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Revision as of 08:28, 16 January 2007

For the carnival motorcycle attraction, see Wall of death.

The Wall of Death is a form of moshing seen during Hardcore (and increasingly seen during punk rock) concerts, where the singer of the band playing divides the crowd into two portions, with a gap of at least 10 meters between them. At a signal given by the singer (often during a particularly grooving part of the song, the beginning of the vocals, or the heaviest part) or by one of the guitarists starting to play, the two crowds run into each other at high velocity, in a rather violent fashion.

The Wall of Death was first created by hardcore band Sick Of It All. It is also known as the 'Braveheart' (from the film, where the English and Scottish would run into each other at full speed on the battlefield), and has been made famous by Chimaira from Ozzfest 2003; frontman Mark Hunter has earned the nickname 'Metal Moses', for his ability to part the crowd at a concert, as Moses was said to have done with the Red Sea.

Most recently the English ska band The B Team have been encouraging the Wall Of Hugs to mock the idea of this brutality.

Another recent band to inspire a Braveheart is the Seattle-Based horror rock fivesome Aiden, most notably at the crescendo of their debut song "I Set My Friends On Fire".

Some pop punk bands have attempted the Wall of Death at their shows. A humorous example of this is a video of American band Yellowcard, which is described as "Almost as brutal as a fluffy pillow fight." Some believe that Yellowcard were actually trying to be funny, but it is all up to the viewers interpretation.

This form of moshing has hit the news because of numerous impact injuries, including reports of the death of a German metal fan, later found to be unrelated.

New York hardcore band Murphy's Law have a song called "Wall Of Death" referring to this form of moshing.

Richmond, Virginia metal band Lamb of God are well known for orchestrating the Wall of Death during their song Black Label at the end of each of their shows.

Bands have named it after themselves, by inserting the band name (or part of it) after Wall. A notable example of this is when Colorado jazz-deathgrind band Cephalic Carnage made their own wall, called the Wall of Carnage. Instead of having two sides (right and left side) they spread it out to right, left, top, and bottom, creating a bigger, more intense motion of mosh, with bodies coming from all sides.

Hardcore band Throwdown created an "inverted wall of death," where the crowd at the front (nearest the stage) run at the back, which is usually much calmer.

In the Umeå hardcore scene during the 1990's, the Wall of Death was usually done in two stories. Two lines would form in the back of the concert hall, and the back line would lock arms with each other, kneel, and pick the front line up on their shoulders and charge towards the stage, knocking down everyone in the way.

Bands known to have done Walls of Death

Media

Two quicktime videos (6-8mb in size) document this phenomenon on the video page of the official Lamb of God website, found here.

See also

Other meanings

The Wall of Death is also a stunt where a motorcycle is ridden around the circumference of a cylindrical enclosure at such speeds that they are able to ride on the wall rather than on the ground.

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