For those in the metal community, being hailed as a “hesher” ranks among the highest of honours, even if – nay, especially when – the speaker intends it as an insult. Today the term refers to the most passionate and committed of metalheads, although it originated centuries ago with the Hessians – a bloodthirsty pack of German mercenaries hired by the British Empire to track down and slaughter colonists during the American Revolution. Savage and unrelenting, Hessians were the stuff of nightmares.
The most famous Hessian of all time is the fabled Headless Horseman – the ultra-spooky antagonist in Washington Irving’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. Said horseman was a Hessian fighter, deprived of his head by a cannonball, who, in true Hessian fashion, just kept going. Over time, the term morphed into “hesher,” where it ultimately found a home as an adjective for raucous, long-haired, horn-throwing metalheads – the kind who shout “Slayer!” at weddings and who acquire a glazed, faraway look when people around them start talking about the Top 40.
