WHY Is The Color PURPLE The Secret Symbol of Heavy Metal? (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple & Doom)

Attention all metalheads! 🤘 Did you know that the color PURPLE is secretly the most metal color of all time?

In this episode of It's 1 Louder, PJ Pat reads an awesome tidbit from the book Codex Metallum revealing the hidden meaning behind the violet hue on legendary album covers.

We break down the surprisingly deep symbolism:

* Why the color of royalty (Julius Caesar status!) became the color of Doom Metal.
* The connection between Deep Purple's *Burn* and Black Sabbath's *Master of Reality* art.
* How purple links our flesh to the heavens (and soothes demons in Hell, apparently).
* The surprising albums that use purple (like Baroness's Purple album).

Let us know in the comments: What heavy metal album do *you* own that emphasizes the color purple?

| **0:00** | **Intro: The Secret Art of Metal & The Color Purple** | Heavy Metal, Doom Metal, Album Covers |
| **0:48** | **Black Sabbath & Deep Purple: The Albums That Started It All** | Black Sabbath Master of Reality, Deep Purple Burn, Metal History |
| **1:47** | **The Secret Meaning of Purple: Royalty, Priests, and Doom** | Color Symbolism, Doom Metal Art, Mysticism |
| **2:37** | **The Scientific Reason Why Purple is So Metal** | Red and Blue Meaning, Metal Culture |
| **3:45** | **Challenge: What Purple Metal Album Do YOU Own?** | Baroness, Community Engagement, Metal Albums |
| **4:26** | **Outro: More Metal Secrets Coming Soon!** | Codex Metallum, Rock Culture |

Transcript

Welcome, all you rockers out there. In today's episode, I'll specifically be talking to all you metalheads out there. Yes, all you metal headbangers. I received this amazing gift over the holidays. It's called Codex Metallum, the secret art of metal. The hidden meanings behind metal's greatest album covers. Look at that.

Illustrations by, uh, fortifam and Mathias Leonard. So excited to bring you a couple of these tidbits over the next couple of videos. You ready? Let's do this.

Okay. As a first tidbit, I thought I'd bring you something around my favorite color, purple. And maybe subconsciously this is the reason why, believe it or not, purple is associated with a lot of heavy metal albums out there. I didn't realize it until I read this, so let's check this out.

Okay, so the albums master of reality by Black Sabbath, of course, a classic, and burn by Deep Purple, another classic, were released in 1971 and 1974, respectively, reflecting their nebulous content. Their sleeves have two features in common. The typefaces are undulating, aiming to emulate the curves of a thick cloud of smoke or the outline of a ghost floating through the night.

There is also importantly, a desire to bring to the fore an electrifying deep violet color. Absolutely. Dew metal, with its slow tempos, deep chords, and profound themes, is a type of music that could accompany a trance or ritual connecting us with a form of arcane musical mysticism.

That the same violet color is found in numerous doom metal artworks. To the point that some have made it a recurring theme, such as italian Paul chain, a living legend of the underground who brought prestige to slow bewitching metal during the 1980s. And prestige it was for. Historically, the color purple has been associated with the idea of rank and wealth.

And I think royalty, a lot of royalty for sure. It was an imperial color. There you go. Like I was just saying, and difficult to make. It was created using pigments found in certain mollusks. In ancient Rome, wearing purple was the prerogative of the nobility, and there was a time when only Julius Caesar was allowed to wear. Wow. Huh? Huh? Okay. Very cool. So very elitist. Violet also appears on eclectical robes and altar clothes. Yeah, for sure. The catholic priest. It's all about purple, baby. A significance of death, maybe,

Francis Bacon's famous painting, innocent x depicts the pope wearing a robe of this color. It was said that purple had the virtue of pacifying the dead and soothing the devils in hell. In a different context, purple is connected with organic matter, for certain organs have a color that comes close to it, as does coagulating blood. Coagulating blood. Hm. should say that in a heavy metal style, coagulating blood.

The spectrum of colors, violet is obtained by mixing red and blue, two quite distinct hues. On one hand, there is the red of roses, blood and passion. On the other, the blue of reason. And that sense of infinite we experience at the sight of sea and the sky,

Expanses of which we cannot see. The end. Wow, they're getting pretty specific here. Purple is therefore a color that, in a way, forms a link between our bodies and the divine, between the flesh and the heavens. Uh, is also the final color of the rainbow. The last hue before the unknown. What? That's kind of cool. I didn't even realize that either.

Now that's deep.

Which sortilege conveyed very well in "La huitieme couleur de l'arc en ciel"  The 8th color of the rainbow. Violet too is the color associated with Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

All of this symbolism fits perfectly with the teleric heaviness of this music and with the mystical, almost magical charge it sometimes claims to carry. Very cool.

Check out these albums here. Paul Chain, Violet, theater in the darkness. Gonna have to check that out. Electric wizard, we live, Black Sabbath. A classic, I think. Probably my favorite of their albums. Master of reality.

Right, well, that's it. Short and sweet. If you did learn a thing or two, you're fascinated by this stuff. Smash that, like, button, will you? And also, I love this heavy metal culture. What I love and admire about the fans of heavy metal is that they're so loyal to their bands and they're so loyal to this subculture.

And I'm a big heavy metal fan, don't get me wrong, but I'd love to learn more and get really deep into the culture. Now, this book is probably a good window into it. I plan to bring you more really interesting stuff from this book. So if you don't want to miss that, click on subscribe. And thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode. Rock on.