No, he’s not listening to heavy metal as near as we can tell, but he is banging his head…
I’ve modified this info- horse is now under veterinary care and I’ll update when more is known. Thank you for comments.
It’s hard for me to imagine exactly what you mean. Your story brings to mind both head pressing and the behavior of really terrible head shakers. Either way, it is not at all normal behavior.
I would have a neuro exam done and evaluate the horse for a sinus infection or tooth root abscess or similar. He doesn’t sound like a head shaker if he’s only doing it in his stall, but I guess it’s possible.
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This sounds very unusual for a horse. No1 is right about a vet exam. What would be helpful for the vet to know would be if this behavior only occurs in a stall. While the stall may appear pleasant, and the neighbors gentle, some horses do poorly in stalls, for a number of reasons. Turn him out into a paddock, at least, or a pasture, and see if the behavior occurs there. If he presses his head against a fence, that would point more towards physical cause. If he’s happy in turnout, well, you know that you need to change his housing arrangements.
The only time I’ve ever seen head pressing in a horse was with locoweed poisoning, when I had a college job working with a vet. That horse also couldn’t be lead because the pressure of the halter made him want to flip over backwards because of the poisoning. Perfectly nice horse before he ate locoweed. So, if your horse is normal in every other way, probably not poisoning, thank goodness, because there’s no cure for that.
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This would trouble me greatly and i would get the vet involved post haste. Dental exam, head xray, eye exam…
Is he just banging a bucket or whatever for the fun of it or is he literally banging his head? Does he show any scrapes or wounds at all? Have you seen it on camera or does he do it while you are standing there?
Tell us what you discover! this sounds troubling.
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Head-pressing came to my mind first.
Whatever it turns out to be, Jingling for a good outcome for your horse 
I wish the OP hadn’t edited out important info 
I read it, but nobody quoted it, and I don’t remember enough about it.
I too was originally wondering if he was just banging his bucket around or something, even kicking. I would expect head-hitting that loud would result in visible wounds or lumps.
Glad to hear the vet is involved!
