Iron Maidden's Eddie
Unless you have been living under a rock you know that Maiden's monster is hand's down the best mascot of all time. Not every image of him has been great (Dance of death), but most have been outstanding.
Motorhead-snaggletooth (AKA-War Pig)
Another great mascot is Motorhead's angry, snarling snaggletooth. I always felt that this one fit so well with Motorhead's image.
The rest
Dio's Murray
I like Murray for the most part. He is not as cool as Eddie of course, but he is not so in your face. The covers where he back and in shadows or mist seem to work best for him.
Overkill's Chalie
I think this one has been hit and miss over the years. The more basic the better. When they try to get him doing much action I think it begins to look worse.
S.O.D.'s Sargent D
An okay mascot at best. He looks kind of silly and he is the mascot for a joke band so I guess that make sense.
Gamma Ray's Fangface
Obviously influenced by Maiden and Motorhead, but not as impressive as either.
Helloween's Jack O' Lantern
Appears in different versions. Sometimes more cartoon like than others. Makes sense that their mascot is a pumpkin headed guy, but I think the results for how he works are mixed at best.
Kreator's Violent Mind
Has appeared often as a head and sometimes as a full figure. Decent mascot as I think he fits their image, but not outstanding.
Running Wild's Captain Adrian
He has appeared more often as a head only logo than as a figure. Above average and fits with the band's pirate motif, but not great.
Motley Crue's Allistair Fiend
Appeared more on t-shirts than anything else. Sported a haircut similar to the band members. I think he was hit and miss. I liked the Shout at the devil era Allistair, but as the band got more mellow over the next two albums he didn't work as well.
Megadeth's Vic Rattlehead
Like Eddie they tried to work in with different themes and slap various costumes on him. However he just looks lame. Like a light bulb with tacky accesories slapped on.
Manowar's Manowarrior
Usually this guy is well drawn, but it's pretty much Conan with his face covered so they don't get many originality points.
Anthrax's Not Man
Like Allistair Fiend he was mainly used on shirts. I think I liked him twenty some years ago, but really he is just okay. He looks like a cross between wrestling's Iron Sheik and the guy on the Pringles can.
Iced Earth's Set Abominae
I kind of like this one. Eddie influenced, but often he looks very active and alive.
Hammerfall's Hector
Okay, it's a big, tough phantom warrior dude, but he just kind of stands there or swings his hammer. Well drawn, but kind of dull.
***There you go. What metal mascots do you like?
Cool, I didn't realize the Dio mascot even had a name.
ReplyDelete"Murray" though..?
My favorite would have to be Eddie. Iron Maiden has had some of the coolest metal artwork ever.
I agree that Eddie is hands down the best. In addition to just being cool, they have so many great covers with different versions of him (lots of hair on Killers, bald on Piece of Mind, a phantom on Twilight Zone, etc, etc). He's just always different, but always Eddie and always cool (except, as you said, on Dance of Death).
ReplyDeleteI also like the Helloween pumpkin head. I think it's kinda silly, but they manage to make it cool anyway, so it appeals to me as a sort of surprise.
Vic Rattlehead is easily the worst. He looks like a skull with a steel sleeping mask bolted over his eyes. Does he just have a really bad case of insomnia? Anthrax's Not Man isn't a whole lot better.
Nice post Mark. I like Manowar's Mascot. Putting originality aside the covers have always been well done and it helps that I'm a huge Conan fan.
ReplyDeleteEddie is hands down the most recognizable Music mascot for any band, metal or not.
Eddie will forever be the mascot looked up to as he really was the first to spark interest. I thought Disturbed would make it with their dude they keep putting on album covers.
ReplyDeletehow bout the Sacred Reich guy?? I only kept up with SR up to The American Way, so i'm not sure if he made it into any of the artwork for the 90's records they put out. But a good mascot nonetheless. not sure if they ever come up with a name for him. seems like i remember they were gonna have a contest or somethin to come up with a name for him, but i don't remember anything ever happening.
ReplyDeletejbm-The Sacred Reich guy didn't appear on the two studio albums after the American Way, but he is on the cover of the live "Still Ignorant" from 1997. I also don't ever remember hearing a proper name assigned to him.
ReplyDeleteoh. how did i not think of the Exumer guy?
ReplyDeletejbm-Exumer's mascot was okay. He looked liked an 80's horror movie slasher.
