you are someone you know is in distress. Help is out there.
S.L.A.M. is marking Mental Health Awareness Month with articles about emotionally powerful songs. Not necessarily the earworms, the chart-toppers, the wedding dance songs, the sappy romances, etc., but the ones that give you all the feelings. No emotion is off-limits.
Trigger warnings: suicide.
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Joy Division are more than just squiggly lines on a t-shirt. Their music was a huge foundation for the 1980s post-Punk Alternative music movement, along with The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, and a host of others. This is the stuff that launched “120 Minutes” and “Postmodern MTV” after video killed the radio star.
Joy Division released two of the most influential Alternative Rock records of all time, 1979’s Unknown Pleasures (with that iconic pulsar visualization on the cover) and 1980’s Closer. Shortly before the launch of their second album, right before the start of their North American tour, Joy Division’s singer, Ian Curtis, took his own life.
He was 23.
He was tortured by epilepsy and depression.
He was brilliant.
He was too young.
Joy Division was over, but surviving members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and newcomer Gillian Gilbert reconvened right away as New Order, changing their ways, taking different roads. They would lean more heavily into the synthesizers and become one of the most popular and influential Alternative bands of the MTV era. With their ever-growing emphasis on beats and hooks, you could truly dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio. Or the TV, as it were, since this was the height of the music video boom. .
I’m not here to debate the peaks and valleys of New Order’s catalogue, their creative decisions, their break-ups, their public squabbles. . . I’m not here to ask how it feels. I’m here to talk about “True Faith.”
The story goes (VH1 pop-up)[1]: Bernard Sumner was somehow locked alone in a flat for a full day, so he passed the time writing the lyrics to “True Faith” and “1963,” which would be the only originals added to their 1987 singles compilation, Substance. In Bernard’s own words, he’d never touched smack, but he wrote “True Faith” from the perspective of an addict. There have been two common interpretations: one of a lucid moment inside the throes of addiction, another of a former junkie who’s put it behind them. I like the latter. . . That this is someone who’d lost control for awhile among the 24-hour party people (“Could it be we’ve gone too far?”), but who’s escaped to sobriety. They’re still a bit damaged, but can now find bliss and meaning in the sublime mundane. “I never thought that the day would ever come when my life would depend on the morning sun.” Some have stated that Bernard’s tragic experience with Ian Curtis informed “True Faith.” It’s a sensible theory, but never been validated by anyone in New Order.
Here’s where we make this all about me.
I’ve been fortunate to have avoided the addiction snare in my life. I’ve faced debilitating depression on my own and alcohol and heroin problems in loved ones, but By the Hand of God, never been on any horse or wagon.
The heavy emotional reaction I get from this song is mainly from the music. The lyrics portray a legitimate scene, working with the melody to convey powerful contradictions of hope and despair, pain and gratitude, fall and recovery. The minor key sequences are infused with uplifting major chords, all set to a driving, affirming beat. Just beneath the surface of a catchy Synthpop song is a complex masterpiece of beauty, sadness, hope, regret, reflection, catharsis, and triumph.
Confession: It took a few decades for this song to truly impact me. Even in my most Metal days, as a very small boy, I acknowledged its worth, but still wouldn’t buy the tape.
So why the delayed appreciation? What the hell kind of music geek am I?? Well, the most obvious reason was that when it released, I was too young and too deeply entrenched in my denim-n-leather phase.[2] I wasn’t in the right headspace.
But I’m also going to point to the “True Faith” music video as a distraction. For decades, I’d only known this song through MTV. Instead of my own internal imagery, my visions of this song were dancing clowns slapping each other. The video is widely regarded as an artistic triumph, but whether you find it a poignant examination of human conflict – – or pillow people grimacing on trampolines – – the images don’t match the song’s concept. The colors, costumes, and choreography are visually arresting and pretty unforgettable. Even to this day, I still can’t hear this song without the mental image of a blue-striped mime prancing in reverse.
But look, if we can get past Journey’s dorky “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” video[3], we can compartmentalize here too. Even if you like the arty “True Faith” video, I encourage you to find the song in the medium of your choice, close your eyes, and listen to it on its own terms.
You’ll feel so extraordinary.
🎵
Jack Mangan is the founder and Executive Director of Support Life And Music (S.L.A.M.). His journalism and essays have also appeared at the Metal Hall of Fame, MetalAsylum.net, and The Metal Voice. His novel, “Dread Spherical,” released in March 2026.
[1] VH1 is an MTV spin-off channel, which had its peak in the glory days of cable TV. They ran a show called Pop-Up Video, where a series of bubbles would pop up on the screen containing little factoids about the song and the artist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop-Up_Video. You had to be there.
[2] For many in the Heavy Metal culture – – certainly for me at that time and that age – – Metal was your tribe, your faith, your commitment. You didn’t stray. I never lost my love for Metal, but I grew up and discovered/rediscovered the diverse joy of all kinds of music.
[3] See also: Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight” video, various scenes of Ronnie James Dio with a fake sword, Joe Elliott of Def Leppard with a giant fake sword, Neneh Cherry in front of a cheap graphics background, Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger,” the dummy in the Judas Priest video, the stop-motion biker skeletons in those other Judas Priest videos, that infamous Billy Squier video. . .