Since forming in 1981, Metallica has become one of the world’s biggest selling bands, with over 50 million albums sold in the US alone. They’ve won 9 Grammy Awards and – from the battle over their first release through to the celebrated packaging for Death Magnetic – have created significant cover art as well.

Kill ‘Em All (1983)

This release was to be called Metal Up Your Ass and the cover was supposed to feature a toilet bowl with a hand clutching a dagger emerging from it. After significant pressure to reconsider, the band settled on Kill ‘Em All as an angry response and used the artwork for tour t-shirts instead.

Ride the Lightning (1984)

Master of Puppets (1986)

One of the most acclaimed metal albums of all time. Many prints of the 1986 release featured a parody of the PMRC “explicit lyrics” warning labels.

And Justice for All (1988)

The cover was made by Stephen Gorman based on a concept by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.

Metallica (1991)

Also popularly known as the Black Album, this is the second best selling album of the Soundscan era. Read a previous Sleevage entry about it here.

Load (1996)

The original artwork on the cover is entitled “Semen and Blood III” and is one of three photos by Andres Serrano, who mixed his own semen with bovine blood between two pieces of Plexiglass. The cover also features a new Metallica logo.   

ReLoad (1997)

Garage Inc (1998)

St Anger (2003)

Brian Schroeder designed the album cover and artwork for St. Anger.  Originally there was meant to be four different limited color variations  but the plans were eventually canceled.

Death Magnetic (2008)

A special edition of this release was packages in a coffin box. Death Magnetic won Best Recording Package at the 51st Grammy Awards.

But in the last few years I’ve been rediscovering the music of my teenage years and also how kickass the album covers were. It took me a while to whittle down my list to my favourite top 10. I’m sure I’ll come across a few later and wish I included them, but for now this is my definitive list in no particular order.

Warlock – Triumph & Agony
- Awesome painted cover: check.
- Chrome logo: check.
- Foxy blonde woman in leather being fondled by a demon: check.

Vinyl was king in the 80’s and hard core audiophile metal fans still prefer this format. The beauty of the large dimensions of vinyl covers is you can appreciate the detail and work put into painted artworks like this cover. This would look great on the side of a panel van.

Motorhead – The Bomber
This cover appeals to the plane spotter in me. Apparently there was a slight uproar that an English band would choose a German bomber, a Heinkel 111, over the English Lancaster bomber. Lead singer & bassists defended this decision: “Sure, it’s a filthy memory – but the fact is the bad guys make the best shit.” The scale of the band member to the aircraft is all wrong but I think it adds a comical air to the setting.

The Cult – Electric
The photo of the band is the only weak part of this cover and feels like a last minute add in. Sorry Ian Astbury, I’m sure that is your best raccoon hat.

But metal bands have the best logos, and creative use of typography and i think this cover is a great example of that. Metal band logo designs always seem to embody the nature of the group it is representing.

Def Leppard – Hysteria
This cover design is actually pretty cheesy and a good indicator of late 80’s graphix and that’s why i like it. The album is called ‘Hysteria’ so lets have a badly painted morphing of faces screaming. Overlay it on the plans to the Death Star from Star Wars IV and have a paint splattered album title, job done.

Judas Priest – British Steel
I’ve never understood the appeal of ‘The Priest’ but I’ve wanted to like them based on my fondness for some of their covers, which include Screaming for Vengeance & Turbo Lover. British Steel is my favourite.
This cover couldn’t be any more metal. A leather studded arm firmly gripping an oversized razor blade, all set on a “how more black could this be? and the answer is none – none more black” background. And their logo is just kick ass.

Kiss – Rock and Roll Over
I remember flicking through my friend’s extensive Kiss album collection for the first time and coming across this cover. It stood out in stark contrast to the direction of their other covers, and even other fellow metal groups cover designs at the time (1976). It feels like more of a designed cover then some artistic piece with it’s symmetry and very poppy japanese influence.

Poison – Open Up and Say.. ahh!
For me, this is the quintessential 80’s Hair Metal album cover. Day-glow colours, a Gene Simmons inspired tongue, big hair and a ridiculously unsubtle and misogynistic album title.

Aerosmith – Permanent Vacation

I love this for the great Sailor Jerry Tattoo inspired illustrations and the way they are placed in a repetitive wallpaper pattern. The red illustrations on black also balance really well with the yellow Aerosmith logo.

Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time
It would be sacrilegious to not have a Maiden cover in this list. They’ve had some great covers but I guess this one stands out for me due to the fact it reminds me of Blade Runner. It came out around the time I started getting interested in metal, making this the first Maiden cover I came across. It also features one of my favourite incarnations of Eddie.

