Joel
I only clicked through because I was quite interested in seeing the Dark Lord of Legos.
Oh well - the logos weren't too bad.
Richaod
Is it really typical black metal design if the logos are actually readable, though? :P
Pat
Are (black/death) metal fans such a tight-knit group that bands need to have a certain look to gain acceptance? I hoped that this was confined to the mainstream. Perhaps the tail wags the dog - after a while, the band subconsciously adapts to the music surrounding them.
Maybe stylistic rebellion only happens when there's a market to support it.
Rhys
It's semiotics dude. It's in everything in life.
Looking at the logo's this guys done, you can tell the Black from the Death - it's a language of symbols. The rules can be broken, but every genre does it. I can tell an emo or an indie band by name and logo. I've never heard House vs Hurricane or whatever, but i know what it is by the name alone.
Black metal is no different, it's just distorted and hard to read because we don't want outsiders to be into our music. Corpse-paint, bullet belts, shit production and illegible logos all say the same thing to outsiders - Fuck Off!!!
:)
Pat
No wonder picking a band name was so freakin' hard. Our suggestions probably came with baggage only you could really understand, and we had no specific genre to match a name to!
Brad
I said in my post that I do think it's good design. I dislike that style aesthetically but I think there's a huge amount of value in it... and it clearly works.
The Dark Lord of Logos
2008-11-21 16:57Klaus Pichler of Vice magazine compiled a mini Q&A with Christophe Szpajdel, who has designed "more than 7,000 logos, mostly for black- and death-metal bands from all over the world".
Check out the accompanying slideshow of his work, which exemplifies how little creativity there is in black metal design (as opposed to black metal music which, to be fair, is a mixed bag). I dislike stereotypical heavy metal design from an aesthetic point of view, but commenter Jason make a great point:
And that's good design.
(Via Brand New.)