Extinction A.D.’s Rick Jimenez Shares His Ten Favorite Metal T-Shirts
A metalhead’s t-shirt collection contains some of their most prized possessions. Sweaty, stained and torn, our shirts are chronicles of our lives, physical markers of a past time and place that we pridefully put on our bodies every day. They have a clear pecking order: there are those shirts you wear only when all the best ones are in the laundry, there are the absolute favorites you wear once every couple of weeks, and there are all the shirts in between, each with their own clear rank. To a metalhead, T-shirts are EVERYTHING.
Rick Jimenez of Extinction A.D. is the latest to share his threads for our series My Metal T-Shirt Collection. Extinction A.D.’s new album Decimation Treaty drops February 16 on Good Fight Music; pre-order it here and listen to the track “Age of Revenge” below as you peruse Rick’s most prized metal shirts. The band goes out on tour with Darkest Hour and Whores the same day their album comes out; get dates here and at the bottom of this post!
1. Queensryche – Empire
I wore this shirt to my first guitar lesson in 1992. After all these years it finally fits properly, although it’s about to fall apart. It’s my favorite shirt of all time despite it being for Empire instead of Operation: Mindcrime. My teacher taught me the opening riff of “Silent Lucidity” on my tiny guitar that day, and I honestly haven’t progressed much since then.
2. Metallica …And Justice For All
This is a parking lot bootleg from the Nassau Coliseum date of the Justice tour. My sister’s boyfriend at the time got this and I stole it from him in 1993. Didn’t de-sleeve this until 2015 because it was so small and going un-worn. Who gives a shit, right?
3. Slayer – “213”
This was the shirt I wore on the first day of high school. Scrawny punk metal freak wearing a size large because 1994. I cut the sleeves off of this when my former band This is Hell was on tour in Kentucky once and it was hot out. High school taught me that much, at least.
4. Anthrax “I Am The Law”
This looks worn as hell and like it’s from the ’80s but this is actually from the 2011 tour with Death Angel and Testament. I never got into the Judge Dredd books or movies but I ripped off Anthrax’s idea and wrote a song about Savage Dragon. I tweeted Erik Larsen about it a few times trying to get him to like me but it never worked. Add him to the list of people that don’t care about my music. Poseurs.
5. Goatwhore “Into A Darker Son”
Goatwhore are such a bitchin’ band and this is such a bitchin’ shirt. You know how cool you feel when Sammy from Goatwhore trades you a shirt at the end of a tour and then says “You sound like the Cro-Mags…YOU ARE THE CRO-MAGS!”? Pretty fucking cool. That was also back in the days of This is Hell. Wore this sleeveless banger in the XAD “Prisoners” video; I dare you to watch it!
6. Demolition
My favorite tag team growing up was way more metal than what was on MTV during their three title runs. I bought this shirt specifically because I got an office job and didn’t have to dress like a dork so I figured “let me get a bootleg of a 30-year-old tag team that was essentially two overweight men dressed in bondage gear for work.” Obviously I was just dressed like a different KIND of dork.
7. Metallica “Metal Up Your Ass”
This is a 1987 original that was gifted to me on my 30th birthday and I definitely didn’t deserve it. It’s the world’s softest but not “on the brink of unravelling” shirt ever. Worded like that it makes the shirt seem wimpy now… but look at it, it obviously rocks every house on the block. Guess what else? The Black Album is a good record, you marks!
8. Verbal Abuse
Verbal Abuse were more of a first wave American hardcore/punk band but they were absolutely in crossover territory from the start both musically and lyrically. This has been one of my main show shirts for the last two years or so and I got it used to begin with, so it’s super worn out and comfortable and usually wreaks of Puerto Rico despite how many times I wash it.
9. Iron Maiden “World Slavery”
American Ice Age were about to play a show in some dump at home and Jeff [Tiu, vocals] whips out two giant bags of shirts he wants to sell, so in true Puerto Rican form I dig through them and get all “can I have this and this and this?!” I grabbed this one and wear it often not just because it rules but it pays homage to everything else I’ve ripped off from Jeff both musically and lyrically over the past 20 years.
10. Dethklok “Go Forth And Die”
I listen to Dethklok like a real band and it seems to bum people out for some reason. Metalocalypse is so brilliant and goddamn fucking funny. Best part about this shirt is that my mom got this for me for Christmas a few years ago. I don’t know about you, man, but that’s hilarious to me.
Extinction A.D.’s new album Decimation Treaty drops February 16 on Good Fight Music; pre-order it here.
Darkest Hour, Whores, and Extinction A.D.
02/16 – Richmond, VA @ The Canal Club
02/17 – Savannah, GA @ AURA FEST
02/18 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East
02/19 – Louisville, KY @ Trixies
02/20 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
02/21 – Indianapolis, IN @ Emerson Theater
02/22 – Chicago, IL @ Reggies
02/23 – Lansing, MI @ The Loft
02/24 – Rochester, NY @ Photo City
02/25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Cattivo