Van Halen – Fair Warning
This cover

I’ve loved Van Halen from the day I first listened to Van Halen 1. They’ve had a few interesting album covers after their first two releases, with Fair Warning being the standout for me. This cover is a little disturbing, which is fitting for what was hailed as Van Halen’s darkest album. But it wasn’t until I researched this cover that I discovered the complete painting “The Maze” created by the Canadian artist William Kurelek. The painting is a depiction of the artist’s  tortured youth and makes for a very bold and interesting choice for a so-called “hair band”. Then again, as fans of the band already know know, they were always so much more than that.

For die-hard fans of thrash, the release of Infidels is a major event. At War were an important part of the underground thrash scenes in the 80’s and were well known for the pro-military themes that run through their work.

The thrash trio hark from Virginia and many of their friends and family are in the military. This could explain why one of their songs includes a po-faced recitation of the Rifleman’s Creed, or why their last album (released over twenty years ago in 1987) was called Retaliatory Strike.

Back in the 80’s the enemies were the communists. Looking at the cover art for At War it doesn’t take long to figure out what the new menace is. Much has been made of the chorus of Want You Dead:

They want you dead
Kuffar die
They want you dead
Open your eyes

And the cover art is as uncompromising, paranoid and aggressive as the lyrics. The artist behind it is Claudio Bergamin, an industry legend that has been responsible for a prolific output of metal covers.

He explains that the album “stands for the band’s values, which are very much America against the Muslim world.” While stressing that this is not his worldview, he says that the cover was designed to be controversial: “I like controversy and I like to make people angry. I think that is one of art’s functions – to generate dialogue and debate. But this particular work does not necessarily represent my personal ideas and values.”

“The band wanted something very straight forward; a statement about how war on terrorism is perceived in America nowadays. They wanted to portray their pride on their way of life and how ready they are to defend it against fundamentalist intolerance.”

“I guess because of the nature of the concept, I wanted something very heroic in a classic way. The message is pure Americanism and let’s be honest, most of the material you get on this matter in movies or comic books is cheesy as hell. I didn’t want that; I didn’t want to go Rambo or GI-Joe. I wanted it to be very elegant. So I pointed my art compass towards classic school – artist like Goya, Caravaggio and Doré.”

It took him several weeks to develop the concept and he jokes that “I think Paul thought I’d escaped with the money at some point!”

The band were happy with the eventual idea “but the character was not right for them: they sent me an email saying: “we like it, but please give the character bigger muscles and long hair”.”

The cover was produced in London.

“I used life models as reference for pose and lighting. The main character was someone my girlfriend knew from the gym and the Muslim warriors are basically my nutcase flatmate Ubaldo Esteban in costume holding a katana for arm position. Next step was painting the illustrated versions of the characters on Corel Painter. I wanted thick brush strokes for it. I painted just four Muslim warriors and just one AK-47 template; I cloned them and slightly varied them on Adobe Photohop to achieve the battalion effect.”

On the anniversary of the day that initiated the “war on terror”, many will be reflecting on the shock and sadness the attacks caused. This cover is a reminder that for many Americans the tragedy also inspired a galvanising and furious anger.

Rocking Tunes: Check
Kicking type treatment: Check
Iconic Characters: Check
Merchandise coming out of their asses: Check
Band members not dead: Check
Business Savvy: Check

No, it’s not KISS it’s Iron Maiden. Up the Irons!

You have to hand it to Iron Maiden and their dedication to their mascot Eddie. He’s gotta be second to McDonald’s Ronald McDonald in terms of mascot power and if they met in the Thunderdome you know the ginger clown wouldn’t be coming out.

With their 2008 tour coming to a close, a new DVD and best of album out there is no better time to do an Iron Maiden feature.

I want to preface this feature to say I’m not a major Iron Maiden fan. In fact, if a gang of fans surrounded me and told me to whistle a Maiden tune I’d be screwed. Chalk this up to my age and the fact I was a Sepultura fan during my metal days of the 90’s. I have however had this feature ordained by the two official metal fans in the office.

I was initially going to feature all the covers of Iron Maiden and showcase Eddie’s 27+ year career. Little did I know that there is almost a hundred covers and thousands of pieces of merchandise sporting his face. So I’ve taken the easy way out and just focused on the studio albums. Well I added the few extra ones the band features on their official website too.

The majority of Iron Maidens artwork from 1980 were created by Derek Riggs. He’s just released a book titled “Run for Cover the art of Derek Riggs” which not only has hundreds of full page illustrations but sketches and back story to each cover. Including info about deadlines, egos, falling out and other juicy bits. I’m still getting through it. So rather than rewrite all of this I encourage any fan to pick up a copy.

One interesting point Derek makes is that albums could have up to 15 different pieces of artwork covering posters, mag covers, tickets, singles and what not. It was this mass saturation he attributed to the success of the albums and pity’s those bands that tried to do the same with just one piece of art.

The album cover also becomes part of the stage show for the band. Whether it be props or costumes the members where. They really put their all into an albums concept. No live show would be complete without an entrance from Eddie.

