I'm going to conform to the general direction calling a metalhead a Hessian as I really do like the word Hessian better than "metalhead". Metalhead almost sounds perjorative. Hessian reminds me of amoral dudes from Prussia killing a bunch of Englishmen for fun and profit.
So, I read in the Metal FAQ that use of amphetamines was common back in the day, in Hessian culture. Maybe its regional, but the Hessians around here generally just smoke cannabis and sometimes dabble in psychedelics. I'm wondering, did the author mean methamphetamine or less hardcore amphetamines? Meth is WAY harder than regular speed and is typically used by people whom I call the "truly fucked": trailer park types on welfare whose women screw strangers without condoms and have a growing piles of miscarriages laying next to their bathtubs, which are corroded from having too many toxic meth lab byproducts poured down it. In other words, fmp666.com forum posters.
Then there's this whole thing about Hessians who are skaters? I've seen relatively few high-school age Hessians who skate, was this mostly a part of the thrash scene, or were there death metal and speed metal fans who skated? Was this just a product of the hardcore scene mingling with the metal scene that didn't last?
And the blinkie hunting thing. Was this something a lot of teenage metalheads did in Texas? Did Hessians do this anywhere else? (Fieldmouse seems to have done this independently of knowing about that text file. Hmm...) I get the impression that a section of the Texas metal scene is influenced quite a bit by ANUS, and I personally think that if enough of the people who are from what I suspect to be an ANUS-influenced part of the Texas scene could possibly have the greatest potential to be the next generation of metalheads to make excellent music.
Mr. Prozak also mentioned hacking. I personally have an interest in this, as I love to fool around with low-level software stuff like assembly language, C, and I've been learning about exploits like buffer overruns and network security recently. I actually like being an unemployed parents' basement dweller because I have time to study intricate subjects that even most people who are programmers don't understand, just sit down and read an entire book on my porch all day any time I want, and stuff like that. I believe that nihilistic ideas, hacking and metal appeal to a certain type of people with similar personalities, sort of grandiose, alienated people perhaps with self-esteem problems, but with a keen sense of the way reality actually IS, who are good at lateral thinking, who are bored by most mundane pleasures (ie, the ones you buy at the store or see at the theater). Old BBS text files related to hacking I've read often have authors who have very metal sounding pseudonyms. Dig zine, a damn good hacker zine which favors quality over quantity and seems to have some ANUS ties. There is also an awesome manifesto by the person known as Goat, presumably the KCUF guy, which is an elitist, very well thought out, and excellently written piece about how hackers basically are the computer users without limits, who go beyond artificial limits like laws, which are in place to control those who can't handle such power because they're, well, not the intellectual elite of computing. The piece ends with some text from this very site, and very obviously applies the principles of this site to hacking. I'll link to it later. If you have any interest in hacking at all, I recommend Dig zine.
Of course, then there's Norwegian and Swedish black metal, which is a bit different, briefly adding remorseless murder, church burning, elitism, nationalism, misanthropy, paganism, and an emotionally detached, casual view of death and suffering to the list of things associated with metal culture.
What are some things that Hessians could do for recreation which may appeal to nihilists, and preferably aren't destructive to nature, and maybe have some value outside of satisfying one's desire to have fun? Are you a Hessian? Do you do certain things with other Hessians that normals don't like and you feel is a worthy thing to do? If so, explain! If metal is just about the music, that's all its going to be about: the music. It needs shared values, and people with similar values enjoy doing similar things. Metal carries with it an attitude that appeals to certain types of people, and if Hessians don't do other things with each other besides going to concerts, smoking cannabis, and drinking beer, you have a subculture that people devote a hell of a lot of their life to which just makes recombinent music without essence, and the people don't have to share common bonds, ideas, and such, they just have to project an image of being a metalhead. What I'm sort of saying here is that I think maybe metal lost a lot of what made it unique. I think that if metal culture had many more aspects than just the music, and these consisted of doing things that normals don't like to do, it could be far healthier, as the normals wouldn't feel like they belong in it, and they would be laughed at. Thus, there would be a section of metal with no normals in it, who form bands, etc. Anyone can enjoy listening to watered down metal music, drink, and smoke dope. Which is what most metalheads do with each other. Drinking and smoking dope can have their place, but metal if that's all metalheads do socially, then you're just like a bunch of fucking rock fans, no? You're a sexually frustrated normal guy trying to be cool. Jogging suit. Put it on. Now. And don't forget your iPod.
Want to fix metal? Maybe it needs to start socially. Make it something that normals won't want anything to do with. The Norwegians tried to do this, and ultimately failed. Did they fail because they were immature and got in way over their heads into extremely dangerous things, got caught, and thus couldn't forcibly exclude the masses (or lost the will to)? Or is it perhaps impossible to keep the crowd out in this world?