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Pit Stories: Cipher System's Circle Pit Gets Out Of Control

Band Photo: Cipher System (?)

Each week we chat up metal fans and band members from every style and sub-genre to find their best tales from the mosh pit. For this week's look into the pit, guitarist Andreas Allenmark of Swedish act Cipher System shares the following story of a circle pit gone out of control:

This "accident" happened when I was on tour with another band. We were playing in Germany and had been drinking quite a few beers the night before and I had been taught a few tricks from another band.

One of those tricks was the sign for a circle pit. After a few songs I started thinking about that sign, what if I should try it...just to see if the audience understood what it meant. So I waited for a break in the song then showed them as distinctively as I could.

After that I continued my headbanging mostly looking down at the guitar and floor. When I looked up again I saw that a circle pit really had started and almost developed to a riot atmosphere, people were really hurting each other. I regretted my foolish naivety, almost stopped playing just to try to calm them down again. My last thought was, what if my brother saw me now? He is a police officer and what I had done would be considered to be a crime in Sweden.

Cipher System released the new album "Communicate the Storms" earlier this year. You can check out track-by-track videos from the band discussing the album here. For more details on Cipher System, navigate over to the band's Facebook profile.

Check back in again next Tuesday as we share more Pit Stories from metal bands.

Ty Arthur is a freelance writer who writes for both entertainment and technical instruction sites. An avid fan of many different forms of metal, he has been involved in reviewing music for several years and is currently a contributing editor for Metalunderground.com