Moshing… it can be fun, but lately I personally find it to be more of nuisance. I want to see the band, so I try to get up close, but I can't stand too close to the center, because a pit will break out. And, the last thing I want is to be punched in the face. I want to actually enjoy the band.
Looks like vocalist J.D. Cronise of The Sword agrees with me.
Speaking to Decibel Magazine, J.D. revealed that the band actually wrote their new material with moshing in mind, in that the songs were specifically devoid of any "mosh" parts:
It has occurred to me multiple times over the years that we’ve been playing live that when I hear ‘Battery’ by Metallica, my instinct is not to put my head down, run in a circle and shove people around me. That to me seems bizarre and kind of silly. When other people hear songs like that, that is what their instinct is to do. To me, that takes away from a musical performance when there’s accomplished, talented musicians onstage performing songs for you; to engage in this totally unrelated physical activity to me is disrespectful, in a way, to the rest of the audience that doesn’t want to do that, and to the band on stage that are trying to perform for you. We kind of wanted to dial back the thrashiness a little bit in the hopes that people would sit still (laughs) to a degree. Still rock out and bang their heads and enjoy the show, but not take it to such an extreme, adrenalized level where they kind of act like lunatics.
That's a pretty serious commitment to lack of moshing. The Sword prefer headbanging, massive headbanging and I tend to agree. You can read JD's elaboration over at Decibel.
How do you feel about moshing? Is it so 2004? Or is moshing here to stay forever?
