50 of the worst album covers ever - my reaction 

Who in their right mind thinks Hemispheres is one of the worst 50 covers of all time?

I love the Paranoid. I never understood the hate. It's psychedelic, what's no to love about it.

Overkill - Under The Influence & Slayer - Show No Mercy don't belong in that list IMO, and not even close.

Apparently, no one involved with this list has seen a Goregrind/Pornogrind album before.

I always liked the Paranoid album cover

Did the person who picked Animal Magnetism as the worst ever see the original Virgin Killer cover?

The Black metal scene has always been very insular You gotta be in the know. Don't think they want the mainstream anywhere near them.

The Paranoid album cover is kinda odd but honestly it still fits the music even with the album title changed from the original “War Pigs”. Even then, the pictures become iconic and I’ve seen that cover so many times at this point it’s engrained into my head and I can’t help but love it

Let us not ever forget "Smell the glove" spinal taps masterpiece.

Stryper, “By His stripes (wounds) we are healed.” The album is Soldiers Under Command, hence the army war attempt. The early Stryper was way too glam for me, but they are still around and preaching the gospel of Christ. The real way to be Born Again!

The actual Stryper album title for the cover shown is 'Soldiers Under Command'. Side note: saw Mortiis as an opening act for Mushroomhead at their famous Cleveland Halloween show years ago. Post-concert, when fans were hitting merch booths before leaving, Mortiis' merch guy was hollering "Free (Mortiis) posters!", holding them aloft. No one was taking them 😄

Don’t care how bad RIOT’s album cover is. Fire Down Under is easily a top 10 hard rock/ early heavy metal record. A kick ass album. Highly recommended.

Our 4 year old son walked around the house with a fist in the air yelling "arrrg" when he saw my t-shirt for raise your fist and yell.

I love the "Born Again" cover art. Seeing it as a 13-year-old, it was just a cool horror movie image. And the "Lovedrive" cover... why so much gum?

Black/death metal logos are more art pieces really, you nailed it with the underground thing. It kind of doesn't matter anymore though as most people listen to music on streaming and the name of the band is easily found. Love the channel, keep physical media alive!

The original cover for ”Virgin Killer” by Scorpions and ”Dawn Of The Black Hearts” by Mayhem tops everything, regardless of genre.

16:38 “665… Is the neighbour of the beast”

I kinda like "Raise Your Fist and Yell" also. With Scorpions "Lovedrive" I've wondered how much bubblegum what it take to get that result ? Alot for sure

Remember "Prince" changed his name to that weird symbol. These bands are just going straight for the symbols, skipping the step of having a name.

As someone who holds Black Metal as the most important music of my life, I never looked at music as a whole the same way again after I discovered Black Metal. Also made me appreciate all genres of music more than I ever did beforehand, It changed my life for the better, really really resonates with me on so many levels. Doom and Death Metal too but especially Black. But yeah I can tell you that they almost never look at the music, art and subsequently the logos from a marketing, branding perspective. Black Metal artists and fans value the mystique of the bands being more unknown and the genre an acquired taste, having to learn and know about the genre and artists to learn more about it and dig deeper into it if someone wants to, but not all out there for everyone to see if they're not interested. I don't really mean it in a snobby "being full of yourself" way, I mean more in a humble way, like they don't strive for mainstream success at all, for the most part they're doing it for the love of the art and to contribute to a scene and genre they love. If that makes sense. And the fans who know the bands will recognise the logos no matter how hard to read they are, and that's all that really matters. The people who want to know will learn and discover more, the people who aren't really interested won't. Which yes if you're looking at it from the perspective of so many other genres of music where almost all artist want to break out in mainstream success, it definitely comes off looking a bit weird, I understand that. But Black Metal people aren't about that, it's all about the love and pure passion for this dark, often misunderstood culture and style of music. Also I know there are some really simplistic, sometimes awkward Black Metal album covers, but believe me there are a LOT of absolutely gorgeous album covers in the genre too. Also just to clarify I mean this as a friendly answer to your question about the unreadable logos, not to jump on your back or anything like that. 😅

Thanks for sharing Frank... and there were some pretty bad album covers in amongst that lot. The only reason I could give as to why they went ahead is that a member of the band (or a band girlfriend) drew the picture and no one had the heart to say it was rubbish.

Black metal logos frequently reflect the qualities of their music. Fistful of Metal was awesome. And I cannot imagine what anyone involved with the Glamtera cover was thinking. Too much nutmeg and D&D.

