Fans of underground black metal music call Christophe Szpajdel the Lord of the Logos. This eponymous book is a collection of hundreds of Szpajdel’s powerful logos, each of which captures the force of this genre anew.

The hallmark of Szpajdel’s work is his surprisingly fluid combination of letters with visual elements from art movements such as art deco and art nouveau. But Szpajdel’s most important source of inspiration is nature: roots and trees as well as bats and other creatures. In addition to the impressive selection taken from the thousands of logos this passionate metalhead has already created, Lord of the Logos also contains photos of dark forests, desolate moors, and gnarled branches that are closely related to his work.

Through his use of unusual aesthetic influences, Szpajdel has brought a new dynamic into the gothic visuality of heavy metal. He has not only succeeded in leaving his own visual mark on this music, but has expanded the canon of forms it uses. The book is done in the style of a black prayerbook, an appropriate choice for an artist whose fans in the black metal community worship him as the Lord of the Logos.

Out soon from Gestalten.