Nobody told me, but a few weeks ago Alan Rapp’s Critical Terrain design blog posted eight minutes of an interview with Stephen O’Malley and plain ole writerly me concerning the self-generating and constantly-evolving visual and design dimensions of heavy metal.
Truthfully, since getting involved in the production of the Bazillion Points books, and while working on the expanded LOGOS FROM HELL with Mark Riddick, I have been giving these things some thought. It’s obvious that everything needs to get back to tape, scissors, and glue!
Thanks, Seldon Hunt!
Such a strange interview starting with of all things “Def Leppard”….
I am friends with Seldon and find it a bit weird that many bands the interviewer listed that he has worked with get linked to metal at all…. Isis, Nadja, Neurosis?? Solid bands (two of which I’ve also done work for,) but they’re faaaaar from metal. Even the “post-metal” tag that gets thrown around is such a misnomer considering said bands have no metal background at all and perhaps being heavy, really share very little similarities. Post hardcore maybe…but not metal. Seldon’s answer was pretty spot on though pseudo-intellectual dissection of metal music and visuals by complete outsiders is really something. Would have been interesting if the interviewer dug a bit deeper into “underground” metal and illustrators/designers (Moyen, Trident Arts, Daniel Desecrator…).
Black letter typefaces, goats and skulls – perhaps overplayed, but essential!!!
Hi Justin. Considering that the creators of this piece led with Def Leppard, you can project pretty accurately when design critics will be ready for Chris Moyen and Daniel Desecrator — roughly in 2038. But hopefully the full-length LOGOS FROM HELL book will be done this year to do a little to hasten the situation forward.
If that heinous artbortion is considered metal I’m going back to fucking tango.