BANDS like AC/DC, Megadeath and Destroyer 666 may be driving a silent epidemic of neck and head injuries.

Why? Head-banging, violently whipping one's head - preferably adorned with long, wild locks - back and forth to the likes of Spinal Tap's Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight and Motley Crue's Kickstart My Heart, both hitting a hair-flicking head-swinging 180 beats a minute.

The faster the beat and the greater the range of motion, the higher the risk of of head and neck injuries, claim University of NSW biomechanics expert Andrew McIntosh and honours student Declan Patton.

"We identified a definite risk of mild traumatic brain injury from head-banging," said Associate Professor McIntosh of the results published this morning in the British Medical Journal's Christmas edition.

He quipped: "Learn to ballroom dance. That's the takeaway message."

In the report they also pointed to additional "preventative measures" like head-banging on alternate beats, switching to Celine Dion, Enya and Michael Bolton, wearing a neck brace and resisting the desire to bang one's head directly on the stage. The latter may cause unconsciousness.

According to Professor McIntosh, the pair were joking around when they decided to look into head-banging, using the same suite of techniques applied to serious projects such as assessing the effectiveness of helmets or the injury risk in contact sports like rugby union or boxing.

That meant doing a biomechanical analysis of the range of angular head velocities of head-banging; running a focus group with 10 band members, talent or musical training optional; and conducting observational studies of head-banging at concerts by bands ranging from Motorhead and Ozzy Osbourne to Winger and Ratt.

They then compared the results to the risk of head-banging to I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, Lionel Ritchie's Hello and Babe by Styx.

To put the findings in context Professor McIntosh and Mr Patton also investigated the risk faced by legendary head-bangers Wayne and Garth when they banged to Bohemian Rhapsody in the film Wayne's World.

The risk was low at just 138 beats per minute with a low range of head motion.

Similarly, when Beavis and Butthead head-banged to I Wanna be Sedated - 164 beats per minute - Beavis kept his angular head velocity below the injury threshold. Butthead did not.

"It is well understood, however, that cartoon characters are able to tolerate greater than normal impacts without injury," they wrote in the BMJ.

Their paper follows a previous BMJ Christmas report calling for clinical trials of the effectiveness of parachutes, a whimsical piece on the importance of testing public health interventions.

resisting the desire to bang one's head directly on the stage.

Hahaha, awesome, Destroyer 666 getting mentioned in the same line as AC/DC and Megadeth. Best Australian black/thrash metal band ever!

I stopped reading at the Megadeth typo. Can't take them seriously if they can't spell the band's name right. Besides, health experts = pussies who probably hate the unhealthy lifestyle of drugs, booze, sex, and violence that comes with metal.

I stopped reading at the Megadeth typo. Can't take them seriously if they can't spell the band's name right. Besides, health experts = pussies who probably hate the unhealthy lifestyle of drugs, booze, sex, and violence that comes with metal.

I stopped reading at the Megadeth typo. Can't take them seriously if they can't spell the band's name right. Besides, health experts = pussies who probably hate the unhealthy lifestyle of drugs, booze, sex, and violence that comes with metal.

Celine Dion might be better for your physical health (although all that vomiting might damage your digestive track like with anorexics), but it certainly is far worse for your mental health!

But I'd like to know who's paying the grants for those kind of research projects...

Like the fucking deftones kind of real metal. Fuck yeah.