London Metal Coalition Battle Jacket
Social Rebellion Patches has teamed up with the London Metal Coalition (LMC) and Battleaxe Jackets to build a bespoke, custom battle jacket that serves as a living, breathing historical archive of the current London heavy metal scene.
Why Make It?
I love history, I love Metal, and I love building battle jackets. As a patch-maker who usually works alone, collaborating with awesome people to catalogue and document our community is the ultimate project for me.
The Custom Construction
This isn’t a quick iron-on job using cheaply printed patches. This is a premium, custom build:
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The Embroidery: Every single band logo is hand-digitized and stitched in-house by Social Rebellion Patches. I colour-match the threads to the bands' own branding and use industrial-grade polyester to ensure these patches survive the pit.
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The Artwork: The massive centerpiece - a custom collection of skulls interwoven with snakes is being hand-painted by the incredible BattleAxe Jackets.
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The Epaulettes: You can’t have a scene without the venues. Legendary London institutions The Dev and Signature Brew sit on the shoulders, watching over the bands they host every week.
How to Win a Piece of Metal History
This jacket is not for sale. When the final patch is placed, it belongs to the scene. The Official LMC Battle Jacket will be raffled off at the upcoming Coalition Festival, with every single penny going straight back to the LMC to help fund the next wave of underground gigs.
You literally have to be in the pit to win it.
Follow the Build
I am documenting every single stitch, layout, and stud over on Instagram and TikTok under the tag #LMCBattleJacket.
Progress thus far!
As you can see, the paintwork is done. Kirstie at BattleAxe Jackets did a cracking job with her skulls, snakes and green colour scheme. It is going to look sick contrasting with the wide array of colour we have coming from the band patches themselves. Now this project wouldn't be complete to me without cataloguing it properly and doing these bands and venues justice by telling you a little bit about them and how they are doing right now in 2026. History will remember, them, or at the very least, this jacket project will!
Venues:
Signature Brew: Website / Instagram
Operating two venues in London, one in Blackhorse Road and one in Haggerston, Signature Brew combines two of the best things in life: independent craft beer and live, deafening heavy music. The Blackhorse Road brewery is legendary in the scene for letting you literally mosh right next to the massive brewing tanks. They are an absolute pillar of the London underground, giving a massive platform to heavy bands night after night.
Bands:
#1: Tempest Saint: Tempest Saint emerged in 2023 from Hertfordshire and London, marking their entry into the UK heavy metal scene with a potent blend of classic metal vibes and modern rock intensity. You can find them performing at The Dev in Camden with regularity.
Instagram
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#2 Halberd: Claiming patch #2 with that aggressive neon green thread, Halberd brings absolute pure energy to the Coalition roster as a 5-piece gritty Thrash Metal band.
Halberd are set to release a new EP in May this year tilted 'Attention Please!'. The main theme being about people glued to their screens whilst they are letting life pass them by and while people are allowing the media to cause stress to their lives to cause hate and division without looking at the bigger picture. As always, set in the post-apocalyptic fantasy realm of Halberd
Instagram
Buy their patch here
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#3 Kardinal X: Their sound is huge, theatrical, and unapologetically metal - a full force wall of sound with soul-crushing grooves and razor sharp showmanship. If you crave heavy music that's both old-school in heart and modern in execution, Kardinal X deliver it loud and without compromise.
Instagram
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#4 Levee: Levee is a London based two-piece hard-rock band comprised by Morten Fausboll (Denmark) and Fredrick Lindal (Norway). Well-crafted songs and super entertaining live performances took Levee to the final of the all encompassing UK metal competition Metal 2 The Masses London in 2022. Levee is a well-stablished and driving force in the London metal underground.
#5 SYMBYOTE: Symbyote is a London-based metal band featuring a fusion of deathcore, black metal, death metal, and hardcore. They won their spot at the New Blood Bloodstock stage in 2022.
From the band: "We're in the process of recording our debut EP hopefully released in the next few months. We're also gearing up for shows all over the country and some festival performances over the course of the rest of this year."
Catch them playing live, you'll be in for a top night!
Instagram
Official Website
