Mercyful Fate Brute Battle Vest

Before I provide the description for the battle vest, I'd like to give a big hearty thanks to Dakota Bob for the immaculate Amorphis "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" patch!

After months of saving the necessary amounts of money to get all the band patches, pins, vest, and labor to get patches sewn to vest, this masterpiece is finally finished.

Unlike the battle jacket I have here that specializes in thrash, death, and black metal bands, I decided to have a battle vest that has bands from a much wider spectrum of the heavy metal genre. This time around, aside from the broader array of metal genres displayed, I added non-metal articles that describe who I am, and I went out of my way to buy as many USA-made goods for this project as possible. I honestly had no idea where the band patches were made, and while I couldn't find USA-made pins of the German and Slovak flags, the vest (made by American Apparel), the American flag pin, and the Teamsters union pins are made in the USA.

With the band patches themselves, I wanted to get patches that just didn't have the band logos on them, but other graphics on them that give a stronger "flare" to the vest. Personally, one of my favorite patches that I found for this vest is the Morbid Saint patch, since they're one of the best examples of a "cult" metal band (and that "Spectrum of Death" is one of the coolest death/thrash albums ever). Thus there's a wider color spectrum compared to my other battle jacket. As a member of the Teamsters union, I thought it would be neat to get some lapel pins to show that off. Finally, I added the American flag pin to show off nationality and the German and Slovak flag pins to show off the main parts of my heritage.