ReplyDeleteyeah, he definitely reminds me of Jason quite a bit. I think he fit their sound though. when I hear the crazy over the top vox on the first record, I picture that guy, tryin to scream through his mask.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about Laaz Rockit's mercenary guy. Also Meliah Rage had an indian skeleton on a couple of covers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a useful post, I was collecting some information on band mascots and came across this.
ReplyDeleteWas meaning to make some skins for a video game based on these guys, namely Unreal Tournament 3.
What about the gas-masked soldier on Sodom albums? and the skull on Destruction ones? (not to mention the mad butcher)
ReplyDeletevic ftw
ReplyDeleteYour killing me Mark! I always liked Vic Rattlehead. For me it was always Eddie and then Vic. Vic represented the fight against oppression.
ReplyDeleteAndy-Vic never looked cool to me. He looked like something a 12 year old would draw on their book cover.
ReplyDeleteCutting me deep Mark...cutting me deep.
ReplyDeleteMark, you piss me off. Vic Rattlehead has stood out more than alot of mascots. Eddie is good too but Vic has purpose and there is meaning behind him. And many people look up to him. He'd win against Eddie any day and easily win. You wouldnt even know who Vic is if he wasnt so original and didnt stand out. Just ask any Megadeth fan
ReplyDeleteExactly! They should have used a different MegaDeth album cover, like "Eddie" MegaDeath mascot "Vic" also evolved with every album\m/
DeleteVictoria-I could care less if I piss you off or not. Although I do appreciate you stopping by. Originality doesn't always mean quality. In this case it certainly doesn't mean quality. Megadeth have mostly been a solid band, but they have a lame mascot.
ReplyDelete"He'd win against Eddie any day and easily win" Did you even even read what you wrote before posting it? What does this mean? What would Vic win? You do realize these characters are not real? Goodness,think things through before commenting on a post.
Here are some you forgot:
ReplyDelete1.Knarrenheinz, mascot for Sodom.
2.Halloween Guy, mascot for Exumer.
3.Scary Guy, mascot for Metallica.
4.O.D., mascot for Sacred Reich.
5.That-er, monstrous butterfly thing, mascot for Blitzkrieg. You'd know what I'm talking about if you saw it.
anonymous (most recent one-
ReplyDeleteIf you read all the comments then you know that three of those of have already mentioned.
Butterfly thing? Does that count as a logo or a mascot? Yes, I know what you are talking but I am not sure that you do.
Scary guy?
A-this represents a part of Metallica's career I care nothing for.
B-the drawing looks like it was done by a blindfolded five year old.
1.I know they were mentioned, but only in the comments. You didn't mention them here in the article.
ReplyDelete2.I know what I'm talking about, and I know the difference between a mascot and logo. The butterfly thing is a mascot, while the design of the band's name(look up some images) is the logo.
3.Not my fault it was drawn like crap. I honestly don't know when Scary Guy came in.
anonymous-
ReplyDeleteBlitzkrieg's "butterfly thing" never looked that great to me. It's alright, but not really tough or menacing and I guess they were hoping it was one of those.
Not your fault at all that the scary guy looks like crap and I didn't to imply any insult to you. Just your mention of it reminded me of how much I don't like it.
The scary guy popped up in the 90's. In addition to how bad he/it looks I also have trouble excepting it/him as a mascot also because he popped up after the band had been around for a while. Where as all the other mascots mentioned were around since the band's beginning. So by that point I don't why they felt the need to have a mascot. Then again I don't understand or approve of a lot of what Metallica has done after MOP.
Since post-NWOBHM act Slander have used their "metal guy" on two covers now (one is on the right side of this blog) I guess he could be added to this list now two.
The original post on this topic was written a while ago so there may have been other mascots that have popped since then so feel free to add in any you can think of.
Just found out that Blitzkrieg's mascot is called The Bird of Armageddon.
ReplyDeleteanonymous-Thanks for the info. Not a great name, but at least they bothered to name it.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Korpiklaani? I really like their shaman guy - they don't dress him up, but the way he is drawn or posed is kept different enough to evoke a new feel every time - from funny to misterious.
ReplyDeleteAlso Alestorm has that dead octopus-y pirate guy. Pretty memorable, all things considered.
ReplyDeleteAlso (lots of posts in a row, sorry) Grave Digger has this Skeleton/Grim Reaper-like dude. He's pretty basic, but he's there.
ReplyDeleteLast poster (sorry my keyboard doesn't make those figures)- I am not familiar with Korpiklaani. I like Alestorm's pirate guy, the artwork or their albums is pretty good. I am hesitant to include Grave Digger because the skeleton guy is kind of generic looking.
