For the LP cover

Ever - back in the day - at your favorite heavy metal / record shop -
buy a LP - soley upon the cover alone ? It looked cool !!!
Without even hearing the music, the photo !! Cool !!
but knowing that the band just had to be good ?
My shop supplier was " Rocket Records " about 7 towns over -
and they didn't have much to choose from - etc

I never bought anything base on a cover or artwork. I had to hear the music first (still do). Some covers are really cool and the music might suck. And some covers suck (Stryper Second Coming) and the music is really good. On my iPod I replaced the Second Coming artwork with the one made by Death Is Gain.

I did all the time was very successful at it.

Wargod

Yes:



and



Didn't like the music on either of them except "Green Haze" from Elvis Hitler.

Hell yes and still do

Killers by Iron Maiden when I was about 11 or 12.

Too 'po to take chances on albums just for the artwork. I used to, but it always ended in disappointment.

Geez, I still do that. So many awesome albums I've bought based on cover alone

yes, in the 1970s/80s, buying unknown albums was determined by the cover art and band photo on the back by me sometimes.
That stopped in the late 1980s after I bought lp's that maybe had one or none good songs, just like commercial records that had only one good song that was played on the radio.

i dont really remember but i know that when i saw Kiss Lick it Up/Dynasty vinyl they got me... im not very sure which one was the first.
i remember MC cassette it was for sure Kiss Carnival of Souls & MTV Unplugged.
and i remember CD it was probably G3 i think Vai,Satriani, Johnson.

Some that I did it with are.....






Lots more....it was part of the fun to just pick something out of the bin, pay for it at the counter and  go home and play it.  You then could go brag to your friends, hey check this out or keep the little secret to yourself. 

I got into Motorhead after reading a write-up in Creem (or Hit Parader, Circus, can't remember which one) that stated that Motorhead were one of the worst bands in the history of music. I had to hear that for myself! Been a fan ever since.

Saw this in the record bin -
There was NO going wrong with this one

I didn't do it too often. The only one I really remember buying only based on the cover was this


I was just trying to go threw my stuff to see what else I did pick up because of the cover but I couldn't really think of any. Usually if I was curious about a band I would ask friends if they had the albums and they would copy them for me or when the internet came to be I would just look them up. In a way I'm kind of glad I didnt just buy on cover artwork alone because I've seen a lot of really cool artwork and then finding out later on that I wouldn't have liked the band. Then theres some bands that have terrible artwork and I love the bands. Mostly Blue Oyster Cult and Riot. BOC has some really cool stuff but a little on the weird side and pretty much all Riot covers are terrible. Anything with that Seal on the cover.

I don't do it now like I used to.

But I kinda miss it. I had some great successes. And some horrendous failures.

Shopping online and getting instant sound samples has greatly reduced this practice, but sure, I did it quite often back in the day. I'll still make the occasional blind purchase in a brick-n-mortar shop (that too being a rarity), but it's not like it used to be.

Not metal, but I dug the artwork from this Wax Tailor album enough to check it out and, I've gotta say, I was pretty impressed with the results.



The same was true for this recent set released by Powerwolf, but I have to admit, it's the name that drew me in more than the artwork.  

ultmetal wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

Monkey Demon loves you!

I keep waiting for MetalGuy71 to use this as his avatar.  

Back in the 80's, that's pretty much how you bought albums. The cover, the song titles, the band picture (if they had one).

The few I remember getting based solely on the cover though were
Celtic Frost - Emperor's Return
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
King Diamond - Abigail

I never did this. Instead I read reviews and bought albums based on that. Obviously that method is very hit or miss as well.