Your band’s branding is both confusing and virtually nonexistent.
You’ve got the Dusk/Dawn playing card thing.
And the plague doctors.
Skeleton hand jerk off shirt (remember I own one)
A random (I think) geometric shape for a logo. What’s it mean? What’s it represent? Fuck if I know.
Now a random anime clip video. Not your own characters as anime, or with your logo, or the playing cards, or shots of the band, or anything else’s related to anything previously established. 0 visual clues that this is your brand/band.
The is zero branding consistency or visual appeal themes.
AMV company guy. Yozang is is his name. He works for Beheading The Traitor, who distributed the video. We went with a AMV because the song was inspired by a character from My Hero Academia
Your band’s branding is both confusing and virtually nonexistent.
You’ve got the Dusk/Dawn playing card thing.
And the plague doctors.
Skeleton hand jerk off shirt (remember I own one)
A random (I think) geometric shape for a logo. What’s it mean? What’s it represent? Fuck if I know.
Now a random anime clip video. Not your own characters as anime, or with your logo, or the playing cards, or shots of the band, or anything else’s related to anything previously established. 0 visual clues that this is your brand/band.
The is zero branding consistency or visual appeal themes.
Da fuck y’all doing?
Our lead guitarist does all of our art. Each piece is representative of a specific EP/release that we're doing. Lamentations had the sad planet king, Contagion had the plague doctor, and Dusk Descending/Dawn Ascending has the Dusk/Dawn tarot card. There isnt any overarching theme or imagery. They're specific to each release, like most bands do it.
Take a marketing or graphic design class my dude. Visual imagery plays a huge role in marketing and sales, both of which are crucial to a band’s success. There’s a million bands out there, how is yours gonna stand out? At the end of the day your band is/has a product to sell. It’s amazing to me that one guy does all of the art and it still doesn’t have a consistent style or theme to it. Most people can identify hundred of bands with nothing but basic visual imagery. Most major companies have gone a step farther and are now represented by a clean, color specific quads graphic tile with rounded corners like all the apps on your phone. First thing fyre festival did was create an orange tile logo to advertise. Dude raised millions of dollar with nothing but a logo to sell.
I can’t tell what the song was inspired by. To me it’s just a bunch of random flashing anime power up stuff. It didn’t tell a story or have any progression that I can recognize. If it’s on with no sound there is nothing to let me know it’s a band video, let alone YOUR band. It could just as easily be an internet spam ad for some weird pills to get my dick hard.
I mean, I agree the marketing is important. But what band's art is identifyable before they blow up? Unless they have like a mascot like Iron Maiden, or Disturbed, or Alestorm, a band is identified by their logos, which we've used the same logos and symbols since our demo five years ago. Our shirts are all consistent with the back art being the identifier. I mean should we have the same art every release? I dont quite understand what you mean here
As for the AMV, its moreso a different version of a visualizer. Its not a wholely unique music video, yes. It's just something to look at while listening to the song.
Any one of those power up flashes could have been followed by a band logo, symbol, or album cover. Something specifically band related. Make it look like the logo hit and made an impact, like it’s powerful or strong. There was none of that. Your guitar player could have created his own character (see Eddie, Vic Rattlehead, The Guy, Not Man, the knucklehead fucking thing, whole ass Gorillaz band) or use a consistent art style for his illustrations. His stuff doesn’t really look like it’s all done by the same artist, his “style” doesn’t shine though to me. Rob Zombie did all the art for White Zombie and it’s instantly identifiable. Pushead had an instantly recognizable style. Is the guitarist doing the art because he’s a available or do you think he has the art style that will help you sell the most product? (Fuck I just realized I’ve been watching too much bad rescue lmao, same principles apply though) Maiden has a specific art style. Fun story - When one of the guys from Iron Maiden was introduced to Paul McCartney, Paul said “oh you’re in that band with that monster” Thats marketing done right. The “visualizer” you paid for does nothing to actually promote your band specifically. There wasn’t even a logo at the end. So what did you pay for? The logo is alright but I couldn’t draw it from memory. Couldn’t scribble it my notebook. Burnouts can’t spray paint it by the train tracks. Can’t tattoo it on my fingers. Couldn’t carve it into my arm. Still don’t know what the circle symbol represents. I did get asked about the skeleton hand shirt one time though, but after I explained it I only got a puzzled expression and the only follow up question was “and you’re wearing it?”
You’re trying to make a go of playing music for a living, which is already hard enough. You’re also playing in a genre with an even smaller niche market with very little money in it. Even bands that “make it” don’t really make it anymore. You need to give yourself every advantage you can.
Bro, you could use old mcfuck threads posts for lyrics and make and anthem album for Incels. They’re a mostly untapped market aside from a few podcasts.
I dont really know what to say. We dont have a mascot. And I dont think its that unheard of to have album artwork that doesnt resemble the rest. I mean, look at a band like Trivium, none of their album arts are "cohesive", and they dont even use their logo anymore.
The song "Revelry In The Dark", literally comes from the catchphrase of a character from My Hero Academia. I guess you wouldnt know that unless you also watched the anime, but thats one reason we went with a AMV. Another being "real" music videos are too expensive to shoot. The AMV only cost us $40, whereas a "real" music video would cost us $400 minimum, and we cant afford that.
Idk. I get what you're saying, but I also dont think we're that off from other bands in our subgenre. I think people just dont like our music. Thats the issue moreso than the visual element.
I think people just dont like our music. Thats the issue moreso than the visual element.
Two things can be true lol. You can work on both, or just one, or neither. Up to you. Most Trivium merch I’ve seen is dragons and swords and Japanese art. IDK if they switched it up recently or not but they definitely had a visual identity/theme for awhile. Anyway, I’ve said my bit. Cool video I guess. You spent money on it, I hope it brings you the views you were looking for. I still think it’s cool you’re in a band even if I don’t understand things like the creative direction or business choices you make.
Comments
https://fromthoseashes.bandcamp.com/track/dark-frost
https://fromthoseashes.bandcamp.com/track/our-own
We also have a music video up
Did you post it to Reddit again?
As for the AMV, its moreso a different version of a visualizer. Its not a wholely unique music video, yes. It's just something to look at while listening to the song.
The song "Revelry In The Dark", literally comes from the catchphrase of a character from My Hero Academia. I guess you wouldnt know that unless you also watched the anime, but thats one reason we went with a AMV. Another being "real" music videos are too expensive to shoot. The AMV only cost us $40, whereas a "real" music video would cost us $400 minimum, and we cant afford that.
Idk. I get what you're saying, but I also dont think we're that off from other bands in our subgenre. I think people just dont like our music. Thats the issue moreso than the visual element.
>Chicago
That thread also said his band was his priority.