---BATTLE JACKET #1 --- [23/06/2026]
Dating back to the punk era, battle jackets have become Synonymous with various genre of punk and metal subcultures and I’m thinking about making my first. Now I’ve been a metal head for a long while and though I can enjoy heavy metal and a bit of thrash, death and black metal are really not my cup of tea but lucky for me there are loads of patches out there that cover all of my favourite artists from industrial metal icon Rob Zombie to alt-rock pop punk ‘A’.
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As you have probably seen *cough* (look to the sidebar) there is a wide range of music that I like and acquiring a patch for most of these bands, if not would not be too difficult, slightly expensive if I wanted to completely patch up a jacket straight away but not impossible. Originally I was thinking of having a large Rob Zombie back patch, the back patch is supposed to represent you favourite band / artist and so gets the most real-estate on your jacket but I had something else in mind. Maybe instead of a band battle jacket I could make something more unique, something more personal, something more Armantar.
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So that got me thinking, what would a Gate of Armantar battle jacket look like? Where do I even start? How much is this going to actually cost me? Well it turns out that getting a second hand denim jacket isn’t really that expensive, the main cost is the patches and for a standard band patch your looking at around £5-£10 per patch which on a jacket plastered with patches is going to cost a months mortgage repayment. I however, Chris of the Armantar am going to take a slight different approach. I acquired a jacket for £7 (inc shipping) and now all I need to do is cut the sleeves off an I have the blueprint for the jacket.
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Next I wanted to focus on what was the jacket going to represent. Now lets face it, my YouTube channel, website ect is very niche. I focus on zines, music collection and when ready my novels. That was going to be my focus, that was going to be the design for the jacket. This jacket was going to represent me as a creative, it was going to show and display my work, my accomplishments, my personal goals and achievements. With the goal of whenever I complete a project I will get a custom patch made for that project and sew it onto the jacket. Perfect, great idea Chris and probably the first person in the world to actually do this, or attempt to.
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So we have a jacket and an idea, now its time to get designing the main back patch of the jacket. Something that is striking and holds a few Easter eggs to past and future projects. With one novel already written and in a goodish state I know that an aspect of the book will be present, what aspect that is I’m not sure yet but with my main focus of writing been urban fantasy I don’t want the back patch to look cliché, it needs to hold some mystery. I’d better get designing.
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As for other patches there of course needs to be a zine patch somewhere even if this is a simple ‘I Make Zines’ or ‘Zinester’ embroidered patch. Like my plans for novel patches my Binary Code zine will get its own patch. I feel that I’m already off to a strong start with:
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--> Gates of Armantar unknown back patch
--> Embroidered Zine / Writer patches
--> Novel 1 patch
--> Binary Code zine patch
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Going forwards I think when the back patch is on I’m going to start regularly wearing the jacket when making YouTube videos so that over time (providing I keep making videos) you will see the jacket evolve as projects are completed or as new projects are started. I guess this ended up being more a full blog post but throwing it Music Collection because the topic sits on the fence between music and hobby.
Until the next time,
take care and touch grass,
Chris
---CD HAUL #1 --- [16/06/2026]
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I was so excited to share the start of my new collection on Youtube but here is the full list of recently acquired CD’s:
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--> Papa Roach: Getting Away with Murder
--> A: HiFi Serious
--> A: Prang (unplugged)
--> A: Prang (deluxe)
--> A: Prang (raspberry ripple vinyl)
--> Fleetwood mac: Looking back on
--> Disturbed: Believe
--> Disturbed: Immortalized
--> Axewound: Vultures
--> Brothers of Metal: Prophecy of RagnaRok
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I really enjoyed adding these to the collection and making the Youtube video and if you want to check it out here is think linkie-dooo Haul #1 Video
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Maybe I should go into these albums in greater details, oh wait I did, click the link above :)