Logo #22: Sepultura

Designed in 1990 during Sepultura's "Arise" recording sessions by friend and fellow Brazilian musician and Overdose lead singer Pedro Alberto "Baza" (or "Bozo") Amorim, this emblem is often referred to as the "bone" logo, although it looks slightly crustacean and more than a little alien. Sepultura - a band named after the Portuguese for word for "grave" and not the intersection of Sepulveda and Ventura Boulevards - was founded in the early 1980s in Brazil, its passionate thrash metal forged in the fires of the Figueiredo military regime, the decline of the pornochanchada film industry and the continued reign of the Catholic Church, which, understandably, is not too “hot” for any metal heavier than gold. So to speak!

Logo #21: AC/DC

Despite repeated allegations by a few staunch Christian evangelicals that AC/DC's lightning bolt is a Satanic one, designer Gerard Huerta responds, "It is difficult to understand the controversy of this lettering when you know the origin. I was an album designer at CBS and in 1975 I did some lettering for a Blue Öyster Cult live album called "On Your Feet or On Your Knees." As it featured a church on the cover, I researched Bible lettering, in particular Gutenberg Bible, the first printed book. I designed the lettering based on these religious forms that came from hand-done calligraphy. I rendered them in metal as there was a limousine on the cover and I thought the idea of a car marque would be cool. In 1976 I designed some lettering for an album called "AC/DC High Voltage." They had used the lightning bolt to represent electricity in the Australian version so I was asked to design one into the lettering. In 1977 I was asked to design some lettering for an album called "AC/DC Let There Be Rock," on obvious reference to the bible. I recalled the lettering I used on Blue Öyster Cult and designed this version to be placed in the sky which was shining down on the group on stage. The orange contrasted nicely with the dark blue sky and I added dimension to the lettering as in the Blue Öyster Cult job. In the late '70s there was a rush of typography which seemed to be influenced by this style and was referred to as "Goth." Maybe as a result of the types of groups that AC/DC and Blue Öyster Cult were this typography started to be associated with heavy music. But as you can see from my standpoint it was more "Gutenberg" than "Goth"." This was a calligraphic style that also manifested in barrio murals and gang graffiti throughout the greater metropolitan Los Angeles area. Huerta also designed the logos for Nabisco, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and Eternity perfume(!). Fortunately, the satanic lightning-bolt crowd has moved on to the evils of Harry Potter and homos and we're all really glad they did.

Dr. Know: Logo #20

Drawn by future "Love and Rockets" graphic blandisher Jaime Hernandez in "1981 or early 1982," the good folks at Dr. Know tell us, "The supposed woman he based the girl on is Dinah Cancer from 45 Grave." Jaime's brother Ismael, who designed the similarly seminal Nardcore logo (on a Pee-Chee folder, naturally), plays bass in Dr. Know, a band of many logos: the girl, another girl, the Rx symbol of an understandably mortified pharmaceutical industry, the spider in the "o" in Dr. Know. It wouldn't seem as if Oxnard - town of eternal ridicule on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" - would spawn that much interesting art, but three musical styles were nurtured within its borders: turntablism (via DJ Babu), Nardcore (via Dr. Know) and literalism (via me, with one convenient location, member FDIC).

Shattered Faith: Logo #19

Designed by Shattered Faith lead vocalist Spencer Alston Bartsch around 1978 or 1979. The (abstract) cross, the communal circle, even the abstract halo à la da Vinci's "The Last Supper" - it's all there. An Orange County punk band that started around the same time as T.S.O.L. and Social Distortion, their later logo - that of a skull casting the shadow of a crucifix - further illustrated themes of doubt and longing both political and religious. Religion in punk rock is always a dicey opera, if only because punk's dedication to rebellion and libertinism makes the appearance of religion at best intrusive, and at worst, violently unnecessary. Possibly the solace that the church takes is that if the China White and the Stoli doesn't get to them, reformation and religion ultimately might. When they weren't overturning the tables of the money-lenders, Shattered Faith occasionally showed up on interesting things like their Spot-produced tracks on the brilliantly titled New Underground "Life Is Boring So Why Not Steal This Record" compilation LP, alongside Germs, Zurich 1916, Carl Stone, and L.A. Free Music Society's The Doo-Dooettes.

Spaceman 3: Logo #18

Speaking of eyes, this symbol, designed by Pete "Bassman" Bain in 1986, gazes out with hypnotic lightning, zonking you into blissful submission with the implication of fertile and colorful sound. It should be noted that the same year this logo emerged, Spaceman 3 recorded the demos that would become the "Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To" LP, which is one of the better titles ever imagined. Look at that comforting, all-inclusive circle. Isn't that nice? Completely erases the urge to do the whole "Niagara Falls" thing. Member Pete Kember would go on to become Sonic Boom, and co-founder Jason Pierce became Spiritualized, as would you if you listened to the grace of their collected works intently and repeatedly.

Einstürzende Neubauten: Logo #17

Created by an unknown Toltec, this "Cyclops" was appropriated by Einstürzende Neubauten member Blixa Bargeld in 1980 after he discovered it during a search for mythological icons. The Toltec civilization, legendarily founded by the winged serpent Quetzalcoatl, offered up this petroglyph at some point between 700 and 1200 A.D. in central Mexico, succeeding the Olmecs and Mayans and preceding the Aztec and Incan civilizations. Official word - finally! - on this logo from Bargeld Central tells all: "The Sign was discovered in a Mexican cave. There are several possible interpretations: sun and human being, shaman, or a person of great power. The strength of the symbol, when you compare it to others {e.g. the cross}, lies in the fact that it has a creature-like appearance - it has an eye!"

Anti-Nowhere League: Logo #16

Created by Nick "Animal" Kulmer in 1980, it...well, let's just let Nick crystallize this one eloquently, shall we? "I designed it, mate - and it first appeared on my arm (as a tattoo) in 1980...eazy...". I LIKE that. Just...easy. It subsequently became the cover star of the 1981 "Streets of London" LP; the logo for NWOBHM band Streetfighter is somewhat similar but it appeared in 1982 and since when do heavy metal bands rip off their punk brethren and/ or sestren? Hovering somewhere between Jack Kirby and Jack Chick in its level of folk art panache, it's a symbol of a punk rock band that delivers, in its grooves, what the mace and fist promise physically. Indeed, after their first live action in Tunbridge Wells, the local press called it a "cacophony of noise" - no mean feat in the wake of melody's faded dream, spit up and reversed by noise and nihilism as it was in 1981. Anti-Nowhere League drummer Michael Bettell (February 26, 1962 - September 9, 2003) is now fêted with the annual Drumming Up Hope event, which raises money for local Essex hospitals. No word on how many people are treated each year for mace wounds, though.