Decomposed (IDN) "Apocalypse of Destruction"

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Decomposed. An obscure Indonesian brutal death metal from Tangerang, Banten. For further information about the band, please click here.

Now let's talk about how I got this shirt.

I was visiting a local distro/ shop here in my hometown known as Gator Store when I found this shirt. Now let me give a little background about that shop; the shop specialises on Indonesian underground metal (and to some extent hardcore) merchandises by bands from the country. I can say that we in Kuching here are lucky to have the shop operating here as Indonesia do have decent exports coming out to the country. Their main shop located in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia while the one at Kuching here is just a branch.

Many of my friends would know me as a person who will not buy or wear metal t-shirts to bands that I don't listen to. It so happens when I saw this shirt and saw their 2012 EP entitled "Desecrating the Divine" sold at the store as well.

As far as I know, this shirt's title "Apocalypse of Destruction" was not based in any of their songs or release, so I guess if I buy the EP, its ok if I buy the shirt too. Plus its long sleeve with it's sleeves printed. Metalheads love long sleeves, don't they?

What attracts me about this shirt lies in its colour as it is coloured grey. I am so sick of black coloured metal t-shirts and I certainly love it if I could find anything but black. Thus no question on the price of this shirt. I just have to take it home and own it.

After listening to their EP, I look forward to hear from this band but sadly they have not produced anything since 2012.

BASIC INFO

Shirt: Decomposed (IDN) "Apocalypse of Destruction"

Category: Local Indonesian band t-shirt

Subject Origin: Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia

Condition: 9.5/10

Back print: yes

Long sleeve: yes

Sleeves print: yes

Shirt status: original, released by local Indonesian label

Printing ink and method: plastisol ink screen printing

Rator "Possessed"

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Rator. Another legendary band from Malaysia. Who a metalhead from Malaysia would not know what band this is, right? Would any metalhead from Malaysia wear any shirt with the band's name printed on it? I would.

Now Rator is known to be one of the first band which came up from Klang Valley area in Peninsular Malaysia. The metalheads from Petaling Jaya would proudly claim that Rator are their "O.G." or "otai" (yes that's the local Malaysian slang for the word of the same meaning as O.G.) from their area, as a few of the band members or former members lived in Kampung Medan, Petaling Jaya during their early years.

According to my sources, their existence dates back as early as in 1987. For further reading regarding the history of this Malaysian band, just click here, although it is written in Bahasa Malaysia. For their information at the Encyclopedia Metallum, click here.

Now this shirt here I first saw at the old Nebiula Heavy Metal Shop which used to belong to Sil Khannaz frontman Jaie. This could not have been a bootleg right? But hey, should this shirt here be bootlegged, don't blame the people for making and buying it. As a legendary band they should realised that their merchandise will always have their buyers

If this shirt was bootlegged too, the band should then be responsible for handling their own merchandise and not disappear into thin air right after the release of their first and/or one and only album "Possessed" which was released in 2008.

Since I have never heard about the issues on whether this shirt is bootleg or not, I would like to consider this shirt as official merchandise from the band. This shirt design is the only shirt I saw mass-produced from/for the band too. Whoever produced this, I don't know and I really don't care. All I cared is that as long as I have a Rator shirt in my closet. That's it.

This shirt was released about the same time during the released of Rator's aforementioned one and only album, "Possessed" in the year 2008. The album's cover is used as the front design of this shirt. Ever since this shirt was first printed that year, it has since became an iconic shirt for Rator nowadays and is still selling well among metalheads.

BASIC INFO

Shirt: Rator "Possessed"

Category: Local Malaysian band t-shirt

Subject Origin: Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Condition: 9.5/10

Back print: yes

Long sleeve: no

Sleeves print: no

Shirt status: original, released by local Malaysian label

Printing ink and method: rubber dye, silk screen

Blackfire "Blackfire"

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Blackfire (sometimes spelled Black Fire) claims to be the first ever metal band from Malaysia. They play a brand of heavy metal with religious themes from a dark-tinted perspective. I met a few people who interpreted the lyrics by this band to be religious... but this is not white metal. Call it what ever you like but they are not white metal in my opinion.

So what do you do when you walked into a metal store for the first time and saw a shirt of a legendary band from your country up for sale? Of course you buy it knowing that it has a aesthetic value. I even made sure this was not bootlegged too.

One interesting note for me is that the first metal band from Malaysia also comes from Malaysia's smallest state, Perlis.

Formed in 1982 as Metal Ghost, the band changed their name to Blackfire two years later it took them 24 years to finally record a material and the result was their full length album "Lahir Dari Api" released in 2006 and it is their only album to date. Better late than never, I guess.

Why is this band legendary if they never recorded anything? Well, according to Encyclopedia Metallum who had this little info on the website's page on Blackfire:

...their songs had never been recorded in studio until recently. However, they were already known from so many performances in rock festivals and gigs around Malaysia in the 80's.

The design of this shirt looks simple but hey, if it is Blackfire, I am definitely showing my support for the band plus I am just glad to have this shirt in my collection. If I am not mistaken, this shirt was released to accompany the release of their 2006 album to date. Correct me if I am wrong in the comments section below please.