Other artists such as Melvyn Grant, Tim Bradstreet, David Patchett, Mark Wilkinson and Hugh Syme have contributed to Iron Maidens covers, although only Derek can lay claim to creating Ed the Head.

I’d also like to point out that the Iron Maiden logo has stayed the same throughout the years and is just as iconic as Eddie. Other bands have optimised and adapted theirs with times but Iron Maiden’s has remained true to it’s original form.

Ok down to the albums + other odds and ends.

Note: I did this kind of feature before with Cannibal Corpse. Which is still one of the most popular posts on the blog. I’m not rating these covers on their “design athetics” I’m rating them on their importance to the band and genre. Some bands create well designed covers but few create iconic images. In an industry where touring and merchandise are so important it helps to have a style that can easily be translated across all mediums and will be lapped up by fans.

Note2: Many of the covers I found were of bad quality. If you have a better version of any of these albums in a 500px or wider format please contact us.

Iron Maiden
1980

The first Iron Maiden cover. Although this wasn’t the first commissioned piece by Derek Riggs. The first piece produced for the band was this one for Running Free.

In 1998 the album was remastered as was the cover art. A bit of botox and polish for Eddie.

Killers
1981

The Number Of The Beast
1981

Piece Of Mind
1983

This cover not only generated a cool looking desk toy but also many spoofs.

Powerslave
1984

I also found this Sponge Bob mashup. I love these!

Live After Death
1985

This was the tour that was filmed for the recent Live After Death DVD.

Somewhere in Time
1986

Here’s a look at the full wrap around cover. Many of their albums featured full covers like this but it’s hard to track down good scans.

For an in depth look into the hidden messages of this cover check this article here. Obsessive fan alert!! :)

This cover has also been made into an action figure. Anyone with some better photos of this please let us know.

I also found this funny mashup with Christina Aguilera.

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
1988

No Prayer For The Dying
1990

This was the original 1990 cover. The 1998 remastered version was sans old dude, which I feel works better. The old dude was a little too comical and the cover has more impact without him.

The plaque on the tombstone also has the inscription “After the Daylight, The Night of Pain, That is not Dead, Which Can Rise Again”. Deep man…

Fear of the Dark
1992

This is the first Iron Maiden cover not to feature the artwork of Derek Riggs. It’s also the only cover to feature the bands name on it’s side. The cover was painted by Melvyn Grant, the second most popular Iron Maiden artist. Determined by the number of covers painted, not a recent show of hands in the bands green room.

Wikipedia says that three artists were commissioned to design a cover and this was chosen but according to Derek Riggs in his book the band pretty much shafted the artist after changing their mind twice (“we want a warewolf Eddie, no make that a vampire Eddie”) and he eventually gave up and said to get someone else to do it.

A Real Live Dead One
1998

This was originally released as 2 albums – ‘A Real Live One’ and ‘A Real Dead One’. A quick tweak to the cover and you got yourself another CD pulling in the dosh. Sneaky.

Live At Donington
1993

WTF an Iron Maiden cover without Eddie? It was originally only released as a limited edition triple vinyl set, but became a regular part of the band’s CD catalogue with the 1998 reissues.

Below is the 1998 re-released version which featured a cover created from an original tour poster by Mark Wilkinson.

I really like the stamp treatment the logo received on this album. But I guess it’s not classic Maiden and less iconic.

You’ll notice a lot of albums were re-released in 1998. I’m not sure what happened in 1998 but the guys must have made a packet that year or EMI decided to call in their loans. 1999 saw the return of Bruce Dickinson so you’d hope he saw a piece of this action.

X Factor
1995

This was the first non painted cover for Iron Maiden. This time Eddie was created as a diorama by Hugh Syme. It was the first, and only, time the band faced censorship over their cover and had to release the alternate version below in some areas. This was just the artwork used on the back of the original album.

Compared to the Cannibal Corpse stuff this is tame.

Luckily this is the bands tenth album. Because their description on Wikipedia on how they came up with the album name (and the name itself) is lame.

According to producer Nigel Green:

“We all felt that the way things were progressing – the songs, Blaze’s new involvement, the sound, the commitment – the new album really would have that extra quality, that bit of magic, that X Factor. This became the working title for the album and we liked it…”

This sounds about right coming from a man named Nigel Green.

Best of the Beast
1996

This is poster fodder. No wonder Derek Riggs explains that Iron Maiden had the top 3 selling posters, when posters were big. It’s like a high school reunion for burn victims.

Virtual XI
1998

This is the one cover I can’t seem to track down who created it. Any help from fans?

One note about the album’s cover is that 1998 is way to late in the game to be using the word “virtual”. It’s about as cool as these two guys with their VR helmets.

Or this couple playing that VR game of 1995.

