# Heavy Metal — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Heavy Metal**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 4 of 8 research dimensions.
> 3 sources attached. 2 claims graded by our research brief, no source attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

**Defining:** Sub-genre logo lettering, engraved horror imagery, near-black palette, symmetrical sigils

**Recognise it by:** A commissioned band logo as the primary artefact, drawn by hand and lettered to its sub-genre: gothic-calligraphic letters and pentagrams in black metal, sharp aggressive curves in death metal, ligatures tangled past reading in brutal death metal. Drawn to a vertical axis, set on a near-black ground with engraved horror imagery around it. The diagnostic condition is that the mark tells an informed reader the scene: how far it resists reading depends on which sub-genre it answers to.

**Family:** Subculture & Street
**Era:** 1980s, contemporary
**Native medium:** packaging

**Scope:** Heavy metal is a rock genre (late 1960s–70s). This record covers the commissioned band-logo register of its extreme sub-genres, chiefly black and death metal; the applied palette and imagery rules are Aesthetary's reading.

## What it is arguing

The logo is the band, and it names the scene before it names the band. The lettering follows its sub-genre's conventions, so the mark rewards those already inside with recognition; in brutal death metal that trade goes as far as legibility itself.

**It refuses:** Refuses the set, neutral wordmark, and refuses the atmospheric restraint of literary darkness.

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Tattoo Flash — A living craft tradition with its own iconography and rules
- Gothic Horror
- Emo — Mid-2000s specifically; pink is the tell against Heavy Metal
- Occult

## Established rules

Grouped by what kind of claim each is. A requirement of the language and our own interpretation are not interchangeable.

**How to read each rule.** Every rule states two separate things, and neither stands in for the other:

- **Kind of claim** (the heading): From our catalogue entry · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed · Documented · Source attached · Our reading.
- **Evidence** (how it is established): Graded by our research brief · No source attached (`DOCUMENTED`) · From our catalogue entry (`SUPPORTED`) · Our reading (`CURATORIAL`) · Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`) · No grade recorded (no grade in the record). Where a claim has its own canonical label, the Evidence line gives that label instead of the grade.
- **Product area**: which of the twelve areas the rule belongs to (Layout, Typography, Color, Imagery, Surface, Interface, Motion, Motif, Technique, Form, Hierarchy, Density), mapped from its raw area label in bold. "Context" means the rule is about the Aesthetic (its name, origin, lineage) rather than a part of the design. "Not mapped" means the raw area has no single area yet.
- The code in brackets is the `grade` field at `implementationConstraints.tokenRules.value.rules[].provenance.grade` in https://aesthetary.com/data/heavy-metal.json. "From our catalogue entry" means: Stated in Aesthetary’s existing catalogue entry. An outside source is named only where one is linked to the claim.

### From our catalogue entry

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **hierarchy** — The logo outranks all. Bilateral symmetry about a central vertical axis, with everything else subordinate and smaller.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Hierarchy
- **imagery** — Imagery: engraved horror imagery.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Imagery
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: symmetrical sigils.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: not mapped

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached

_A research brief graded this documented, but no source is attached yet. A grade is not a source._

- **lettering** — The logo is hand-drawn and bilaterally symmetrical, and its difficulty is constructed rather than incidental — the mark is built to reward a reader who already knows it.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Typography

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed

- **register** — Illegibility belongs to the black and death metal logo tradition. Thrash lettering is sharp and clean, and applying the illegible mark across all metal is a category error.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed · Product area: Context (not a design area)

### Our reading

_Aesthetary supplied this. The source says nothing so precise. A starting point, not a fact._

- **color** — Colour: a near-black ground under a light mark; black metal logos tend to be white, death metal logos red.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Color

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Color** — In one study's logo corpus, red logos tend to come from death metal bands and black metal logos tend to be white.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:color-1` · Covers logo colour, not album-cover palette.
- **Surface** — Texture of the letter rendering is a coded dimension in a study of metal logos, and one of the three that best discriminate between logos.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1` · Covers family-level finding across metal sub-genres.
- **Surface** — Szpajdel's master artwork is a black-and-white scan at maximum contrast and 300 dpi.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-2` · Covers one practitioner's deliverable.
- **Interface** — The artefact is a drawn mark delivered as a scan or vector file; no opened source attaches any interface furniture to it.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-1`
- **Technique** — In the 1980s metal logos were drawn by hand, most often by a local artist or an amateur, sometimes a member of another band, and were usually very primitive.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers 1980s scene, per one practitioner.
- **Technique** — Szpajdel sketches, and once the symmetry looks perfect to his eye he inks the logo, correcting with white-out before submitting it.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2` · Covers Christophe Szpajdel's own method; he is credited with the black-metal template but is one designer.
- **Technique** — Szpajdel scans his logos in black and white at maximum contrast and 300 dpi; he delegates vector work to another designer, who vectorises manually.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3` · Covers one practitioner.
- **Technique** — One specialist illustrator, Christophe Szpajdel, estimates he has drawn over 10,000 logos, mainly in black metal, death metal and dark ambient.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-4`
- **Form** — Apparent three-dimensionality is a coded variable in a study of metal logos; it has outliers and separates some specific logos well.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1` · Covers whole metal corpus, not black/death metal alone.

