its popular at heavy metal/death metal shows. I personally have seen 2, one at a shinedown show, and one at dfd, but i pussied out and stayed up front.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=n4N1p7e1H...l%20of%20death
(link not safe for work due to many uses of the f word.

somebody could get hurt

Shinedown? A wall of death at Shinedown? Hmm... Shinedown is hardly what I would consider metal, and I can't belive something like this would occur at their show.

I've seen/been in a lot of mosh pits, but I've never seen a wall of death. I bet it would look cool from above, but it's not something I'd like to get in.

Yes, at Aiden. At motherfucking Aiden. The gothic emo kid's version of My Chemical Romance.

How fucking sad is that?

[Then 40-45 minutes later, it occured again during 30 Seconds To Mars. But I already left as the crowd that attended the show were the biggest bunch of douchebags I have seen in my entire life.]

ive seen that vid before. I love how that guy in the white shirt/blue sleeves is walking around the middle of the pit like he's 'the man'. he's not even aware of whats about to happen then BAM...Wall of Death
he disappears

Yeah they had one of these at the Willie Nelson/Nitty Gritty Dirt Band concert the other night.

I experienced a variation on the wall of death dubbed "the braveheart" by The Suicide Machines. Basically the same principle, but you make eye contact with one person across the way and you don't break that eye contact until you collide. Haha. It was funny. Much less violent than at a metal show, too.

EDIT: Here is a wall of death gone horribly wrong. These things are supposed to be all in good fun, but people have to take care of each other out there.

These have been around for several years. I believe they got their start at Enya shows.

Can someone describe the 'wall of death'? I can't see the video, and I know I'm not up on the cool modern lingo.

I haven't seen the video, but I agree wholeheartedly. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe kids [ie, those younger than me] are just more selfish and violent, or maybe I have been going to the wrong shows, but there's not as much of a 'friendly' feel as there used to be, imho. I've been to more than one show where there was some jackass skinhead in the middle, doing nothing but throwing elbows.
I remember going to a Murphy's Law show in Atlanta, I think it was--someone fell down in the pit, and the singer stopped the band and told the pit to pick him up, saying something like "We're all here to have fun, help each other out, or we won't play."

30 Seconds To Mars.

Been to plenty of shows but have yet to see it. But then again, most of the bands I see lately aren't very conducive to one.

ahhhh...how sweet.

Looks like a bunch of good candidates for the Darwin Society. Can't say the gene pool would be hurt too bad if they all killed each other.

I see this local band Scissorfight (well, kind of local - they're not just a bar band but I wouldn't call them a hugely popular national touring band...) all the time around here... every so often there is one skin in the pit being an asshole, it's always the same dude and he always ends up getting flattened by everyone else... Can't say I've ever seen a "wall of death" though. However, if anyone wants to see a rough pit that's still a great time come up to NH and get up front when they play "Drink Fight and Fuck" .

I wasnt aware that there was a name for this phenomena as ive only experienced it once, at the Misfits Fiend Fest.

And in regards to the OP have I ever been a part of one? If by part you mean "mercilessly pulverized while doing everything in my power to keep a pair of stupid 16 year old girls who have no business being in the mosh pit alive only to then watch them act like they are incredibly hard for having survived" then yes.

Im pretty sure at that show I got a couple bruised ribs when some giant white power idiot nearly floored me with an elbow right by my heart while the Damned were playing. Id say a dozen or 15 skins linked arms and starting sweeping the pit back and forth, im assuming this is what the OP means by a wall of death. As the show was incredibly crowded, there was precious little room to escape and I was trapped right behind the middle of the darn thing. Braced against a railing with one arm and keeping my other arm between the two girls and the wall I managed to stay on my feet and keep from getting myself or them trampled underfoot. Not everyone was so fortunate.

Thankfully, by the time the Misfits took the stage security had thrown out several of the more warlike jerks because of all the fights that broke out during and after the wall, so it did not reappear. However, the moshing during the Misfits was still pretty violent, and that was easily the roughest show id been to in quite some time.

neighbor of mine got trampled at a Limp Bizkit concert and had his hip busted. Had to get taken out of the place on a gurney and had a long and painful rehab. nice kid, but i almost think thats what you get for going to see such a lame band.

im assuming scissorfight in the prevous post is covering GG Allin's song by the same name?

Yup, that's the song. Somehow their cover manages to make GG sound like a happy version of the song though...

Sadly, I'm forced to agree with you. Take a look at that video the OP posted. I don't think there are a lot of productive members of society in that group.

What inspires people to want to participate in this behavior? Is it a buildup of testosterone from never having sex with a woman, or feelings of inadequacy due to their miniscule genitalia? Or both?

If there's one thing I HAVE noticed, it's that people at punk shows help each other out a whole lot more than the assholes that frequent metal shows. I think with the whole metal scene, there's just a much more prevalent macho attitude.

Here is another video for those having troubles viewing the one at the beginning of the thread.

Also, this site is always good for a few laughs.

Hmm. That seems rather point-less.

I miss the days when people went to concerts to hear music.

Yeah I second that. Usually, there's a burly guy in the middle of the pit picking people up when they fall.

Im glad im 36 now and have past the point of thinking that might be fun

I wasn't at the show, but someone told me that at a lamb of god show at the recher theater in towson (the place can hold maybe 800 people), when it was time for the wall of death, the entire floor erupted into a massive pit, from the front row, all the way to the bar at the very back of the club.
(for the person who asked, its when the floor is split right down the middle, and everyone runs into each other, and all hell breaks loose until the song ends)

I love a good, clean mosh pit but for the life of me I can't understand the need for straight-up violence. I've seen instances of muschleheads kicking the shit out of people with their steel-toe boots on. Most pits I've been in though have been great (people helping other people up, no punches thrown, high-fives and hugs after the song ends).

These other idiots are the reason that I tend to avoid pit areas of concerts nowadays. Hell, I even went to a local show at a bar on the square here and there were a bunch of kids there (it was a Katrina benefit so all ages). They tried their best to act hard but they finally pissed me off when they kept slamming into the girl I was there with. I had to switch into my "work mode" and bring out my grown-up voice.

Did I just see the drummer point to the audience with his drumstick? In 2006?

oh then what I witnessed was a different beast altogether... but it was certainly the cruelest thing id seen at a show, as a lot of people got roughed up pretty good by that chorus line of carnage. I mean occasionally there will be some idiot who tries to cop a feel on girls when they crowd surf or whatnot (one mutant actually told me in the pit before a show started he was going to do that) and usually the offending perv gets the snot beat out of him (and yes when I saw the mutant later during the main act he was carried out of the pit by security bleeding from both nostrils).

I guess maybe its just the shows/venues I go to but id say its not uncommon for the band to stop mid-song at least once during the show because of fighting.