FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.8.0_25"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_25-b17)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.25-b02, mixed mode)

ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Mac OSX 10.9.5

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
Rotating text is broken when using Font#deriveFont to draw String.
See sample.
It seems regression appeared after Java 7 u40.
It affects currently Apache JMeter project, see:
https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=57221

Thanks for help

ADDITIONAL REGRESSION INFORMATION: 
java version "1.8.0_25"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_25-b17)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.25-b02, mixed mode)

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
Run on Java 7u40, you get a Frame with correclty drawn text
Run it with Java8 or Java7u71, you get a strange rotation of characters

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
Correct rotation of text
ACTUAL -
Strange rotation of text which does not comply with previous behaviour

ERROR MESSAGES/STACK TRACES THAT OCCUR :
No error message

REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import java.awt.font.FontRenderContext;
import java.awt.font.LineMetrics;
import java.awt.geom.AffineTransform;
import java.awt.geom.GeneralPath;
import java.awt.geom.Rectangle2D;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;

public class Test extends JPanel {
    Rectangle2D.Float rect = new Rectangle2D.Float(200, 200, 220, 35);
    // float theta = 1.1748778437843f;
    double theta = Math.PI / 6;

    @Override
    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
        super.paintComponent(g);
        Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
                RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_FRACTIONALMETRICS,
                RenderingHints.VALUE_FRACTIONALMETRICS_ON);
        g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_STROKE_CONTROL,
                RenderingHints.VALUE_STROKE_PURE);
        g2.setPaint(Color.blue);
        Font font = g2.getFont().deriveFont(18f);
        g2.setFont(font);
        FontRenderContext frc = g2.getFontRenderContext();
        String s = "This text should be rotated";
        float width = (float) font.getStringBounds(s, frc).getWidth();
        LineMetrics lm = font.getLineMetrics(s, frc);
        float height = lm.getAscent() + lm.getDescent();
        // Scale text into rect.
        float xScale = rect.width / width;
        float yScale = rect.height / height;
        float scale = (xScale > yScale) ? yScale : xScale;
        // Locate string origin.
        double x = rect.x;
        double y = rect.y + (rect.height + scale * height) / 2 - scale
                * lm.getDescent();
        AffineTransform at = AffineTransform.getTranslateInstance(x, y);
        at.scale(scale, scale);
        AffineTransform rotator = new AffineTransform();
        rotator.rotate(theta, rect.getCenterX(), rect.getCenterY());
        GeneralPath rect2 = new GeneralPath(
                rotator.createTransformedShape(rect));
        // Draw with no rotation.
        g2.draw(rect);
        g2.setPaint(Color.red);
        g2.setFont(font.deriveFont(at));
        g2.drawString(s, 0, 0);
        // Rotate once.
        g2.setPaint(Color.blue);
        g2.draw(rect2);
        rotator.concatenate(at);
        g2.setFont(font.deriveFont(rotator));
        g2.setPaint(Color.red);
        g2.drawString(s, 0, 0);
        // Rotate again.
        rotator.setToIdentity();
        rotator.rotate(2 * theta, rect.getCenterX(), rect.getCenterY());
        rect2 = new GeneralPath(rotator.createTransformedShape(rect));
        g2.setPaint(Color.blue);
        g2.draw(rect2);
        rotator.concatenate(at);
        g2.setFont(font.deriveFont(rotator));
        g2.setPaint(Color.red);
        g2.drawString(s, 0, 0);
        // Check scaled string bounds.
        // this was handled by the fractional metrics rendering hint
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Test test = new Test();
        test.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(800, 600));
        JFrame f = new JFrame();
        f.getContentPane().add(test);
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.pack();
        f.setVisible(true);
    }
}

---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
None found