Re-forming the Chasuble: Links Between Heavy Metal Clothing and Priestly Garments

Links between metal music cultures and organised religions are well established. The subject matters of metal commonly reference religious imagery, narratives and practices, albeit often antagonistically. The role of clothing to communicate metal allegiance is significant. From graphic t-shirts to denim jeans and jackets, leather gear and long hair, the image of the metal musician or fan is used to express membership of metal subcultures. Customised ‘battle jackets’ adorned with band patches, studs and other details mark out committed metalheads. This paper will argue that the battle jacket can be likened to a priestly ‘chasuble’, a decorated robe worn by an official in a church rite or mass. Both garments have performative, decorative and symbolic functions, and externalise the spiritual connection invoked by participation in the rite. By extension, the metal musician or fan can be viewed as a kind of priest or intermediary, facilitating the expression of the atmosphere and values of the live metal experience. The details of the jacket communicate narratives and values of metal. The imagery and texts featured on jackets often seek to be transgressive or allude to the potential for transgression. Subjects depicted may be designed to offend, even to the point of illegality, and violent, blasphemous or morbid themes are common. Denim cut-offs and decorated leather jackets have roots in motorcycle culture. Such clothing in the mid-twentieth century was associated with outlaw values and criminal activity, and something of these associations persist, even if diluted by the appropriation of stylistic codes by mainstream fashion. This presentation will include discussion of a number of artworks made as part of my long-running battle jackets research project.

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