ReplyDeleteThat's okay, never figured google would use my native spelling.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I suppose GD's skeleton is kinda generic.
What about Lacrimosa? The have their Harlequin, don't they? He's more in the logo, than anywhere, but there are covers with him.
Sorry for hogging your coments section, but I had some thoughts about GD's mascot.
ReplyDeleteWhile he is generic, I don't see a reason, why he should e excluded. Think about it.
A) He appeared on almost every single album cover.
B) He is often dressed up a-la Eddie or Vic (There's even a Scottsman Reaper, seriously)
C) While he looks like "just a skeleton", no other band, as far as I can remember, actually has "just a skeleton". Even Grim Reaper's guy has fangs and other discernable features. So that design, as basic as it is, is pretty unique.
D) They actually use the guy on some publicity photos (like this one - http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/50445713/Grave+Digger+Fuckin+Digger.jpg )
All in all, I think that at least makes him a recognizable mascot, if not a very inventive one.
Last poster-I got into Grave Digger early and didn't really identify them as having a mascot. The skeleton being kind of plain lead to me not thinking of him as a proper mascot. Although they have used him so much since they came back in the 90's. Then again Manowar didn't use their mascot until their fifth album.
ReplyDeleteDon't know Lacrimosa.
Metal Mark: Sorry, I, for one reason or another, thought that Lacrimosa is kind of well-known, but Wikipedia says they're mostly popular in their native Germany and Latin America. Weird, in Russia everyone knows them as THE gothic metal band.
ReplyDeleteAlso Doesn't Slayer have a mascot? And even though it's not classic what about The Guy from Disturbed?
ReplyDeleteanonymous-
ReplyDeleteSince when did Slayer have a mascot? Just various skulls, beasts and monsters but never the same one on more than one album to make me think they had adopted a mascot.
I went with mascots of bands I like which is why Disturbed didn't even cross my mind.
Quartz-Satans Serenade/Bloody Fool cover & Stand Up and Fight: Warrior cover. Cheese. But Wisconsin Cheddar level. Tasty.
ReplyDeleteKrokus-Headhunter: simple IS effective.
Riot-Great sound for pre-NWOBHM era, WORST MASCOT EVER
Misfits-c'mon, no metion at all? Please... metal/punk, dont care, just cool (cough)
Holocaust-Heavy Metal Mania EP cover... dont know what it is, but I LIKE IT(and umlauts!)
Some may be only album art, but still add to the genre
Anonymous-Fair enough. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThis topic gets a few hits every single day so someone cares about band mascots.
On The Legacy, The New Order, and First Strike Still Deadly, Testament had some kind of skull figure. Does it count as a mascot? It only appeared on three albums.
ReplyDeleteI never really counted it as a mascot because it was a just a head.
ReplyDeleteI love how much Avenged Sevenfold's "Skull with wings" looks so much like Overkill's Charlie. How original. Just wanted to point that out.
ReplyDeleteBlack Sabbath's Henry, the dark angel.
DeleteHow about Black Sabbath's Henry or Alice Cooper's monster?
ReplyDeleteI find Pic Rattlehead,pretty badass,has meaning behind his features( see no evil,speak no evil,hear no evil,AKA Three Wise Monkeys) it surely isn't lame
ReplyDeleteVic Rattlehead is surely not lame,has meaning in it's features,also it looks pretty badass
ReplyDeleteJavier-It's an opinion. Mine is Vic is obviously lame and even dull. In effect I feel that way even more so when I compare him to a lot of the other mascots mentioned above.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by.
Vic is the worst,are you insane Vic for one has had the greatest art and Vic actually has a purpose other than being a zombie to make a cool album cover to disguise a lame album.megadeth rules furthermore Vic rattle head for president.if you really wanna talk about a great icon of metal it's the Danzig skull go to one metal show and tell me you don't see a least fifty in the crowd!
ReplyDeleteMegadeth are great, but Vic isn't very good at all and never has been. I liked the Danzig/Samhain skull just fine, but just because a bunch of people wear it to concerts doesn't make it worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I think Vic works best when he's just Vic:a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" skeleton in business attire (alluding to the corruption of government and corporations). I do agree, though, when they try to get him into costumes, it just looks embarrassing.
ReplyDelete@ last anonymous-I don't think Vic has evolved that much. They just slap him into whatever theme they have going on at the time.
ReplyDelete