Album Covers

[Sumeet]

I appreciate a cool piece of artwork for what it is, but I don't listen to music
based on album covers; I mean there are plenty of great albums with crappy
artwork. Still, one of the greatest pieces of album artwork remains the
artwork of the album that got me into music to begin with years ago. Not
just because it's a cool piece of art in itself, but also in the level of detail and
how it relates to the album and band as a whole.

 

[sava_freak]

Mercyful Faith-Dont break the Oath

 

[nomisofsiman]

These painting were not made to be Candlemass album covers, well some people don't know that. I went to see these in DC put the painting were on tour at the time so I only got to see the empty wall where they hung.

Correct. But they are still great covers nonetheless.

 

[nomisofsiman]

Some of my favorites off hand.

Those three bands always have great artwork.

 

[nomisofsiman]

@Sumeet. I don't want to be a dick to everyone and quote that large image, but yeah Maiden have some of the best covers. So much so, that they're almost too obvious to list. The only one of their covers that is absolutely hideous is this one:

I mean, really? Beyond it looking like a freshman college student going into graphics and animation, it's just too busy. The only part that works is Eddie as the grim reaper. I don't know how Maiden signed off putting this one to press.

 

[Sumeet]

@Sumeet. I don't want to be a dick to everyone and quote that large image, but yeah Maiden have some of the best covers. So much so, that they're almost too obvious to list. The only one of their covers that is absolutely hideous is this one:

I mean, really? Beyond it looking like a freshman college student going into graphics and animation, it's just too busy. The only part that works is Eddie as the grim reaper. I don't know how Maiden signed off putting this one to press.

Yeah... I'm still not quite sure where they were going with that. Maybe they wanted the weird dancing characters to look surreal, as they're sorta described in the title track? I don't know. It's pretty weird. There's also a version of that art floating around with just the reaper Eddie on the black and white floor, with no dancing characters, that perhaps would have worked better:

 

[GoRillaBoy76]

Metal is largely visual, thats what draws many people to it. with that being said I LOVE METAL ALBUM COVERS.

 

[nomisofsiman]

Yeah... I'm still not quite sure where they were going with that. Maybe they wanted the weird dancing characters to look surreal, as they're sorta described in the title track? I don't know. It's pretty weird. There's also a version of that art floating around with just the reaper Eddie on the black and white floor, with no dancing characters, that perhaps would have worked better:

I seem to recall this now. Yeah, that would have been a much better choice.

 

[noren]

Absolutely agreed! Mattias is awesome!
c.

I love you too Claus!


Unfortunately I don't have time to do much cover art anymore, which is sad in a way. But I have good job now that pays the bills, and I still can do a cover now and then when I feel for it... without the pressure that I HAVE to do it to get food on the table which isn't really good for creativety.



Lately I have been doing some artwork for a couple of unknown bands.
One is called Fictional me. Listen to this.. I think it's awesome (still just a demo)
http://www.fictionalme.se/media/audio/Fictional%20Me%20-%20Fallen.mp3
...and I will also do the next Cloudscape album.


That's about it for now...

 

[mëtålspëd]

Love this artwork... don't like the band at all. Its interesting stuff like this, that gets me.

 

[johan68]

A cover like this will get me going every time....

 

[dcowboys311]

For me, Darkthrone has the best covers...you can see a visual representation of their ever-evolving sound just by looking at the artwork.

(Death Metal)

(Black Metal)

(Cleanish/slow black metal)

(Crust punk/black metal/heavy metal hybrid)

 

[Palabra de Dios]

Just about anything by Dan Seagrave, Kristian Wåhlin, or Kris Verwimp. These are legendary artists as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Corsair]

The ones that stick out in my head from recent memory, that I liked. I'm sure there's more, but even if I hadn't already liked the bands in question I would ahve bought the albums based on the cover art.

 

[Metalhed]

Any album cover thread must have this one in it...

 

[FriendOfEntropy]

I hope these Amazon image links are permanent.

 

[Pellaz]

Nice Elric on that Domine cover. And that Iron Savior cover looks awesome!

 

[Dave@BEC]

Lately I have been doing some artwork for a couple of unknown bands.
One is called Fictional me...and I will also do the next Cloudscape album.

Looking forward to seeing the new covers being worked on, there is more wall space in the Mattias Noren USA gallery (my game room)

 

[Mosquito]

I've actually not bought any Heavenly because some of their album artwork is off-putting to me. They're probably right up my alley musically, but I'm having a hard time getting past this:

That is blatant "Hey look, we have scantily clad women on our album cover, and you can see boobies, and they might be about to get it on! BUY OUR ALBUM PLZ." Seems desperate, IMO.


That said, I bought this album based on artwork alone:

My favorite HammerFall artwork is probably this one:


And if I'd never heard While Heaven Wept prior to the new album, the artwork on it alone would have made me purchase it.

The Manigance one looks like Mattias Noren's work.

 

[Yonfon]

The Peace Sells cover has to be my all time favorite. The artwork is great.

I think just by seeing this cover i knew i would like this album...Cant wait for z2