Updating My Battle Jacket for Brutal Assault 🤘
With *Brutal Assault- getting closer, it felt like the right time to revisit my battle jacket.
Like most things I build, it isn’t meant to be finished. It’s something that evolves alongside my taste in music, the bands I’ve seen live, and the memories I’ve collected over the years.
The Centrepiece
The jacket is built around a large *Fenrir- back patch, topped with a *Meshuggah- as a head-piece, probably because progressive drums tie all of my tastes together.
Fenrir isn’t just there because it looks cool, It fits the darker, Scandinavian-inspired aesthetic and that has always appealed to me and serves as the visual anchor for the entire jacket.
Around it are patches from bands that have shaped my musical taste across different styles of metal and rock.
Time for a Refresh
After laying the jacket out and looking at it with fresh eyes, I realised a few patches no longer represented my current listening habits as well as others.
Rather than trying to cram every band I enjoy onto one jacket, I’d rather it reflected the music I actually come back to again and again.
So I removed a few and will swap them all out with more of my favourites… Potentially Coming Soon:
- After the Burial
- Psycroptic
- Pantera
- Queens of the Stone Age
- Kreator
- Exodus
- Amon Amarth
- Iron Reagan
- Gamma Bomb
- Within the Ruins
- The Sword
- Annihilator
- Korn
- Children of Bodom
- Russian Circles
Their placement will decide their fate, I also have a few more but they didn’t make the cut.
What was already there
The next additions will better reflect what I listen to today, including the bands already present such as:
On The Back
- Meshuggah (top piece)
- 🐺 Fenrir (back patch)
- Slayer
- Violator
- Kyuss
- Lich King
- Clutch
- Down
- Lamb of God
- Suicidal Tendencies
- Eagles of Death Metal
- Dr. Living Dead
- Megadeth
On The Front
Left side:
- 🇮🇪 Ireland flag
- Metallica
- Led Zeppelin
- Decipher (Local Mullingar Band)
Right side:
- Kiss Army
- Misfits
- AC/DC
- Black Sabbath
The goal isn’t to follow a particular subgenre.
It’s to build a jacket that genuinely represents *my- taste, whether that’s technical metal, thrash, groove, stoner rock, alternative metal or something completely different.
More Than Decoration
Battle jackets are personal.
Every patch represents a band you’ve discovered, an album you’ve worn out, a gig you’ll never forget, or simply music that helped shape who you are.
Mine has changed several times already, and I expect it will continue changing for years to come.
That’s part of the appeal.
A battle jacket isn’t something you complete.
It’s something you grow into.
*This update is one more step in preparing for Brutal Assault 2026. Between the jacket, the festival flag, and everything else I’m working on, it’s starting to feel like the countdown has really begun.- 🤘