Logos From Hell Sample

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Logos from Hell

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eath metal and black metal logos may be considered a crude orm o  typography oten rendered by hand but sometimes constructed by a conglomeration o onts. Typography, having its origin in the ancient Minoan civilization o Crete circa 1850-1600 BC, has evolved over the centuries into an art orm handled in modern times by visual experts and even the lay person. Death and black  metal logos, as a legit art orm, is gaining momentum as the genres begin to surace into international mainstream visual art and music communities. Its reputation is oten overlooked because i its extreme nature however it is important to take note o its presence and its relationship to proessional typography and logo design.

Logos from Hell

Death, black and related extreme metal music genres are arbitrarily dened by their sound. They are a more aggressive orm o music, inspired by their tamer predecessors. The nature o extreme music—employing ast tempos, heavily distorted guitar playing, oten undecipherable vocals, and unholy lyrical content—is synonymously reected in its visual branding. Branding is the implementation o  a visual graphic—such as a logo—which serves the purpose o creating an association or expectation or any given product. In this case, the product o ocus is extreme heavy metal music. A band’s logo may serve the purpose o being recognizable, imply a style o   music, create a theme, appeal to a specic audience, or simply be used as a marketing tool or products and advertising. Just as the sound o extreme heavy metal music can be arbitrarily dened, so can the style o logo it commands. Death metal logos are oten delineated by their lack o legibility as it goes hand-in-hand with the seemingly audible illegibility o the music. Subjectively speaking, one might draw the conclusion that the more extreme the logo, the more extreme the band. The notion o an extreme logo can be compared to the concept o ‘display typography’ which is less concerned with legibility and is typically

used as an artistic or decorative orm o type versus the more structured ‘text type’comprised by a large body o words. The typical art istic elements o a death metal logo oten consist o pointed edges, web-like eatures, blood drips, thin and intricate borders, ideograms, and more importantly—repetition and alignment. Despite the raw and imaginative characteristics o a death metal logo, it still retains the simple structure o most well-dened type. Death metal logos rely heavily on the undamentals o  typography, employing the mindulness o symmetry, tracking, kerning, various letter heights, and even the implementation o ligatures. Black metal logos, or example, depend heavily on script-inspired letter orms, ornate embellishments, and the excessive use o ideograms such as upside-down crosses, pentagrams, and various occult symbols.  This compendium o death and black metal logos includes the talent o some o the most prolic and well-respected artists in the underground extreme heavy metal music community. It is an attempt to oer incite, meaning, and purpose to a orm o art that has ound its niche in the extreme music market and makes no apologies or pushing the limits o  acceptable logo and type design.

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Logos from Hell

Logos from Hell

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his brie inspection o extreme heavy metal logos would be incomplete without the most inuential logo—and band—in death metal music history. The band Death, by which the genre o death metal is named, exhibits a logo that is both a rudimentary and dinitive part o logo history. Originally penned with a ne point marker in 1984 by ormer member Kam Lee, the logo’s raw nature and symbolic content ring true in many logos today. The Death logo has seen various incarnations as the band progressed over time but the original version retains the true qualities essential to the band’s origin. Note the ‘666’ around the letter ‘T’ (which doubles as an inverted cross); an element that never appeared on any o the ofcial Death album covers.

Original Death logo by Kam Lee

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     T     :      A     T      R      N      T      E      I       S      L      U      C      L      L      I

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I    L   L    U  S  T  R  A T   O R   :  

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