Heavy metal is not merely a heavy metal riff and blast beat but it is a highly visual subculture. Long hair and battle jackets are the usual staples of the scene, but there is whole subculture of heavy metal headwear. The cultural artifacts of heavy metal hat are the battle-worn beanies to custom-manufactured helmets, which serve as a testimony to the extreme aesthetics and unblushing self-expression the genre places upon itself. Jump into the gloomy, heavy, and outrageously creative headgears that adorn the kings and queens of the mosh-pit.
1. The Battle-Scarred Beanie
The beanie is the quiet hero in the wardrobe of the metalhead. Popular with the fans of thrash, death and groove metal, these are not your clean winter warmers. The real metal beanie is stretched, torn and usually painted with tightly stitched, fraying patches of underground bands. It takes the sweat of a hundred mosh pits and is an emblem of honor and pure devotion to the scene regardless of the weather.
2. The Studded Leather Cap
Inspired by the heavy metal icon Rob Halford of Judas Priest, the biker studded leather cap has been a standard of traditional heavy and speed metal. This hat is covered in polished chrome spikes, heavy rivets, and chains in some cases which scream rebellion and classic heavy metal attitude. Not only is it an armor, it is a fashion accessory, reflecting the stage lights and creating the air of inaccessible cool.
3. The Corpse-Paint Cowl of Black Metal
Atmospheric world of black metal, where freezing is the norm, standard hats just will not work. Fans and musicians usually use heavy, shredded cowls or large hoods that fall in a threatening manner down around the face. Combined with black-and-white corpse paint, the cowl silhouettes the face in complete darkness which contributes to the dark, dramatic mysticism and anti-establishment atmosphere that characterizes the genre.
4. Thrash Metal Snapback
The snapback hat, frequently worn with the brim turned upside down, is the official attire of the thrash metal skater and brought to the limelight by crossover thrash bands in the 1980s and 90s. Typically in the jagged and violent style of the logos of bands such as Suicidal Tendencies or Municipal Waste, this hat is made to move about. It is a connection between punk skate culture and high speed metal, constructed to be stood on when stage-diving.
5. The Folk Metal Drinking Helmets
The headwear of folk and pagan metal fans is filled with historical celebration and antique narration. Fans are not unaccustomed to wearing fur-lined leather caps, faux-horned Viking helmets or elaborately tooled leather headbands at live concerts. Not mere costumes, these hats entirely transform the modern concert into an epic medieval feast and place the wearer directly into the mythological, mead-drinking ambiance of the music.
6. The Cap of the Industrial Welder
The aesthetic of industrial metal is based on an icy, dystopian, and mechanical appearance. To achieve this aesthetic, fans frequently recycle real industrial workwear to fit this aesthetic, such as an extensively customized welder cap or a battered military-style cadet hat. Their gears, biohazard signs, or rusted metal fittings make these hats a perfect fit with the electronic synths and pounding, factory press beats of the style.
7. The Wide-Brim Doom Metal
The doom metal wide-brimmed hat, as heavy, slow, and oppressive as the guitar riffs themselves, is all about Gothic melodrama. It is often a hard, black felt fedora, a witch-hunter figure, or a preaching hat, but which is intended to cast a long, dark shadow over his or her eyes. It directs a Southern Gothic, occult-revival vitality that perfectly corresponds with the melancholy, low-pitched dirges of the doom metal scene.
