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A Japanese metal band has a website that tracks and rewards energetic headbanging

A Japanese metal band has a website that tracks and rewards energetic headbanging

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Now I have a headache and a participation trophy

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If your big problem with headbanging was always that there wasn’t enough reward in it, Japanese electrocore metal band Crossfaith has a fix for the problem. The group has a website that lets you headbang to its music while it tracks your movements through your webcam. The interactive site was launched to promote Crossfaith’s new EP, Freedom. The goal is to headbang continuously while listening to Crossfaith’s music, and at the end of what feels like a tremendously long song, the website grants you artwork and a headbang count.

That sounds cool in theory, but in practice, the site senses when you’re getting tired, then complains about it. It throws out a countdown, giving you 10 seconds to get back to headbanging, or risk having your entire progress on the song reset. “Why are you stopping?” the site demands, like a nagging, unappeasable brat. Headbanging is supposed to be spontaneous and joyous, not a job overseen by a cranky, micromanaging boss.

Maybe others with stronger necks and craniums will get further with this feature, which does for headbanging what Guitar Hero did for pretending to rock out on guitar. For me, I guess all the punk-rock concerts I’ve gone to don’t really amount to anything, and I’m just not metal enough to earn my way to Headbang Valhalla. I reached 607 “headbanging moves” before giving up. That earned me this artwork. Maybe you’ll get something more metal.

I almost made it!
I almost made it!