Pop’s Heavy Metal Obsession Hits A Nadir With This Zayn Malik Merch

Carl Williott | June 28, 2016 1:01 pm

Pop is going through a retro heavy metal fashion moment, if you haven’t noticed. Stars like Lady Gaga are routinely photographed in vintage metal shirts. Kanye West‘s 2013 Yeezus tour shirts, designed by Wes Lang, were emblazoned with a Metallica-style font and mimicked the iconography of ’80s metal bands — and they were pretty rad. Justin Bieber followed suit, collaborating with Fear Of God for Purpose tour merch, his name stylized like Pentagram and Megadeth‘s logos. This was also kind of dope.

And now Zayn Malik has joined the faux-metal militia and killed the trend with a completely goofy Iron Maiden-inspired shirt.

On the one hand, it was designed by actual Maiden and Judas Priest illustrator Mark Wilkinson (though not the person who created the iconic Eddie The Head character), so there’s a level of authenticity that was missing from the Kanye and Bieber garments. But also…look at this lame ass thing.

The rest of his Mind Of Mine merch actually isn’t bad — head to Vogue for the writeup. And to buy that silly, silly shirt, head to the store right here.

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