Why Hessians need identity as a culture

[Conservationist]

If metal is modern romanticism, or futurist traditionalism as we might call it, meaning that it embraces what is eternally true but throws out the vestiges of a rotting and moribund civilization, then it implies more than "just music."

However, metalheads are stranded in one of the great tar pits of a modern time: youth culture. Why don't you see Hessians conquering the world? Because they're wrapped in a culture every bit as destructive as that of ghetto rap, in which they are encouraged to drop out of society, not compete, spend their money on music/branded clothing/drugs, and spend their time with other people who don't want to join society.

If we want to escape this, and the problem of metal perpetually degrading to the mean (rock, punk, jazz), then we need a culture inspired by the music but not limited to it that transcends youth culture and seeks to be accepted in society.

[Devamitra]

Yes, it seems people become fixated with the youth culture vs. adult culture paradigm and assume fake postures that have nothing to do with reality.

In school, you have to choose one of the youth cultures (unless one is too hopeless to even try to stand out from the crowd) and of course the position of this culture is constantly renewed, reaffirmed and remolded by the adult culture, the status quo. And when that fashion starts feeling too restrictive, or "adulthood" (in the worst, conformed sense) seems to offer better rewards, there happens the collapse seen in many death metal bands and death metal people - total loss of ideology, because the adult culture embodies safe, passive consumerism.

[Cargést]

Fenriz never "grew up", which is why he's a bit of a twat, nowadays.  Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic to see an aging, forty-something year old at a gig, banging his head harder than any of the teenagers around him, but if that aging forty-something year old doesn't have a family/job/home because he's "a Metalhead", then, Christ, he's a loser.

A large proportion of my "Metalhead" "friends" were amazed that I even considered listening to Metal once I was no longer a teenager, let alone listen to it when I'm sixty (right up until that fucking bear kills me).  They seem to think that it is a: necessary to "grow up"; b: necessary to stop listening to Metal in order to "grow up"; c: necessary to get an office job in order to "be successful"; d: impossible to "be successful" with long hair/beard...

The list goes on.  As far as most of the averagely intelligent people I know go, all they're interested in is being more or less normal.  All of the intelligent people I know are, by "normal" standards, completely retarded.

[sleipnir]

I got a lot of flak for being a "metalhead" after I grew up.

Are you to close your far from your concienence !

Is the question I ask of you today?

[sleipnir]

Fenriz is a punk rocker I wager.

[Annihilation]

There needs to be some kind of distinct PRACTICE.

So far the DLA//ANUS has done nothing to encourage any kind of growth within the genre. It wastes its time preserving CDs 10 years out of print, but as of yet has not created any sustainable place for composers of metal music.

What the forums should do is wrangle up  the composers in this thread, and have them get some of their music out into the open, away from their isolated rooms and perfectionist self-doubts. At least, it would be a good place to start.

[Gargos]

There needs to be some kind of distinct PRACTICE.

So far the DLA//ANUS has done nothing to encourage any kind of growth within the genre. It wastes its time preserving CDs 10 years out of print, but as of yet has not created any sustainable place for composers of metal music.

What the forums should do is wrangle up  the composers in this thread, and have them get some of their music out into the open, away from their isolated rooms and perfectionist self-doubts. At least, it would be a good place to start.

Hessians that don't view metal as a style of clothing, they objectively enforce what they believe; that is, being productive/helpful/positive, and getting up off your ass and doing something is just an extension of this. The DLA is just a collection of metal that's been given reviews, it's purpose isn't to scream "MAKE GUD METUHL", it's there for what it's intended for. I suggest reading around the main page of ANUS to explore more rational perspectives of life.

[Vanguard]

It's a matter of evolution to me. Musically speaking, some feel restrained by the genre and clinge to the more out-dated elements of Metal, while others remain true to the roots of Metal while still pursuing an evolutionary pathway. Beherit, Burzum, and Summoning are examples of the latter.

As far as Metal as a culture goes, I would say that Hessian people need to apply themselves in other fields, while not over-extending themselves. We already have some very talented Hessian students, but what we need more are people who can do what Beherit, Burzum, and Summoning did with their music, which is stay true to the their Hessian roots while still developing in an evolutionary matter. We need people who can carry the values and ideas of Metal over into their adult lives in a sensible manner. When that happens, we will have more Hessian politicians, academics, professionals, and people of similar positions of power. In short, more personal development and socialization, and less isolation and self-insolation.

[Muaddib]

It has to be thought over as a self-enriching culture. It seems like there should be some sort of critical mass that culture should excede in order for it to go through that procsess, or maybe critical concentration, perhaps in rural micro-communities where hessian could engage in a simple lifestyle, grow their own food, and study the arts of warfare, music, writing, etc. Creating a youth organization, something between the hitlerjugend and the boy scouts, and international Hessian Youth organization, with an older branch meant to carry the entire community forward, and towards recognition and action. The model of the Zionist movement in th 20th century is a good example.

[tardocaust]

But there's one topic on which McCoy becomes positively voluble: the band's fans, who have seen Fields of the Nephilim through a turbulent history – McCoy is currently the only surviving member of the original lineup – and who still pack out the Ceromonies. No, he says, he doesn't mind Fields of the Nephilim being labelled a goth band. "I see that as a label the followers have given themselves. It's a brilliant following. We're quite lucky, they've stayed with us and grown. We do this festival in Leipzig in Germany and the whole town is taken over for a week – the whole town – by these people draped in black, wonderful, massive, dramatic clothes. It's fantastic."

McCoy thinks his religious upbringing and interest in magic may play a role in their undying devotion. "When I formed Fields of the Nephilim, it was about things that were quite real to me. I think that's probably why the fans have stuck by us, they know there's a bit more to it than some band parading around in Stetsons, trying to be something they're not." A more prosaic explanation is that the Nephilim are beneficiaries of one of the weirder aspects of the scene: the dogged refusal of goths to stop being goths despite their advancing years. Instead of doing what many youth tribes do – abandoning the subculture in middle age – they prefer to "negotiate adulthood" as goths, in the words of Paul Hodkinson, senior sociology lecturer at the University of Surrey by day, goth DJ with a penchant for Bauhaus' Dark Entries by night. His research on ageing goths was published in The British Journal of Sociology. "There's a very large number of people who are staying involved as they're getting older and also perhaps a comparative lack of younger people coming into the scene," he says. "There are younger people that dress in a gothy way and listen to what you might think of as gothy music – emos and related scenes – but I think there's a bit of a disconnection between those younger goths and the cohort of goths who are becoming older. You're not just talking about some individuals who are getting older in an otherwise young scene, you're talking about a whole scene that's collectively growing up."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/26/goth-life-fields-nephilim