How to art direct a metal band

Howdie

I love metal
I paint and draw since I am 6 years old.
Art school rejected me, si Ive been educating myself.... :)

Two years ago a friend of ine asked me to join his metal band as the lead vocalist. I didnt do any metal or singing until then. It sounded like a challenge, and I accepted gladly....

But with the music, there have to be some visuals. Something to engage the eye when you listen to the sound I thought... Something appealing, mystifing.... Something that wants to tell a story. If possible in accordance with the lyrics of the song.

Same thing with the whole band... I thought and still think: like a brand.... something that goes with the band all the way... look at these examples, recognise something?

Every band has a visual representation, and visual merketing for obvious reasons. Likely money and recognisability...

So...

How did I start?
My thought process was as said before. We settled after long debates on the bandname:

Diabeu
The writing of the name is always essential... I invested a good deal of time in the font design. There were many iterations....

Ater two months I settled on:

With the name there comes already a clear visual message… and thats good.
My initial tryout was like this:

But I didnt like it too much... and I looked for other forms. I did like the idea though, some kind of head above the bandname...
Next step:

The band liked the design. Its clear connection to the name. Since this was the first picture with the font, I decided to take the art direction journey from there...

Please lilke and share if you found this inspiring...
Feedback is key, please tell me what you think...

JD