I can't believe you didn't pick up on the fact that "Dick Sandwich" is an homage to the Spinal Tap album "Shark Sandwich"

Hello Frank ! Sidenote : That Wolf - S/T cover is a cut out from a drawing by our Swedish artist Hans Arnold. He was pretty well known here and did a TON of book covers , comicbook covers , book illustrations , magazine illustration and even the cover of ABBA’s Greatest hits album. Ps Black Sabbath’s Born again cover is cool !

Overkill. “Hello from the gutter”, image

Stryper album is “Soldiers Under Command”. Probably on the budget they had this was the most military they could make it. The yellow and black they’ve said they were using it as like warning signs use yellow and black. It also set them apart . I thought it was cool back then. Of course the issue is even if the band gets tired of it, it’s still part of your brand.

Saying fistful of metal album cover sucks is actually crazy

Loved this list coverage! Very chill watch, glad youtube recommended you to me! I subbed to you 🎉

Im impressed there were no Limp Bizkit covers, almost all of their album covers are terrible in my opinion

As someone who has a band with an illegible logo, we really just did it because we felt like it was a rite of passage when it came to having an extreme band, and also, it’s just kinda fun.

"Heavy petting zoo" is hilarious. I mean it is NOFX after all. The album title is up there with "Take off your pants and jacket" by Blink 182.

Well, thank God a bad album cover doesn't necessarily mean bad music😃 Btw, nice shirt change at 5.49!

I read the funniest comment once on Sabbath's "Born Again' album cover. "You'll want to bottle feed this one". 😂 If you do another video of more bad album covers, please include Uriah Heep, 'Abominog'. It makes the 'Born Again' baby look like Taylor Swift.

The whole song hemispheres is about the battle between heart and mind. Having fun or preparing for bad times. That's what the image is. The free spirit open hearted naked man enjoying life while the suited man is looking ahead, getting things done, preparing. That battle between enjoying life and making sure you're safe happens in your brain. The image fits the song. Great cover. Pretty much all Hugh Syme stuff is great. It's not even the worst rush cover.

the nofx album cover has a alternate cover and title for the vinyl version were the guy is doin' thee ol' 6 and 9 with the sheep. i find really funny actually.

Btw. I listen to a lot of metal at work and I’ve been adding all these bands to my Spotify list as we go.

Another great video Frank. I think if there has to be a worst Black Sabbath cover I would pick sabotage not paranoid.

Neighbor of the beast!!! That was a classic one, Frank!!

Emerson Lake & Palmer's Yacht Rock Album, In disco leisure suits with Palm trees in background, (Oh No say it isn't so)

Frank.. I think the maiden on the Vanlade album is a take on the lady of the lake.

100% agree with the Alice and Anthrax covers. Those are on my worst list, too. Love that Black Flag one, though - at least it's distinctive. As for Black Metal bands, they are actively seeking to do the opposite of what you described - be as niche as possible. Having an undecipherable logo is part of the whole 'ha ha, you normies don't know what band this is, and I do - in your FACE!' vibe.

Incredible video bro

As someone who enjoys some metal, many metal bands go straight to the highschool art medieval stuff, it's a symbol how the medieval brain longs to get out of highschool and pass art class. Talking Heads & Pink Floyd chose a different path.

I looked up key dragon on Spotify and it seems like most of their albums are a hand drawn? So maybe the artist the musicians want to do their own art?

How on earth did Stryper end up on this list? That cover is EPIC! And also an incredible hard rock/metal album too. Oh and BTW....the album is entitled "Soldiers Under Command", not "Isaiah 53:5".

It looks to me like Dethkorps was ripping off the cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Tarkus."

Black widow.. great underrated band had really awful record covers. Great music, similar to Black Sabbath. They were around same time. Google it, really bad art with no thought process. Same with Zeppelin, Zeppelin 2&3 had no real concept no effort. I said this in your last video about covers..an album cover or book cover is probably the most important thing than anything. I found great music and books just by looking at the cover and saying "oh shite thats a cool cover" with films too. Im an artist/illustrator/art director, so i believe its very important and most times I'll work on a cover to a book or greetings cards before i think about what is inside. Specially in comic books/graphic novels.👍🏻 Another good video mate.

