Idiosyncratic Album Theming

"We are contractually bound to put 21 tracks on all our CDs. It's part of our pact with the Devil."

—Joseph Vargo, Nox Arcana

The musical equivalent of Idiosyncratic Episode Naming, this is when a band has one common element in every single one or almost every single one of their albums. This can come in many flavors, but the most common are the number of tracks on the album, having a Hidden Track, or having Idiosyncratic Cover Art.

Other variants can include all of the records having at least one Album Title Drop, or one song about a specific subject.

In some cases, a band coming out with a album that differs from the band's former pattern can cause fans to cry They Changed It, Now It Sucks.

Examples of Idiosyncratic Album Theming include:

• As the above quote attests, all of Nox Arcana's albums have exactly 21 tracks. We do hope he's joking, though. In addition, all of the albums have at least one Hidden Track. (Sometimes two. Sometimes three.)
• All of Midnight Syndicate's albums end with a Hidden Track consisting of sound effects and voices.
• Each Buzz-Works album has 19 tracks.
• Every CD by Nightwish has an Album Title Drop.
• There is a song about wolves on every album by Sonata Arctica. This has led to them earning the nickname "Wolf Metal band".
• Every "Weird Al" Yankovic album has one polka medley (except three: his first, his fifth, and one which has a polka cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" instead) and (generally) one song about food and TV. There;'s usually also at least one mention of the number "27" somewhere as well.
• Angelspit really like talking about cannibalism - this is evident in the fact that they have at least one song that at least mentions or is about cannibalism on every one of their CDs.
• Every Epica album has one instance of Epic Rocking.
  • Though that's as much a result of the genre as anything else.
• Every album by Children of Bodom has their mascot, the reaper, on it's cover.
• Morten Veland of Sirenia must love the number seven - all of the band's albums have at least one song with 7 in the title. At Sixes And Sevens has the title track, An Elixir For Existence has Seven Sirens And A Silver Tear, Nine Destinies And A Downfall has Seven Keys And Nine Doors, and The 13th Floor gives us both Winterborn 77 and Sirens Of The Seven Seas.
• Up until 2006, the Barenaked Ladies recorded one song on each album naked.
• Five Iron Frenzy: On their first four albums, the sixth track would be a joke: either less than ten seconds long, improvised-in-the-studio nonsense, or both. However, they broke with that tradition for their last four albums.
• Starflyer 59: The credits of every single release feature the single-sentence dedication, "All praise and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ", in lieu of a "The band would like to thank..." section. Ever since Leave Here a Stranger, band members are only referred to by their last name and first initial: J. Martin, J. Cloud, F. Lenz, etc.
• Every Demon Hunter album cover features their logo—a stylized, bisected demon head—rendered in a different style or medium.
• Every Lordi album has one or more song about Heavy Meta.
• Every White Stripes album contains a song with the word "Little" in the title.
  • And their album art is always some combination of red, white, and black (and sometimes gray).
• X-Ray Dog. Let's look at album names: "Bonz Unleashed", "Prime Cuts", "Sit Up And Listen", "Fresh Meat", "New Tricks", "Mad Dog", "A Breed Apart", "Doggie Style", "Dog Party", "Canis Rex", "Dog Eat Dog", "Hellhounds", "Bites Bark Growls", "Dog Gone Wild", "Best in Show", "Mighty Dog", "K-9 Empire", "Cerberus", "Boneyard", "Alpha Dog", "Dog Rock", "Dogs of War". It looks like they doggedly pursuit one theme.
• The first four albums by Brazilian band Skank have 11 songs. They denied it was a soccer reference.
• America once gave seven consecutive albums titles beginning with the letter H. Later in their careers, they did four more in a row like that.
• Almost all releases by The Jesus Lizard have four-letter titles such as Goat or Liar - the exceptions are a self-titled EP and a few singles named after their A-sides. They also carried this on to the compilation Bang and the live album Show (maybe calling it Live would have been too obvious).
  • Even their one single (technically a split with Nirvana) was named "Puss."
• Every Dream Theater album cover includes the Majesty logo in some shape or form.
• Deep Purple has six albums in a row (from their second The Book of Taliesyn to their seventh Who Do We Think We Are) that featured seven tracks each.
• Mastodon's first four albums each had an elemental theme: Remission is fire, Leviathan is water, Blood Mountain is earth, and Crack the Skye is aether.
• Every Basement Jaxx album up until Scars contained several interludes with the suffix "-alude" appended to the title.
• With only two exceptions (Kill 'em All and St. Anger) every Metallica album has a ballad as the fourth track. Even the Cover Album.
• Similarly, Steve Vai always places a ballad as track number seven, and Word of God says it's intentional.
• Foetus titles every album with a single four-letter word.
• Brad Paisley's first three albums had covers of gospel songs as the final track. The second through fifth also had interstitial skits featuring country music singers and/or actors.