A k-means clustering and histogram-based colorimetric analysis of metal album artworks: The colour palette of metal music

Because of its marketing impact and key role in the definition of a band’s visual identity, the artwork of a metal album is carefully designed to reflect the music played by the band. Bearing in mind the historical association between colour and music, we performed a quantitative colorimetric analysis of 1150 metal album artworks (MAA) (and of 400 non-metal artworks for the purpose of comparison) in order to study the place of colours in metal artworks visual identity. In each artwork, we have extracted its five dominant colours (with a k-means clustering algorithm) and underwent a colour histogram analysis. We showed that MAA appear darker than their non-metal counterparts. We derived a colour palette of MAA and showed that black, (dark) grey and brown/orange tones are by far the most frequently used colours. The presence of these ‘metal colours’ is very consistent between metal subgenres. However, the visual identity of some metal subgenres encompasses specific artwork colorimetric rules. Black metal album covers are darker and mainly use black and dark grey. Groove metal artworks tend to display warmer and more saturated colours with an increased use of brownish and orange tones. Drone metal albums are lighter while crossover albums have a mottled appearance. Nevertheless, for most of the metal subgenres the artwork visual identity seems to rely on colour-independent elements. We suppose that this identity might rather be built on thematic elements and probably also on the logotypes’ style. A lot of work remains to be done to clearly understand what makes metal albums look so peculiar.