PICTURE GALLERY: My favourite old-school battle jackets (in honour of 1984)

This is an amazing jacket I saw online (above and top). The owner says that this jacket has not been changed since 1984. This is what most battle jackets looked like in 1984. These were the most popular bands in heavy-metal in 1984: Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Dio, Accept, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Saxon, and Blue Oyster Cult. The great Judas Priest back-patch features the old band logo from the Sad Wings of Destiny era, 1976. No-one back then liked ONLY thrash bands. Only the neo-thrash crowd of today claim to like only thrash and they are wrong to think that this was the actual lifestyle of anyone in the 1980s (especially pre-1986 or 1987). There were too few thrash bands in 1984 and too few albums released just to listen only to them. Sub-genre boundaries were not clearly defined or strictly policed by the genre police then. Hard-rock bands such as AC/DC and Scorpions and even Status Quo and Slade were much loved by metalheads. No-one in 1980 ever said "AC/DC are hard-rock but Maiden are metal". Metal-archives.com says this today which shows their lack of understanding of metal history. Deep Purple reformed in 1984 and released the Perfect Strangers album that year. They were big news in 1984 and very popular. Ritchie Blackmore had just left Rainbow to join the Purple reunion. Now Purple are seen as hard-rock or heavy-blues and perceived to be less important than Sabbath. Then they were equal to Sabbath. Note: I had my own battle jacket in 1984 with Iron Maiden Powerslave back-patch, small Deep Purple patch and about five buttons. However, no photos survive. Rating: 8.5/10.

This is a great 1980s metal jacket too with Motley Crue, KISS, Twisted Sister, and AC/DC proudly displayed next to more extreme bands such as Motorhead and Metallica. I love how two sets of the four KISS face patches are put next to each other (on the left side and bottom-back). Of the KISS face patches on the left side if you can find a complete set of these today on ebay you might pay USD30 just for second-hand. I love the white "Status Quo 1982" strip-patch on the left side bottom which is obviously an original patch from that year. The Motley Crue Theatre of Pain patch is very nice too. This jacket may be a bit messy but still scores top votes from me. Rating: 9.5/10.

Wow. This jacket is perhaps a little too extreme for me. I can't imagine actually wearing it. However, full marks for dedication and effort. Grade: 8.5/10.