Wait, how can you claim to know metal at your age and don't know Over Kill? And a note about Exciter - Unveiling the Wicked: at your age you should remember the two "V" miniseries and the weekly show 1985-86

😂😂😂Dick Sandwich !!! Holy shit, I can't stop laughing about this one ! 😂😂😂 Man o man only on Frank's channel do I see stuff like this one. Hella funny Frank ! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

As a huge Stryper fan, I really hate the Soldiers Under Command Album art, but the album is killer, I love it!! The reason for the Yellow and Black is warring to people not to go to Hell.

Hemispheres album cover goes hard what are they talking about

"Neighbor of the beast" Brilliant!

Kerrarrang promotes the worst artists now and then craps all over the music they once promoted

I liked that Keydragon album cover, so I went to check out the album. The music is way worse than the cover.

Court Of The Crimson King is a very recognizable but it is just stupid.

The 2nd version of "Surfing With The Alien" which had The Silver Surfer absent because Marvel Comics wanted a fortune for Joe Satriani to continue to use the image.

Hard to read band name logos make me end up staring at the cover of the albums, and the band's name, for a lot longer than I would otherwise, trying to figure out what the name is. So they get more of my attention than if I could read the name clearly. I think it's just tradition at this point, but maybe the attention is part of their plan, trying to see who can outdo the rest in taking the most time to decipher the name?

I know you were mentioning why dime gave that album cover a thumbs up first of all, he was called diamond Darrell at the time he wasn’t quite diving anything at the time. And it was a glam metal. It’s everyone wanted all that stuff dug it.

The album with Stryper with the van and machine guns was in fact 'Soldiers Under Command'. The Isaiah verse was part of their logo.

I totally called that sigh no more is going to be on there

I’m a fan of Black Metal, but I also find it kind of dumb when they try really hard to make the logo really unreadable with all those thorns, tree branch or lightning effects that all these logos end up looking the same and barely indistinguishable. Not a good way to stand out of the bunch.

I kind of like the Keydragon school aged artwork. I'd wear that on a t-shirt!

Fates Warning. Did Napoleon Dynamite do that one?

After seeing the Paranoid cover for 50 plus years I see it as iconic, almost perfect. On the other hand, Sabbaths Technical Ecstasy totally sucks.

Strypers yellow and blacks a bible reference

The Born Again album cover does need a little help. But looking at it from the perspective of the album title it does make half sense, evil once again being born into the world. The whole cycle of Good and Evil repeats. Most of the other covers are just like first attempts, and need more or better inspiration.

What about the cover of Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin' Simon album? It's a horror festival.

1:25 in my opinion, I am WAY more intrigued by a logo with loads of detail than a logo that is just a font and the more unreadable it is the more I am intrigued

Also, there is a Riot cover on this list, and it's NOT Narita? Also also, I HOPE Battleaxe and Pantera are here somewhere...they're a million times worse than almost all of these so far (except for Wolf and that dragon one drawn in crayon. And oh, Dethkorpz just made the list too.)

Metal isn't supposed to be commercial and marketable, the hard to understand logos are just part of the aesthetic.

12:26 Reminds me of René Magritte.

If you want a really bad cover, check out the Faith Tones “Jesus Use Me”

Yes, that’s how you say Frenzal Rhomb… fav cover art of theirs was where they put a Maccas (McDonalds) Golden Arches front and centre of the Not So Tough Now (1996) album.

A lot of these look like the artwork from lesser NES games.

That Fates Warning album has had three different covers.

Australian 70's hard rock band Buffalo has a real good album with a hideous cover. The lp is "Only Want You For Your Body". Must check it out!😊

The worst thing about Paranoid is the crappy lettering it looks like something 17:29 17:29 a 7th grader would have scribbled on his desk in pencil. My vote for worst album covers would include Gentle Giant Acquiring the Taste and Orleans Awake and Dreaming.

The Black Flag one is one of those that will be defended with bs like "it's supposed to be aesthetically distasteful because it represents a specific visual style born from early digital graphics programs becoming available for anyone" and that just makes me hate it more. You're not being clever with that. Makes me think of Neil Young's Fork In The Road, but at least that has a connection to Young's dislike of low-quality digital media. The funny thing about Paranoid is that for like 10 years I never saw the "war pig" guy in the picture. I thought it was just a bunch of colors and shapes that weren't supposed to make any particular image. Of course, I can't unsee the guy and the terrible costume now. Scorpions' Lovedrive is an example where it's the idea / content that people hate, while the photography and composition look very professional. I don't mind it at all. A lot of the album art on this list are born from young people wanting a fantastical cover with swords/monsters/fire/blood or such, but not having the budget to hire a Ken Kelly or a Derek Riggs like the bands whose covers they probably admired.

