The 10 Best Heavy Metal T-Shirts of All Time

The characters you are about to see range from homicidal to demonic. They've defined a generation of metalheads while inciting controversy and protests in their wake. In many instances, these images were even more powerful than the music when it came to scaring the shit out of religious groups who believed these bands were Satan's messengers.

The early days of Metal are long gone, but many of these shirts have been re-printed and can still be found online or at your local head shop. When I was growing up, there was a standard metalhead uniform that consisted of one of these tees paired with a leather jacket, acid washed jeans, and black hi-top basketball sneakers. If you really wanted to kick it up, long feathered hair and a pre-pubescent mustache were the finishing touches that would ensure a guidance counselor asking for a urine sample. Mr. Shneebly taught us that "You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore." Finding yourself one of these shirts is a great way to start melting faces.

With Halloween upon us, we present The 10 Best Heavy Metal T-Shirts of All Time.

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Album: State of Euphoria (1988)
Artist: Mort Drucker

This Anthrax shirt is from 1988 when the band was on tour promoting their State of Euphoria album. The front and back covers of the album were designed by Mort Drucker, who is best known for his caricatures in MAD Magazine. If you look back at a lot of the metal bands from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, you’ll notice that many adopted certain aspects of hip hop fashion, particularly big basketball sneakers. Anthrax even went to the next level when they collaborated with Public Enemy on a sick re-make of Bring the Noise. This shirt reminds me of the old Salem Sportswear pro athlete shirts from the eighties, so although it’s not going to scare the shit out of your parents, this shirt sneaks onto the list at number 10.

Tour: World Sacrifice Tour (1988)
Artist: Larry Carroll

The 1988 World Sacrifice Tour began in August and had Slayer teaming up with Danzig. Slayer then went to Europe in September to play a month’s worth of shows with Nuclear Assault. The following month they came back to America for the “Mercanaries of Metal” tour with Motorhead and Judas Priest. In November, they resumed their World Sacrifice tour and brought along Motorhead and Overkill. This is a classic shirt from that tour featuring more Satanic imagery and text than any teacher or grandma can handle. The insanely demonic character on the front combined with the words “World Sacrifice” on the back make this one another all-time great in the history of rock tee shirts.

Tour: Damage Inc Tour (1986)
Artist: Pushead

Metallica’s Damage Inc. World Tour of 1986 is unfortunately most well-known for the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton on September 27th in Sweden. This is a weird fucking story that will pop up again in this list too. According to the band, the members drew straws on the bus that night to choose the bunks they wanted to sleep in. They went to bed that night and were awoken to their driver skidding off the road and flipping their bus several times. Ulrich, Hammet and Hetfied miraculously were hardly injured, but the bus had rolled on top of Burton, killing him. This shirt is an all-time metal classic thanks to the artwork by Pushead. Some of you will recognize this skull from his other work with Nike SB, Kool Keith, Thrasher Magazine, Dr. Dre, The Misfits and Zorlac Skateboards.

Album: Remember The Alamo (1983)
Artist: Derek Riggs

Derek Riggs crushes it once again with Eddie in Texas for the band’s 1983 run in the Lone Star State. Look at this thing! On the front we have a soldier version of Eddie prowling over corpses on the battlefield as the Grim Reaper lurks in the background. Cannons are still blazing as Eddie emerges waving the state flag in one hand and a brain on a sword in the other. Then we flip to the back for “Brain Damage in Tejas” with a brain and blood shooting out of an oil rig! This is so sick right here.

Tour: 1984 World Slavery Tour
Artist: Derek Riggs

In 1984 Iron Maiden went on tour to support their Powerslave album. The tour was the band’s biggest to date and had them playing 193 shows in 28 countries to an estimated 3,500,000 metal heads. The World Slavery tour was in response to their 1984 album that was one of their best ever, featuring an Egyptian theme. This tour shirt gives us a mummified Eddie, and I chose the “Iron Curtain” version since there’s nothing more metal than thrashing Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia to kick off a tour.