One the back of this shirt are excerpts of lyrics to the song (or more like song and album intro) "Lahirnya Dari Api" found in their one and only album released in 2006.

BASIC INFO

Shirt: Blackfire "Blackfire"

Category: Local Malaysian band t-shirt

Subject Origin: Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia

Condition: 8/10

Back print: yes

Long sleeve: no

Sleeves print: no

Shirt status: original, released by local Malaysian label

Printing ink and method: rubber dye, silk screen

Thornspawn "Thornspawn"

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It is not often that we here in Malaysia get shirts released by underground bands from the land far, far way like the United States and if we do, they're probably made available from a label/ an individual based locally here or in neighbouring country like Indonesia or Thailand.

I saw this shirt during my last visit to Kedah, one of the Malaysian states located in Peninsular Malaysia earlier this year. I was really excited to get a hold of this shirt... but there is just one thing; I do not have any CD or physical release by this band during the time. Only later this year then I bought this shirt when I bought their 2002 album "Wrath of War". 

The ink used for this shirt is of gold coloured rubber dye and yes, for some unknown reason to myself, when its gold and printed on something black I just can't help but to fall in love with it. Gold on black just seems so right and beautiful, like this shirt here.

This shirt here is not really specifically based on any other physical audio release by the band and in my opinion, anyone who have any release by the band can buy and wear this shirt. Apart from the band's logo, nothing else is written on this shirt.

According to Encyclopedia Metallum, this band Thornspawn is based in San Antonio, Texas, USA, So far up to the point of writing this, they had not released any album since the year 2007 but have been actively releasing splits physical audio releases since that year up to three years ago in 2013.

BASIC INFO

Shirt: Thornspawn "Thornspawn"

Category: North American underground band t-shirt

Subject Origin: San Antonio, Texas, United States of America

Condition: 9/10

Back print: yes

Long sleeve: no

Sleeves print: no

Shirt status: original, released by local Malaysian label

Printing ink and method: rubber dye, silk screen

Unholy Sin "Soul From Hell"

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The Sarawakian district of Daro is such an obscure place for many people who are not from the area, the areas nearby and metalheads from Malaysia.

Yes, those in the Malaysian underground metal scene will know Daro as one place, part of the famous Unholy Triangle underground metal scene, where the scene is active in the areas in the middle region of (the Malaysian state of) Sarawak.

Unholy Sin is one band to emerge from the area and they pride themselves as the "only band playing death metal" in Daro, a claim made by the band members who live in a scene where Norwegian black metal reigns supreme.,, well this goes as so far at the time of writing this.

Not much was recorded by this band, which was formed in somewhere in the early millenium ( the year 2001 or so) and for anyone's information here, their entry in the Encyclopedia Metallum was added by me.

They only recorded a two track rehearsal demo so far in 2001 and was involved in as compilation for local band from the Unholy Triangle scene as recent as in the year 2011, contributing a track which was recorded by the band in the same year.

I got this ultra rare shirt from the band's frontman Kumar (real name Razkumar Abu Bakar) and I am honoured to have this shirt in my collection, not only because it is ultra rare... the front print design of this shirt was designed by me as well!

BASIC INFO

Shirt: Unholy Sin "Soul From Hell"

Category: local Malaysian band t-shirt

Subject Origin: Daro, Sarawak, Malaysia

Condition: 9/10

Back print: yes

Long sleeve: no

Sleeves print: no

Shirt status: original, self-released by band

Printing ink and method: rubber dye, silk screen

Deleted "777"

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Bestial Warmetal act from Tawau Deleted released this shirt to accompany the release of their demo entitled "777" in 2009.

It sold like hot cake as I myself bought two copies of this shirt, one for myself and another one given to a friend.

This shirt is also only available in red colour, or at least I have not seen this shirt in other colours apart from red.

I was excited to own a copy of this shirt as this band have a very cult following and I hope to buy more releases by the band in the future.

Interesting to note that this band claims to be based in the country of Brunei but is actually based in Tawau, a town located in the Malaysian state of Sabah, or at least in Tawau many years ago.

BASIC INFO

Shirt: Deleted "777"

Category: local Malaysian band t-shirt

Subject Origin: Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia

Condition: 9/10

Back print: yes

Long sleeve: no

Sleeves print: no

Shirt status: original, self-released by band

Printing ink and method: rubber dye, silk screen

The Gathering of Terror III

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The Gathering of Terror is a series of underground metal music genre gigs organised by a Kuching-based circle of metal-heads friends.

This shirt's front artwork was designed by some kid by the name of David Dean... oh well, he's actually a friend of mine.

I designed this shirt and printed something like 30 copies of this shirt and it was available in black and white versions.

Ain't nothing like a review of a shirt printed/ produced by yourself on your own blog eh? I'll make it short here.

The Gathering of Terror enters it third round (the gig was also known as The Gathering of Terror III) in 2016 and the gig was first organised in 2011.

I purposely featured the white version of this shirt in this post as the white version of this shirt is of more limited quantities released when compared to the black version.

BASIC INFO

Shirt: The Gathering of Terror III

Category: local Malaysian metal gig t-shirt

Subject Origin: Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Condition: 9/10

Back print: yes

Long sleeve: no

Sleeves print: no

Shirt status: original, released by organisers

Printing ink and method: rubber dye, silk screen