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Left open
- **Motif** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Left open
- **Layout** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.
- **Motion** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in Heavy Metal: a hand-drawn band mark that outranks everything, lettered to its sub-genre, light on a near-black ground, with every other word set to be read.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/heavy-metal.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ground | `#0A0A0C` | — | The page: near-black. | On the record |
| mark | `#D8D5CC` | 13.5:1 | The mark (white in black metal) and all body text. | On the record |
| mark-red | `#6E1420` | — | Red for a death metal mark and for plates. Never text on the ground (1.7:1). | Web translation |
| red-text | `rgb(217 80 92)` | 4.9:1 | The red when it has to be read. | Web translation |
| ash | `#8A8D96` | 6.0:1 | Secondary text, labels. | Web translation |
| char | `#26262C` | — | Rules and panel borders. Never text. | Web translation |

Other accents the record supports:

- black metal mark (recorded as "tends to be white"): `#D8D5CC`
- death metal mark (recorded as "tends to be red"): `#6E1420`

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:color-5` → Put a light mark on a near-black ground.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:color-1` → A black metal mark tends to be white; a death metal mark tends to be red.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:failure-3` → No warm-toned ground; red belongs to the mark.
- **Web translation** — Letter any red text in the lighter rgb(217 80 92); keep #6E1420 for plates and marks. _Why:_ The deep red fails contrast as text on the ground. (`claim:kcc:color-1`)

### Typography

Family: a readable old-style text face (IM Fell English is the room's choice); the logo is drawn, not set. Stack: `"IM Fell English HM", Georgia, serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Setting | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| mark | clamp(4rem, 12vw, 7rem) | 400 | 1 | uppercase | not specified | — | drawn as SVG artwork, not live text | The band mark, once per page. |
| heading | clamp(1.875rem, 5vw, 3.375rem) | 400 | 1.1 | not specified | not specified | — | — | Section titles in the metal display face; they still read. |
| body | 1.1875rem | 400 | 1.7 | not specified | not specified | 60ch | — | Everything that is read. |
| label | 0.875rem | 400 | 1.4 | not specified | 0.14em | — | small capitals | Labels, navigation, field names. |

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:hm-r1` → Draw the logo by hand and to a vertical axis; it is a mark, not a typeface.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:hm-logo-only` → Keep the logo lettering to the logo; body text stays readable.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:definition` → Letter the mark to its sub-genre: gothic calligraphy for black metal, sharp aggressive curves for death metal; illegible ligatures belong to brutal death metal.
- **Web translation** — Headings may take a metal display face that still reads (Metal Mania here); it is not the logo. _Why:_ The logo grammar applies to the logo alone; a display heading borrows its heat without its difficulty. (`claim:hm-logo-only`)
- **Web translation** — Ship the mark as SVG traced from a black-and-white master at full contrast. _Why:_ Logos are inked, scanned in black and white at maximum contrast and vectorised by hand. (`claim:kcc:technique-2`, `claim:kcc:technique-3`)

### Grid and layout

Not specified by the source. The room centres everything on the mark's vertical axis, which follows from the hierarchy rule; it is a composition choice, not a recorded layout.

Tokens: measure `860px`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → The logo outranks everything; everything else is subordinate and smaller.
- **Web translation** — Centre the page on one vertical axis under the mark. _Why:_ The mark is drawn to a vertical axis and outranks everything; the page takes its axis from it. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`, `token_rule:hm-r1`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify a layout system. _Instead:_ Use the axis as a starting point, and do not claim a metal grid.

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: rule `1px` · rule-heavy `2px` · radius `0` · panel-offset `6px`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Arrange sigils to the same symmetry as the mark.
- **Web translation** — Give the drawn mark a rough, inked edge rather than a clean vector outline. _Why:_ The texture of the letter rendering is among the traits that best tell logos apart, and logos are inked by hand. (`claim:kcc:surface-1`, `claim:kcc:technique-2`)
- **Web translation** — Keep ornament (thorned rules, seals) symmetrical and subordinate. _Why:_ Symmetrical sigils are the record's motif, and nothing may outrank the mark. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Not specified by the source** — Apparent three-dimensionality is left open. _Instead:_ Some logos are drawn with depth; do not add bevels or extrusion by default.

