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What the fuck??

DID BLACK SABBATH RIP-OFF THE SCORPIONS?

 Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 10:30am by

Reader Cody Barrick sent in the side-by-side comparison from totallylookslike.com, which shows that the cover of Sabbath’s 1994 album Cross Purposes is nearly identical to that of Scorpions’ 1991 single, “Send Me an Angel.”

And… sheesh. It really is a straight-up ripoff, isn’t it? Of course, it’s entirely possible that Sabbath had never seen the Scorpions cover when they approved it, but at some point after the fact, someone had to make them aware, right? It’s not like the whole world is just noticing now, sixteen years after the fact, is it? ‘Cause this is ridiculous.

You can see larger versions of the covers here and here.

-AR

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  • deckoff

    Well does anybody care about THIS BS album. I am sure I listened to it, but dont remember a note from it…. At the very least,send me an angelis a great song :)

    • http://www.smnnews.com big_metal_al

      Well, Black Sabbath is WAAAAY better than Scorpions, so regardless of the copycat artwork (which I never knew either, honestly), Cross Purposes is a great album, and Tony Martin did a great job on vocals. This is in my eyes, and I remember many notes from it.

      • tiagón

        truly one of the best works with Tony Martin. but I think Forbidden is a more solid album overall.

    • Trux

      dude… that Black sabbath album is absolutely great….. and that single of the Scorps … well is just another ballad that the world does not need…

  • Esteban

    Nick Simmons designed that cover/

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Micheal-Vanderven/502827008 Micheal Vanderven

    this was the early stages of metal ripoffs.

    nowadays, people steal each others breakdowns

    • Slaughterhouse

      FTW!

  • DannyJD

    Those designs are totally different. The Scorpions cover has a bunch of dudes on it. C’mon, that’s not even close.

    • \m/

      Plus, one of the ladies with the wings is blonde on one cover and the other lady is a brunette.

      Plus, one has her right hand on top of the left and the other has her hands reversed.

      SERIOUSLY WHO CARES ??

  • http://cadred.net Michael Cook

    Probably just the same designer recycling some old artwork. Doesn’t seem like much of a story to me.

    • Sammy

      Agreed. Probably a lazy artist cashing a paycheck.

  • David

    Just another example of the lack of Quality Control Iommi and mgmt displayed when he went solo and decided to still call it Black Sabbath. Still wrote good songs…made a lot of crappy business decisions

    • WowWee!

      They wanted to change the name but the record company wouldn’t let them change it.

  • Anthony

    Did anyone really listen to Black Sabbath in 1994?

    • tiagón

      oh you bet.

    • Marcelo

      I’m still listening !!!!! and is 2011 !!!!!

  • Alex_P

    Here’s a better one: Morbid Angel/Hexenhaus. Hexenhaus were first with “A Tribute to Insanity”, but I hadn’t heard of them until I checked out the cover of Blessed are the Sick, so it’s possible they didn’t know about them either. This raises a question: if a musician uses someone else’s work (and the work was not commissioned) for his cover, can he be ripped off?

  • alan smithee

    Lol!!…Holy fuck what a rip-off….Of course I would never had known about it if I didn’t stumble onto this thread.I absolutely hate The Scorpions.
    Talking about album covers,anyone ever see The Scorpions album cover for Virgin Killer?…I have no idea how the fuck they got away with that one but I think it’s safe to say that no one would be ripping off that one.
    IMO,the Tony Martin era Sabbath is totally unlistenable…I saw Sabbath with Motorhead around the mid-90′s at a fairly small club.I was lucky enough to get back stage with the intention of meeting Tony..that didn’t happen..However,I met Lemmy…Now that guy is NO poseur…He’s exactly what rock n’roll is all about.

  • Desiree D.

    They are TOO similar, that’s why we care. If an artwork is basically replicated as another’s album cover, they pretty much stole it..

    That’s bull crap.

  • Good Guy Greg

    Scorpions’ Send me an Angel single came out in 1990, Black Sabbath’s Cross Purposes came out in 1994, so it’s that way around. Anyway i love both Scorpions and Black Sabbath, this is probably just some lazy designer’s fuck up.