Best (read: Your Favorite) Band Iconography

[Stadler]

I don't mean just "logo", though that's part of it, I mean the whole artistic package.  I was ripping my Metallica to hard drive and notice that from Garage, Inc., there's a common thread through and including Death Magnetic:  the same (or similar) typeface, the same Met symbol on the disks, the same dark cover through clear case (on my versions).... then I realized that a band like Genesis, basically had a different logo album every album, with little consistency. Kiss is the same way; other than the actual logo, every album looks like it came from a different band.  And so it dawned on me... who has your favorite catalogue iconography?

For me:

1. Iron Maiden - everything, from the stage, to the t-shirts, to the albums, to the singles, you KNOW it's Maiden right out the gate.
2. Fish-era Marillion
3. Yes

[TAC]

Not sure how many bands have those long term things you speak about.

I feel like AC/DC, with the same logo and Angus image may qualify.

[The Walrus]

Maiden for sure.

[HOF]

Journey’s font changed from album to album, but the whole space beetle thing was pretty cool from Captured to Escape. They’ve at least tried to keep the serif beetle around in one form or another since.

[wolfking]

Not sure how many bands have those long term things you speak about.

I feel like AC/DC, with the same logo and Angus image may qualify.

Ahem.......Riot.

kinda

[wolfking]

There is one band I'm thinking of that on their album covers they have their logo hidden in various places on the cover and it's always very small.  It's a band I love and I can't for the life of me remember who the hell it is.

Edit:  I think I'm thinking of Dream Theater and their icon placed somewhere on each album cover.  Maybe I'm not understanding the thread.

Edit:  Yeah, I think I missed the point of the thread haha.

[Volante99]

Metallica - Kill Em All through Black Album

Cool, distinctive, color scheme for each album.

[Cool Chris]

I don't know what I would have thought of without reading the first post, but once I did, I thought Maiden, obviously.

I know Ghost is relatively new compared to many of these bands, but I like the lore they set up. Yeah, it's goofy and gimmicky, but it's rock n' roll, not Mozart.

[NoFred]

Metallica for me - early on with these great pushead tshirts all the while album covers that were somehow... classy? They knew to keep the covers tight. And the stage not cluttered with any of it.

[ChuckSteak]

Voivod, Frank Zappa, Magma, Sigh, Napalm Death, Monster Magnet, Death, Current 93, Deathspell Omega, Neurosis, Anekdoten, Thee Oh Sees, The Chameleons, Dead Kennedys, French TV, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Rabih Abou-Khalil, Naked City, Melvins, Gorguts, The Residents, X, Laibach, Pekka Pohjola, Rush, Cathedral, Pestilence, Beardfish, etc, etc..

[Architeuthis]

Boston.  I always loved the way they present themselves live. They are like THE band from outer space. The stage show, the music, big guitar sound, Hammond,  and pipe organ totally fit that vibe. Their logo is also really cool.. 💫

[MirrorMask]

Iron Maiden is basically the correct answer for most people.... me included.

I know Ghost is relatively new compared to many of these bands, but I like the lore they set up. Yeah, it's goofy and gimmicky, but it's rock n' roll, not Mozart.

Definitively this. Humor is a fine balance to thread, it's easy to stop being funny and start being dorky. But I love the backstory they created for the band, the lore surrounding the hiearchy of their church and all of that.

Also being a fan of theatrical stuff, concept albums and all of that, I'd say that bands that create a strong and specific identity come with an interesting imaginery for me.

Folk metal has to fall in this category, that subgenre of music lends itself pretty nicely to make you really "feel" the viking / celtic / warrior / whatever vibe. Eluveitie and Ensiferum come to mind.

Another very scenic subgenre is occult retro rock, Blood Ceremony are the unholy bastard child of Sabbath and Tull (the singer plays flute and piano, both live, in according to singing) so the sound itself and the aesthetic of the cover is very vintage, it makes you really feel in the 1970s in dark parts of London or astray in some woods.

For some other classic metal, I'd say Iced Earth visually present themselves pretty nicely. But then again Iron Maiden is one of their biggest influences so it's no wonder that for each album you get a nice "comic book" cover, a mascotte, and a strong visual theme.

[Zantera]

Iron Maiden is a good pick, even their lesser albums have great artwork and 'consistency'. Also like it how with the remastered ones you get the album spine that links together with the rest too.

[Indiscipline]

Budgie!

[New World Rushman]

I have to throw Rush into the mix here. They've never had the same logo or font on any of their albums. The logo from the first album is used often, you see it on their tour cases, etc. The 2112 Starman is probably the logo they're most associated with, and that wasn't even the front cover of the album. I think I associate the Rush in cursive logo from Hemispheres with them the most.