### Imagery

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Set engraved horror imagery around the mark.
- **Web translation** — Keep the engraving behind and below the mark, never over it. _Why:_ The logo outranks everything. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Not specified by the source** — Licensed engraved imagery is not held. _Instead:_ Leave the field dark and say so; never generate an engraving and present it as period art.

### Sub-genre

The mark tells an informed reader the scene. Choose the sub-genre first; the lettering, and how far it resists reading, follow from it.

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:definition` → Letter to one sub-genre: black metal, gothic-calligraphic with pentagrams; death metal, sharp aggressive curves; brutal death metal, illegible with many ligatures.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:color-1` → Colour the mark to its scene: black metal marks tend to white, death metal marks to red.
- **Web translation** — Illegibility is a brutal death metal convention; do not apply it to the family. _Why:_ The practitioner account places illegibility in brutal death metal only. (`claim:kcc:definition`, `claim:dcc:v1-distinguishing`)

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A blood-red plate with its label in the metal display face, bone on red.

- Anatomy: #6E1420 field; label in the display face (Metal Mania here); square corners
- Tokens: background `#6E1420` · color `#D8D5CC` · hover `rgb(141 26 42)` · radius `0` · minHeight `44px`
- State, default: Bone label on the blood plate (8.0:1).
- State, hover: The plate lightens a step; label to white.
- State, focus: 2px bone outline 4px outside the plate.
- State, active: The plate returns to #6E1420.
- State, disabled: Near-black plate, 1px ash border, ash label.
- Accessibility: Bone on blood at 8.0:1.
- Accessibility: The display face on a button still reads: it is not the logo.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Put action on a red plate with a light label. _Why:_ Red belongs to the mark in death metal logos, and the ground stays near-black; a button borrows the mark's colour, not the ground's. (`claim:dcc:color-5`, `claim:kcc:color-1`)
- **Web translation** — Keep button labels readable, even in the display face. _Why:_ The logo lettering applies to the logo alone. (`claim:hm-logo-only`)

#### Card

A double-ruled panel on near-black, its title in the display face, everything centred on the card's axis.

- Anatomy: 1px char border with a second rule 6px outside; title centred in the display face; one line of readable text
- Tokens: border `1px solid #26262C` · outline `1px solid rgb(26 26 31), offset 6px` · background `#0A0A0C`
- State, default: Double rule, centred title.
- State, hover: Ground lifts to rgb(21 21 26).
- State, focus: 2px bone outline outside the rules.
- Accessibility: The whole card is one link.
- Accessibility: Text is bone on near-black at 13.5:1.
- **Web translation** — Centre the card's contents on one vertical axis. _Why:_ The mark is drawn to a vertical axis and everything else is subordinate to it; the card repeats the axis at small scale. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`, `token_rule:hm-r1`)

#### Input

A single bone rule on near-black, its label above in small capitals.

- Anatomy: 1px bone bottom rule; near-black field; label above in the small-caps face; error below in the text red
- Tokens: border `0 0 1px solid #D8D5CC` · background `#0A0A0C` · label `IM Fell English SC` · radius `0` · height `3rem`
- State, default: Bone rule under the field.
- State, focus: Rule to 2px, and a bone outline.
- State, error: Message in the text red (4.9:1), beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Rule in grey, label in ash.
- Accessibility: The label is real text above the field.
- Accessibility: Entry text is the readable body face.
- Accessibility: Errors are words, not colour alone.
- **Web translation** — Keep the field and its label in the readable faces. _Why:_ Logo lettering applies to the logo alone; body text stays readable. (`claim:hm-logo-only`)
- **Not specified by the source** — Metal forms are not researched yet. _Instead:_ Do not dress a field in spikes and call it the language.

#### Navigation

A centred row of small-capital links under the mark, the current one in the text red.

- Anatomy: links in the small-caps face, letterspaced; centred under the mark; current in the text red with an underline
- Tokens: color `#D8D5CC` · current `rgb(217 80 92)` · separator `thorn rule`
- State, default: Bone small capitals.
- State, hover: Blood underline.
- State, focus: 2px bone outline.
- State, current: Text red, underlined, aria-current set.
- Accessibility: A list of links in reading order.
- Accessibility: The current item is marked by aria-current and an underline, not colour alone.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tap target.
- **Web translation** — Set navigation small and centred under the mark. _Why:_ The logo outranks everything; everything else is subordinate and smaller. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Motion

- **Web translation** — Do not animate. State changes are instant. _Why:_ The artefact is a sleeve, not a screen, and the source does not specify motion. (`claim:motion-reason`)

### Deliberately not added

- **A layout system, and density** (gridLayout): Layout and density are not specified by the source; the axis is the room's composition.
- **Any interface convention** (components): The interface area is not researched yet; the artefact is a drawn mark delivered as a scan or vector file.
- **Any motion** (motion): Not specified by the source; the artefact is a sleeve, not a screen.
- **Form and surface beyond the mark** (shapeGeometry): Both areas are left open by the record.
- **Licensed engravings** (imagery): The record claims engraved horror imagery that Aesthetary does not hold.

