The Stolen Logo from The Devil’s Rejects

Today, it’s quite common for multiple bands to share the same name. What is unusual, however, is a band stealing another band’s logo. So unusual, in fact, that I had never heard of it happening until now. Norwegian band The Devil’s Rejects had their logo stolen by a Canadian band also named The Devil’s Rejects. How pathetic is it to steal another band’s logo?

UPDATE: May 27 2024: The Canadian band has agreed to not use the logo from the Norwegian one anymore. They claim that they fond the logo on the net and did not know it belong to another band. The will find a new logo for their band.

There might be some logical explanations for this. The Canadian The Devil’s Rejects is a White Zombie tribute band, naturally naming themselves after the Rob Zombie movie of the same name. They might have thought the logo was associated with the movie and stolen it from there. However, Runar Pettersen, the vocalist of the Norwegian The Devil’s Rejects, reached out to the band to explain that he had created the logo, but they continued to use it anyway.

Screenshot from Facebook.

“After I discovered our logo on posters for events we weren’t playing at, I investigated further,” explains Runar. “Another band had stolen our logo. This band appears to have started in late 2021. From their very first Facebook post on November 4, 2021, they used the logo I designed. Not only do they use our logo frequently on posters and Facebook, but they even printed up large banners with our logo on. I sent a message to the band, explaining that I made this logo, but they didn’t respond.”

Guitarist Aleksander shares his opinion on the case: “It’s pretty lazy and disrespectful how they have stamped our logo on banners and posters for live events. In most cases, they have stretched the logo’s aspect ratio completely out of proportion, which makes it look quite amateurish. I would have respected it more if they had ripped it off by drawing a similar-looking logo with their own spin, but this is just a plain lazy copy/paste. I can’t understand how any creating artist with respect for themselves would do such a thing. We also borrow titles from old horror movies, but these are at least tributes.”

The logo was created back in 2015 and was hand-drawn by Runar: “Yes, I sketched the logo by hand. I scanned the drawing and added the Gothic font in Photoshop, where I also drew over the horns and tail. Then, I brought it into Adobe Illustrator, refined it, and converted it to a vector.”

Today, when many bands share the same name, the logo is what distinguishes one band from another. Stealing someone else’s intellectual property in this way is dirty and unacceptable. It’s especially egregious when one band steals the identity of another, as the Canadian band is doing here. We can only hope that they come to their senses and stop using the logo of the Norwegian The Devil’s Rejects.