Then you have all the tour stuff; videos, on-stage props related to the album, from red balloons on the Hold Your Fire tour, giant bunnies during the Presto tour, the steam punk set of Clockwork Angels, to breaking down the stage in reverse chronological order for R40, etc. Clothes dryers and chicken rotisseries on stage...

There's so much more; album artwork, R30 drum kit design with all the various logos. Neil's hats, Geddy's shirts (Rash!, "Blah, Blah, Blah").

That said, I have no idea if any of that answers the OP's question...

[Stadler]

Obviously, it's personal opinion, so you're not wrong, but FOR ME, I excluded Rush for the same reason I excluded Genesis.  FOR ME, I was going for "if you see a piece of album art or a stage set, do you know it's <x>", and while Rush had a very strong visual presence through the years, I kind of lump them in with Kiss, in that there's no real rhyme or reason from album to album, tour to tour.   I get that it's easier with a mascot, like Eddie or The Jester, but you don't need that, necessarily.  It's a feel thing.

Dio was another; you kind of always knew it was a Dio album/tour/memorablia piece with the classic font, the painting look, the presence of Murray...

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Ayreon is really the only one that comes to mind for me. Especially from Electric Castle on, there's a distinct flavor to the album art that lets you know you're looking at an Ayreon album even if the name weren't there. (largely due to all of the art being done by Jef Bertels, I believe.)

[MoraWintersoul]

I have to bat for Children of Bodom. From start to finish, they had their own approach to the whole thing, and even when things shifted slightly (like on their final album Hexed, which had a completely different art style), they still used the same Reaper mascot and everything was immediately recognizable as Bodom stuff. I also love their mostly monochromatic album covers, they had a green album, a blue album, and even a purple album and a yellow album, which aren't colors usually used in metal in such a prominent way.

[Max Kuehnau]

My favourite band iconography apart from DT and Yes is Dio actually, believe it or not. (and Megadeth as well)

[El Barto]

Iron Maiden is a good pick, even their lesser albums have great artwork and 'consistency'. Also like it how with the remastered ones you get the album spine that links together with the rest too.

I signed up for a record club deal just to get all of those in one shot, at a significant discount.

Saxon might have done it better, though.

[pg1067]

I have to throw Rush into the mix here. They've never had the same logo or font on any of their albums. The logo from the first album is used often, you see it on their tour cases, etc. The 2112 Starman is probably the logo they're most associated with, and that wasn't even the front cover of the album. I think I associate the Rush in cursive logo from Hemispheres with them the most.

Then you have all the tour stuff; videos, on-stage props related to the album, from red balloons on the Hold Your Fire tour, giant bunnies during the Presto tour, the steam punk set of Clockwork Angels, to breaking down the stage in reverse chronological order for R40, etc. Clothes dryers and chicken rotisseries on stage...

There's so much more; album artwork, R30 drum kit design with all the various logos. Neil's hats, Geddy's shirts (Rash!, "Blah, Blah, Blah").

That said, I have no idea if any of that answers the OP's question...

You beat me to it.

While both Rush and Genesis never adopted a consistent logo, I think Rush stands out because it had so many iconic logos, starting with the first album and the name bursting out of the explosion.  While there was nothing particularly distinctive about the typeface on Fly by Night, the owl is an iconic logo.  Caress of Steel has the distinctive colors and the Necromancer.  2112 has a fairly distinctive typeface and the star.  Nothing particularly iconic about AFTK, but I've always felt like, it you panned the "camera" somewhere between 90-180 degrees, you'd find the cover of Who's Next.  For me, the typeface for the band's name on Hemispheres is the definitive Rush logo.  There's a lot going on on the Permanent Waves cover, but there's no one thing (other than Paula Turnbull) that is distinctive.  Moving Pictures, of course, has the making of a moving picture of men moving pictures that are, themselves, moving pictures.  I could go on....

For me, while there was no consistency in terms of logo, the album packaging for most albums was very distinctive and memorable (esp. up through Roll the Bones, but excluding HYF), and all of that was rolled into the tour design, drums, etc., etc.  Plus, the wan they rolled all of the iconography into the cover of Exit...Stage Left was really cool.


Maiden, Yes and Dio are a couple others that are/were really cool as already mentioned.  Megadeth is another one, although I don't like the music.

I dug the logo that Fates Warning used up through No Exit.  Had they stuck with that logo and the artwork style used on The Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian, they could be in the running here.

[SoundscapeMN]

dredg and Kaddisfly kind of did this with the style of art, not just on their albums, but their merch (t-shirts, posters, etc)

[Cool Chris]

Iron Maiden is a good pick, even their lesser albums have great artwork and 'consistency'. Also like it how with the remastered ones you get the album spine that links together with the rest too.

I have about 3/4 of Eddie (through SSoaSS), but it always bugged me that the go chronologically right to left (the debut being on the right), and all the others on my shelf go left to right, as they should. Also, I get why Live After Death is included. But I don't have that CD (I have it digitally I believe), so my Eddie will always be missing an eye.