Album: The Shortest Straw (1988)
Artist: Pushead

This is another classic Metallica shirt designed by the legendary Pushead. I already told the story of Cliff Burton drawing the shortest straw and ending up dead under a bus in 1986 and that definitely adds some more creepiness to this artwork. The shirt is based on the Metallica song by the same name, although the song itself doesn’t seem to be about the death of their late bassist a few years earlier? If anyone can shed some light in the subject, please add it to the comments section. Although this looks very similar to the Damage Inc. shirt of 1986, this shirt was released two years later.

Album: Number Of The Beast (1982)
Artist: Derek Riggs

Number Of The Beast was Iron Maiden’s third studio album and first featuring Bruce Dickinson. The album caused quite a controversy in 1982 since the Derek Riggs cover art featured Eddie controlling a Satan marionette. Eddie has always represented Iron Maiden and the fact that this artwork featured him in cahoots with the devil had religious groups all over holding protests and burning Iron Maiden tapes. The band knew what they were doing and what type of press this imagery would create because they actually saved this artwork from being used on the Purgatory single in favor of the full album. The publicity from this album helped Number Of The Beast go to Number 1 on the UK album charts, while also giving the group a new nickname thanks to their live show. This shirt depicts the album cover on front with the cities “The Beast” visited on their 1982-83 World Tour, listed on the back.

Album: Alter Of Sacrifice (1986)
Artist: Larry Carroll

In 1986 Slayer signed a record deal with Def Jam. Rick Rubin helped them strip down their songs and clean up production on the album Reign In Blood. This shirt was designed by Larry Carroll for the band’s world tour with Overkill in the U.S., and Malice overseas. The artwork is borderline cheesy, but so out there, that it’s up high on this list. First let’s point out that it’s a white with black ¾ sleeve jersey. Now consider the satanic church reference on the front, with the addition of Reign In Blood combined with “Do You Wanna Die” written in blood on the back to take this thing over the top. If you look closely at the print under the artwork on the front of the shirt, you will also see the Def Jam 1986 text. This is one of the all-time metal shirt classics that is still highly sought-after, but seldom seen by collectors.

Album: Metal Up Your Ass (1982)
Artist: Stephen Gorman

Metallica’s Metal Up Your Ass shirt is breaking my self-imposed “concert tour only” rule, but it has some ties to a live show, so it made its way to Number 2 on the list. Metallica first used this name for their 1982 live demo that featured nine original songs and Dave Mustaine on guitar. The name Metal Up Your Ass and this artwork by Stephen Gorman were supposed to be used for the band’s first real album, but their record company Megaforce wouldn’t allow it. Legend says Cliff Burton’s response was “Just fuckin’ kill ‘em all”, and that became the title of the first album. It’s funny that the record company considered Kill ‘Em All a better option, but I bet it was partially due to the insanity of this artwork. This shirt seems to have first appeared in ¾ sleeve jersey form in 1985 and re-prints can be still found all over the Internet.

Album: Killers (1981)
Artist: Derek Riggs

Iron Maiden’s Eddie first appeared as a paper mache head that served as the backdrop to the band’s stage show. At the end of each performance they would use a fish tank pump to shoot fake blood out of the mouth of this giant head and onto the stage. When the band was releasing their first album in 1980, they were looking through artist Derek Riggs’ portfolio and noticed artwork that he had created with another band in mind. Iron Maiden asked Riggs to add hair to his character to use as the artwork for their first album, and in 1980 Eddie was officially created. We’ve seen him pop up a few times throughout this list because he is the most famous mascot in music and is always scary as shit. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you could certainly tell what type of music Iron Maiden was putting out thanks to Derek Riggs’ various reincarnations of Eddie through the years. The Killers 1981 Tour shirt comes in at Number 1 on this list because we see Eddie wielding a bloody hatchet and killing someone who is pleading for his life. On the band’s first album, Eddie was just there. This artwork takes it to a whole new gruesome level.