Black Metal Graphics and Gabber and Hardcore Graphics: a style combination

01

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Black Metal Graphics Gabber and Hardcore Graphics (Rotterdam and Thunderdome)

Type from Gabber and Hardcore Graphics: Condensed display
All caps
Colour from Black Metal Graphics: Monochrome
Dark ground
Form from Gabber and Hardcore Graphics: Emblems & badges
Angular & zigzag
Composition from Black Metal Graphics: Central symmetry
Single focal point
Surface from Black Metal Graphics: Grain & noise
Photocopy & distress

02

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Gabber and Hardcore Graphics

Loud

Anton, standing in for Heavy condensed all-caps display lettering

Text · Black Metal Graphics

The visual language of black metal, fixed by Norway's second wave in the early 1990s, now worldwide, since the 2010s borrowed by mainstream acts (Szpajdel's Rihanna and Metallica logos, 2016). A hand-drawn band logo, barely legible, its letters grown into thorns and branches and balanced on a central axis, sits white on black over one bleak picture: a grainy black-and-white photograph of a corpse-painted musician, a church, a forest or a Romantic painting. Early covers, xeroxed like punk's, rejected death metal's bright painted art; the tone is misanthropic, pagan or occult, never ironic.

Special Elite; Black Metal Graphics used Hand-inked thorned, mirrored logotype and Old English Text and Fraktur capitals

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Black Metal Graphics, with a counter-accent from Gabber and Hardcore Graphics. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Black Metal Graphics Gabber and Hardcore Graphics (Rotterdam and Thunderdome)

#0a0a0a ground · 36%
#e6e2d8 ink · 14%
#6f6f6f accent · 18%
#39ff14 accent · 14%
#2a2a2a accent · 10%
#e8142c accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0a0a0a;
  --ink: #e6e2d8;
  --accent-1: #6f6f6f;
  --accent-2: #39ff14;
  --accent-3: #2a2a2a;
  --accent-4: #e8142c;
  --font-display: "Anton", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Special Elite", monospace;
}

Use it with care

Black Metal Graphics: The Norwegian scene's early-1990s fame rests partly on real crimes: church arsons from 1992 and two murders. Varg Vikernes of Burzum, sentenced in 1994 for the murder of Euronymous and four church arsons, is credited with bringing neo-Nazi views into the scene, and a small National Socialist black metal minority still spreads them through lyrics and imagery; even Darkthrone had to remove a slogan about race from a 1994 back cover after distributors objected. Cite Burzum sleeves only as history, and take mood from the public-domain Kittelsen and Doré pictures instead. Borrow the mirrored logo, the black field and the bleak photograph, but never a burnt or burning church, a photograph of a real death, or far-right symbols: no Black Sun (Sonnenrad), winged or serifed odal rune, wolfsangel, SS runes or Totenkopf, and no slogan about race or nation in blackletter. Inverted crosses and pentagrams signal hostility to Christianity; weigh them before using them for a general audience. Logos are the commissioned, living work of named letterers such as Szpajdel: commission or credit one rather than copying a band's name or mark.

Gabber and Hardcore Graphics (Rotterdam and Thunderdome): Early gabber had a small racist minority: some wore Lonsdale clothing tied to right-wing extremism, and the German neo-Nazi fringe followed the scene, while Dutch neo-Nazis tried to exploit the 2000s revival without lasting. Labels and artists answered with anti-fascist statements. Shaved heads, bomber jackets and tracksuits are scene dress, not a political sign, so do not pair them with far-right or Nazi symbols. Rotterdam and Amsterdam both shaped the style (the word comes from Amsterdam slang), so credit both.

04