Megadeth drummer hits out at fashion brand for "stealing" heavy metal imagery

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By ( Metal Hammer ) published

Hoodie includes Soilwork album art which has caught the attention of Megadeth and Lamb of God members

Dirk Verbeuren of Megadeth performs at Lokerse Feesten Festival on August 6, 2023 in Lokeren, Belgium
(Image credit: Photo by Elsie Roymans/Getty Images))

Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren has taken aim at a fashion brand for apparently "stealing" artwork from Soilwork's 2005 album Stabbing the Drama.

The garment, which is pictured in Verbeuren's Instagram post below, is an astonishingly expensive hoodie manufactured by Vetements. It features some familiar-looking heavy metal imagery, including the cover art from Stabbing the Drama – on which Verbeuren played drums.

Verbeuren, who left Soilwork and joined Megadeth in 2016, says: "Metalheads, I'd love to hear your opinion about this Vetements garment including Soilwork's Stabbing the Drama cover art, created by Mircea Gabriel Eftemie, as well as a bunch of other (sometimes slightly modified) band logos and art.

"Price tag: $1600. Most of you have probably noticed this fashion trend of recycling/stealing metal imagery. So...designer fashion or total rip-off? What do you think?

"To my knowledge, none of this art was licensed. Super Bad?!"

The "other" logos and art he mentions seem to include Ensiferum's logo and Eyehategod's Southern Discomfort album.

Verbeurne's post attracted a lot of comments, notably from Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe who agreed that the fashion brand had overstepped.

Blythe says: "Isn’t this always the way with 'fashion' though? Bunch of whack-ass motherfuckers who wanna briefly play tourist in whatever subculture happens to aesthetically 'hot' at the moment, a subculture they are too terrified to actually experience in real life.

"I’d like to drop one of these motherfuckers into the middle of the pit at a Lamb of God show wearing their $1600 costume and watch them shit their overpriced pre-distressed designer pants.

"It’s happened with punk, it’s happened with hip-hop, it happens with any underground scene that develops a distinct aesthetic. Such is the way of 'fashion'.

"Sorry they ripped you and Eyehategod off though. Two of my friends on one shitty over-priced hoodie."

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.