One way a band can achieve an identity is to use a series of similar themes, or similar graphics on their album covers. A lot of bands like to use patterns from album to album.

Megadeth and Grave Digger - most have their respective mascots on the cover, with the logo directly above it, in the same place from album to album.

Amon Amarth - from The Crusher through Versus the World, their logo is featured with a line under it, then the album title directly under that. I've also noticed that on every album cover except With Oden on Our Side, there is a prominence of fire.

What bands do you know of that do this?

Iron Maiden and Eddie is an obvious example....

I think a lot of artists put their logos in the exact same spot on every album, though at the moment I can only think of Cradle of Filth (though I believe "Dusk... And her Embrace" is actually their only album where the logo isn't at the top - it's at the bottom)...

I don't really mean the mascot itself being the pattern, but rather placement and similarity of the logo, the picture itself from album to album, or even just how the cover is laid out.

Both of Acid Bath's full-lengths feature a picture to the right, with a small place on the left for the band's then logo and album title.

Every Korpiklaani album cover has the Shaman symbol (from thier past band Shaman and it's a symbol that has some meaning to it) somewhere on the album cover. And since thier album Tales Along This Road, they have had this old dude with antlers named Varri. Then as the other posters said, Iron Maiden is a big one.

I have a question. Is it the same viking on the cover of every full length of Ensiferum?

Pretty sure Children of Bodom has that reaper on each cover in a different color.

Dio has the demon.

Manowar has a lot of shirtless dudes with swords.

Great job following the rules I specified dumbass.

Was not specific in the OP.

CORONER has 2 different patterns on their albums :

- the first two (at least 1st and CD version of the 2nd) have a circle image, with the logo on top
- the 2nd (vinyl version) to last one have a black vertical bar on the right side with their logo, album title and stamp at the same place

I would say yes. Not only does it look like him, but he has the same shield. Though he wasn't present on the "Dragonheads" EP. That's also the only album where the Ensiferum logo is not at the top of the liner notes.

Well if you're talking about identity, a mascot has a lot to do with that. Mascots are pivotal for a company's identity/brand (ie: Ronald McDonald for the McDonald's franchise) so it's no different for a band or their album cover art. So I don't see what the big fuss is about with mentioning mascots on album covers. When you say "themes" or (key word) "graphics", people will automatically say mascots... hint hint

And how a band lay's out their album cover doesn't necessarily mean that is their identity... many artists do that but it's not necessarily an id of the band. The logo, mascot, color swatches, and whatnot are more identifiable than a layout... in some cases, the layout might be strong with identifying an album but not the band. I see where you're coming from about the identity of an album and a band, but this is not always true for most bands. So your OP doesn't discretely say that stuff about mascots not being mentioned.


Anyway I'll actually throw in Amon Amarth's color swatch choice from album to album. They always use warm color swatches (hues of reds and oranges) for every album.

On a different note, Godflesh for the early part of their career had a thing with using movie still photos for their albums, usually not edited where you can still see the monitors pixels. They usually placed the logo on top of their albums as well in a large manner. On a similar manner, Pitchshifter in their early days (first two albums) obviously followed the same scheme as Godflesh with their name boldened on the top of the album, and a photo as the art.

Napalm Death's first few albums had a similar pattern of placing the logo on the top of the cover, title on the bottom, and limited themselves 2-3 color swatches. The artistic direction was usually the same as well, with a DYI style photocopy art vibe.

Sunn O)))'s white album series followed a very similar art scheme, with a clean--cut vectorized logo, album name in Arial font, and underneath the album name are the participants of the album. The illustrations were usually one colored as well. This is a perfect example where the layout identifies the albums in the series, but not necessarily the band.

Maudlin of the Well does something pretty similar to Coroner. They all have a black stripe on the left with their logo and the album title, with the album art on the right.