@ 10:44 Frenzal Rhomb-"D*** Sandwich" 🥪😳🙄😁😅😂🤣 Now This Definitely Sounds Like Something From "Spinal Tap". And , As Far As I Am Concerned. This Album Title Makes Me Want To Go To My Local Record Store And Buy This Album , Hoping For Some More Great Song Titles! Bravo!😳🥪🙄😁✍🏻 I Am Posting 📬 This At 4:42 p.m. , Tuesday Afternoon 🌁🛤️🛣️🏙️ , April 16, 2024.

12:10 THERE it is! It had to be here. 13:35 and there THAT is, that had to show up at some point, too. Those are probably #1 and #2 worst ever for a professionally released album (although I saw one just as bad for some guitarist whose name escapes me.) Aaaaand there's Narita! However, with Battleaxe, Wolf, Fates Warning and even Pantera (and others, like Sepultura), people have to remember these were basically kids (teenagers or little more than that) trying to DIY an album cover, often with little to no funds, in the early to mid-1980s. Asking a school friend to draw you something in crayon was not that far off being a valid option. The trick was to be more Wolf than Battleaxe about it.

Paranoid, Show No Mercy, Under The Influence, Fistful Of Metal, the Wolf debut and Bonded By Blood all have iconic artwork and Kerrang once again gets it wrong.

Is this video sponsored by Laurentein pencil crayons or something, my god. Eating Lamb was the LP cover for Heavy Petting Zoo. Which if you think that one is bad. And since its Kerrang. I can see why they left a band like @n@l cun+ off their list. But how did they miss any G.G. Allin albums? I wonder just how many bad classical album covers Deutsche Gramophone have done. Because I've seen some doozies from them. Like that reissue of Rite Of Spring by Stravinsky with the naked lady next to the lake, but the lake looks like Glove from the Yellow Submarine movie.

A little suprised there wasnt a single UFO album here.

I think it's cool to look at logos that are hard to read and try to figure them out. Of course, when it's literally impossible to read, I don't get it.

Over Kill is underrated band. Love this band!

The Scorpions basically made a career out of horrible album covers. Virgin Killer is the worst album cover ever. I don’t see how it was even released.

Great video Frank! Thanks for sharing. We agree that 95% of these are bad. Bad Religion, however, shouldn’t be on this list. When you get a chance, look up Vanilla Ice’s first album, titled HOOKED.

I liked the stryper cover

That stryper album is titled Soldiers Under Command. Hence the weaponry.

Riot fan - I have no idea why they have the seal head. Can't believe Hemispheres is on the list. I love the Scorpions Lovedrive cover, I have that album complete with the breast shown on the back.

The worst album cover in my opinion was by my favourite band since 1979 - Thunder & Lightning by Thin Lizzy. After the legendary artwork by Jim Fitzpatrick on their previous covers it's hard to imagine they came up with that shit. I suppose the record company just didn't care any more. They just wanted to spend as little as possible and make as much as possible on their last ever album.

For paranoid , it’s the viewer who’s paranoid and tripping that their seeing an image blurred and stretched I’ve always thought

I say beauty’s in the eye of the beerholder.

I think in some cases, the band probably couldn't afford any major expense when it came to album covers, especially for a new band, which is probably why some of these are cheap looking. Maiden was really lucky to have Derek Riggs from the beginning, and I'll admit, my first fascination with Iron Maiden came from the covers. And I totally agree with you about Black Metal band logos, they always just look a bunch of branches lumped together.

I love the Hemispheres cover!

This is one. I prefer not to mention the name of the album or group. But the cover really broke the line of "this far and no further." It essentially shows a distorted image of CHRIST. And the cover ended up looking like a cross between CHRIST and the JOKER from Batman. This really pushed things too far. And it was enough to make me not even want to pull the CD out.

Show no mercy one of my favorite album covers of all time what a shame

On my own I think the Black Album's Metallica we were shocked when it release after the amazing previous cover albums

I like the Show No Mercy cover, and the album is amazing.

My Aunt bought me Balls To The Wall (Accept) from Two Guys department store. Got Ace of Spades too. (bad album cover)!