[TAC]

For me, the typeface for the band's name on Hemispheres is the definitive Rush logo. 

For me as well.

[bosk1]

It's hard to come up with a lot of bands that had some consistent look and feel throughout their entire catalog, but a few that had a tangible theme for a consistent era of the band.  I'll throw Y&T out there through their classic era as perhaps my favorite.  They were still unknowns outside of their rabid local CA fanbase for their first two albums (which, much like WDADU for DT, were on a small label that folded, and rendered those first two albums virtually unknown to most fans outside of the hardcores) when they went by "Yesterday & Today."  Their "classic" era really started with album #3 (Earthshaker), the label change to A&M, and the official shortening of their name to Y&T.  There were a LOT of fans in the '80s that assumed this was their first album for the longest time.  But in terms of inconography, they still weren't quite there.

Album #4, Black Tiger, is really where the "classic" Y&T iconography started. 



You have the beginning of the metal beast/robot iconography, as well as an early version of the classic metal Y&T logo. 



By Mean Streak, you get the full classic logo that the band has used on ALMOST every album, t-shirt, band scrim, etc. since.  And the classic robot them continues.



The third and last of the "classic" album covers, although, again, the basic theme of this iconography would come and go from this time period up to the present.  And even if it didn't show up on album covers themselves, virtually every tour would feature merch that would hearken back to this.  You could spot a Y&T tour shirt a mile away.

Anyhow, that's my submission on the topic.

[pg1067]

Y&T is another good one.  I still need to check out their music beyond the hit, but it's a really distinctive and recognizable look.

[Indiscipline]

Thinking about it, another act with a strong "brand" look is Def Leppard

[TAC]

Y&T is another good one.  I still need to check out their music beyond the hit, but it's a really distinctive and recognizable look.

Earthshaker-Black Tiger-Meanstreak is an amazing run.

Thinking about it, another act with a strong "brand" look is Def Leppard

Oh, so torn.

[Crow]

i mean this is objectively the best band logo ever

[Zantera]

Another one I thought of that I like is Vektor. Their logo and the dystopian future sci-fi covers are really neat!

[ytserush]

I have to throw Rush into the mix here. They've never had the same logo or font on any of their albums. The logo from the first album is used often, you see it on their tour cases, etc. The 2112 Starman is probably the logo they're most associated with, and that wasn't even the front cover of the album. I think I associate the Rush in cursive logo from Hemispheres with them the most.

Then you have all the tour stuff; videos, on-stage props related to the album, from red balloons on the Hold Your Fire tour, giant bunnies during the Presto tour, the steam punk set of Clockwork Angels, to breaking down the stage in reverse chronological order for R40, etc. Clothes dryers and chicken rotisseries on stage...

There's so much more; album artwork, R30 drum kit design with all the various logos. Neil's hats, Geddy's shirts (Rash!, "Blah, Blah, Blah").

That said, I have no idea if any of that answers the OP's question...

You beat me to it.

While both Rush and Genesis never adopted a consistent logo, I think Rush stands out because it had so many iconic logos, starting with the first album and the name bursting out of the explosion.  While there was nothing particularly distinctive about the typeface on Fly by Night, the owl is an iconic logo.  Caress of Steel has the distinctive colors and the Necromancer.  2112 has a fairly distinctive typeface and the star.  Nothing particularly iconic about AFTK, but I've always felt like, it you panned the "camera" somewhere between 90-180 degrees, you'd find the cover of Who's Next.  For me, the typeface for the band's name on Hemispheres is the definitive Rush logo.  There's a lot going on on the Permanent Waves cover, but there's no one thing (other than Paula Turnbull) that is distinctive.  Moving Pictures, of course, has the making of a moving picture of men moving pictures that are, themselves, moving pictures.  I could go on....

For me, while there was no consistency in terms of logo, the album packaging for most albums was very distinctive and memorable (esp. up through Roll the Bones, but excluding HYF), and all of that was rolled into the tour design, drums, etc., etc.  Plus, the wan they rolled all of the iconography into the cover of Exit...Stage Left was really cool.

Rush did this for their specific albums not really their whole career though many in later years have tried to distill the image down to the first album logo, the starman, or the resurgent "A Farewell To Kings skull. Rush has never been about that one thing no matter how many try to force the square peg into the round hole. That's what makes any given Rush album special.

[DragonAttack]

Chicago

<mic drop>

[LudwigVan]

I love the iconography of Queensryche. While the logo might not have been consistent, that umlaut thing is cool as well as that sinister looking Triryche emblem.

[T-ski]

E
L
O

[pg1067]

i mean this is objectively the best band logo ever

This reminded me of this:  https://www.nme.com/photos/31-illegible-black-metal-band-logos-1435801


Which then reminded me of this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGZmh2eo8g4