Immolation-Dawn of Possession
Demons swarming angels in an epic aerial battle

Immolation-Here In After
beneath and infront of a golden arch demons appear to be in agony fearing the wrath of god, angels appear to be in a rapturous mood ready to be saved...these demons and angels sure look familiar

Immolation-Failures for Gods
as the "new found messiah" is preaching to the masses... the background shows the same arch far in the distance...

Hate Eternal-King of all Kings
there appears to be a structure quite similar to the arch only a bit eroded, broken and decrepit ...coincidence? remember it's the same artist....

That Immolation one kicks ass. I can't find the arch in the Hate Eternal album cover though.

I think the most obvious one not yet mentioned would be Kreator's use of the brain/head guy on Coma of Souls, Violent Revolution, Enemy of God, and Hordes of Chaos.

I was going to say this.

I'm not shure if this applies to the topic; but I've heard that when you look at Iron Maiden's studio discography on the side of the cd it creates a picture of Eddie. Is this true?

I remember hearing it does, but I'm not entirely sure. I know that the Megadeth reissues create Vic on the side.

yep, it does

It's the same for the Megadeth remasters.

Burzum always has very similiar placement.

Early carcass and Early napalm death did this very well.

Metallica's logo is always on the top middle.
That is, until they came out with the Black Album....

ive noticed with "brutal death metal myspace bands", the better the artwork, the shittier the band is....jon zigs work, for example

It's because shitty bands usually have more money.

Each Type O Negative album except for the first two has the band name in the upper right corner, the album title in the lower left corner and is green.

EDIT: Seems I'm a bit slow.

Italian industrial black metal act "3" have all their albums done in a similar fashion. The title is in some artwork of "flames" under the actual picture, with the logo positioned to the left of whatever the artwork is.

Surprised this one wasn't mentioned but, Symphony X have a happy mask and a sad one on each of their album covers.

I'm pretty sure that Abigor have their logo in the same place on all their album covers which feature it

Testament has 5 dudes standing on the cover of Practice What You Preach and Souls of Black in a similar pattern.

Zimmer's Hole albums all have fire on them.

The 2004 remasters from Self-Titled through to Live at Donington, yes.

I like the way every Megadeth album has the logo boldly placed top and center, except Rude Awakening (no logo at all) and the original release of Risk. It just makes a strong statement.

Not quite one band continuously following the same pattern, but I thought it might fit the thread anyway:

Tankard and some form of alcoholic drink or references on all (or most) of their album covers.

Early Riot albums all had that weird bird/ferret thing on them. Pretty distinctive, I'd say.

It's actually a seal, but I can see how someone could make that mistake.

I can see it now, but, wow, I don't think I ever would've had you not pointed it out.

They were some real pioneers when you think about it; making shitty shopped looking album covers before photoshop even existed!

VADER...
Sothis, De Profundis , Future of the Past & Reborn in Chaos

i ask YOU to see if you can find what each of these albums all have

When I saw Sothis, I immediately though of Deicide's s/t and Legion.

That's a cool find though.

Senmuth FREQUENTLY makes the central focus of his album art some form of circle. A good deal of the albums have spheres or circles in the center (Planetary Dust, RXG-242-11, Bark of Ra, Contextual, Rajas, Great Oppositions of Mars, Weird, Cognitive Discord (if you count the sun), Swadhisthana (to some extent), KaaraNa (to some extent)...)

Pestilence has that spiked sphere on all the post-Van Drunen albums (Testimony of the Ancients, Spheres and Resurrection Macabre).

Mournful Congregation seems to have some sort of theme going on:

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/0/3/4/10340.JPG
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/7/5/8/1/75815.JPG
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/6/1/9/4/61947.JPG
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/5/3/8/153825_153826.jpg

Upcoming album follows a similar format, except for a change in colour.

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/2/2/0/3/220398.jpg

Ajattara's christmas singles:
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/6/4/0/1/64019.jpg
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/0/1/0/101013.jpg
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/3/5/6/135616.jpg
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/7/4/9/174989.jpg

Darkspace on all of their full-lengths have their logo at the top with a picture somewhere at the bottom in a box. Every album has the same black color scheme as well.