## Coverage — what has been looked at

One row per research dimension a research pass considered. "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) means exactly that; a dimension can carry an Aesthetary recommendation and still be unresearched, and those are different things.

| Research dimension | Evidence | Resolved by | Carries a rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Composition | Not specified by the source | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Typography | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Density | Not specified by the source | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Imagery | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Left open: form, surface · Specified: motif, technique | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Not specified by the source | — | no |

## Not researched yet

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Interface

**Do not fill these in.** An absent position is absent research, not permission and not a blank for you to complete. If the work needs a decision in one of these areas, make it on other grounds and do not attribute it to this language.

## Grade your own work

18 checks: 8 mechanically testable, 9 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 1 with no recorded position. 4 further research dimensions produced no rule (Composition, Typography, Density, Motion). This rubric is silent on them. 1 context rule is listed apart: known about this Aesthetic, not something to check finished work against. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: A commissioned band logo as the primary artefact, drawn by hand and lettered to its sub-genre: gothic-calligraphic letters and pentagrams in black metal, sharp aggressive curves in death metal, ligatures tangled past reading in brutal death metal. Drawn to a vertical axis, set on a near-black ground with engraved horror imagery around it. The diagnostic condition is that the mark tells an informed reader the scene: how far it resists reading depends on which sub-genre it answers to.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Nothing is recorded as a requirement of this Aesthetic. There is no rule here that your work must hold — which means nothing you do can fail this dimension, and nothing you do can satisfy it either. That is missing research, not freedom: our research brief does record failure modes to avoid, listed under avoidance below. They are recorded judgement, not requirements.
  - _If it fails:_ Not applicable. An empty dimension is an absence of research, never a pass and never a failure.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. The logo outranks all. Bilateral symmetry about a central vertical axis, with everything else subordinate and smaller.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Imagery: engraved horror imagery.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Form / motif / surface / technique: symmetrical sigils.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. The logo is hand-drawn and bilaterally symmetrical, and its difficulty is constructed rather than incidental — the mark is built to reward a reader who already knows it.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No logo lettered against its sub-genre's conventions.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No asymmetry in the mark.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No warm-toned ground; red belongs to the mark.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No applying the logo grammar to body copy.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No small-size use of the mark.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Gothic Horror: allegiance versus atmosphere; a band mark drawn to a scene versus readable display type. Against Occult: band mark versus cosmology. Anti-signature: swap the drawn mark for display lettering and it becomes Gothic Horror. Drop the logo and organise by sigil meaning and it becomes Occult.
  - _If it fails:_ You have built the neighbour. That may be fine — but name which Aesthetic you are in.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: a set typeface in place of a drawn mark.
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: an asymmetrical lockup..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Tattoo Flash? That language is: A living craft tradition with its own iconography and rules
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Tattoo Flash than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Gothic Horror? That language is: Victorian dread rather than subcultural or mystical darkness
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Gothic Horror than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Emo? That language is: Mid-2000s specifically; pink is the tell against Heavy Metal
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Emo than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[mechanical · recorded accessibility cost · Evidence: No grade recorded]** This Aesthetic accepts "Legibility" as a cost. Your reader did not. Does your work carry that cost in the decorative layer only — display, demonstration, atmosphere — while every passage meant to be read holds a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1?
  - _If it fails:_ You have inherited a historical cost that the language never required you to pass on. The Aesthetic survives at AA on reading matter; reproducing the cost is a choice, not fidelity.

### Context — known about this Aesthetic, not a check

Where the Aesthetic comes from, what it is called, how it sits among its neighbours. Use it to understand the work; do not score finished work against it.

- Illegibility belongs to the black and death metal logo tradition. Thrash lettering is sharp and clean, and applying the illegible mark across all metal is a category error. _(Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed)_

**Not covered at all:** Composition: Not specified by the source; Typography: Specified · From our catalogue entry; Density: Not specified by the source; Motion: Not specified by the source. These research dimensions produced no rule, so there is no check. Treat them as unscored, never as passed and never as failed.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `heavy-metal` · status `draft` · research `not_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/heavy-metal.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/heavy-metal.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

_Aesthetary is an alpha. Where a page says nothing, nobody has done the work yet._