Anyway it seems this album wasn’t their best one and they regrouped with Bruce for the next one.

Ed Hunter
1999

If you need any proof that the success of Iron Maiden and Ed had gone too far, then feast your eyes on Ed Hunter. This was a on rails first person shooter game and album in one.

You may think that this was 9 years ago and games then weren’t that good but Quake was released 3 years earlier! So just like with the use of the word “Virtual” the band should been slapped and told to stop trying to be cool.

Brave New World
2000

Here we see the return of Derek Riggs, well almost, he painted the face in the sky and then they added the 3D world under it. This was his last new artwork to grace an Iron Maiden cover. The story of this cover is similar to the previous one. I think Derek just stopped answering their calls.

The album was originally to be called Wicker Man but this eventually become the name of the first single off the album. While I haven’t shown any other singles in this feature I have to point of this one. It covers both one of my fav pieces and one of the worst.

First up is one of my favs the limited edition cover by Mark Wilkinson.

Mark has even gone through his process on his site with a tutorial on this piece which details his process and the bands.

Even his initial sketch is great.

His final piece in it’s full glory.

And what did the band use as the official single cover? It must be great to top the other two pieces?!

Yep this photo of Bruce waving his big flaming dick around with a mopey look on his face.

I can forgive the 3D world, the crappy PC game and even the use of the world “virtual” but any hard core Iron Maiden fan must have felt sharp stabbing pains in their eye when they saw this. Sadly it wasn’t the last time the band felt they could give Eddie a break.

Here’s one of the rejected artworks from Derek Riggs (the other two are in his book). You can see they ended up just using the Eddie head in the sky above the awful 3D city. This futuristic city might have been cool in a 1960’s kids book but for an album in 2000 it’s just try hard.

Dance of Death
2002

Someone fell asleep on the approval train when this one went through. The artist David Patchett asked for his named not to be credited as the band had decided to use a prototype image as the final image. While there is little talk about the Wicker Man single this cover caused a huge stir when it was initially shown online. Fan’s thought it was a joke and rightly so. Maiden-World.com has gone through and found all the mistakes in the cover for you. Let’s move on quickly.

BBC Archives
2002

I can’t find any official credit info for this album. It feels like a Derek Rigg’s piece though.

Eddies Archives
2002

You’d have to be allergic to metal to not want to get your hands on this box set. This almost makes up for the lack luster covers of the past few albums.

They are going for around $200 USD on Amazon these days. More info on what’s inside here on Wikipedia.

Best Of The B-Sides
2004

Another Mark Wilkinson piece. This one with a sense of humor. “Up the Irons” is a Iron Maiden catch phrase.

A Matter Of Life And Death
2006

This seems like a return to form for not just the band in terms of success but also in cover art. Painted by Tim Bradstreet its the first time the band has tried to be timely with their imagery (this time war) and not look try hard. Tim is best known for his work ont he Marvel comic Punisher among others.

Somewhere Back In Time: The Best of: 1980 – 1989
2008

Ok it’s another “best of” complication but this shows you the progression of Eddie. The level of detail has increased significantly.

The album cover features the Pharaoh Eddie monument from Powerslave and Cyborg Eddie from Somewhere in Time. In addition, the Iron Maiden logo is colored blue with a gold outline – the same colours used on the cover of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

I pity any person who is trying to collect all the Eddie merchandise they can. Give up now. A quick check of Google Images will show you the scale of which Eddie has become an icon. Oh an Eddie tattoo would be cool though…. mmmm.

There is so much more Eddie stuff to show but I’ll leave it up to you to seek them out. These even include the Iron Maiden private plane Ed Force One. I’m not kidding.

You can download the Iron Maiden font Metal Lord here. Sweet!

Everything looks cool when set in Metal Lord.

P.S. Derek’s personal site seems to be down now.

O.k. I know the two-tone burning Zeppelin image is the Zep equivalent of the Stones’ tongue logo but when I think of Bonzo and co. album covers – I think of Richard Drews’ novelty rotating disc sleeve for Led Zeppelin III,

Peter Corristons‘ Physical Grafitti,

and 1973’s Houses of the Holy, designed by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson.

To be honest I’m not a huge fan personally of the art for Zeppelin 1 and 2. The fourth album was branded with the cool zep-occult symbols and gave us the straw carrier and the torch bearer but I find them a little too closely related to the billions of shithouse druid-loving fantasy art metal album covers that came after them. CODA has to be one of the worst album covers of all time (and not in a Millie Jackson way). Presence had some great photography accompanying the record (also by Storm Thorgerson) and may well be the classiest zep cover but for me, Houses of the Holy is direct, efficient (in a long-winded, fantasy-art way) and a great representation of a band turning from ye olde metal/folk blues into something more universal .

Like the band themselves (and I love Zeppelin) the ‘Houses of the Holy’ cover art is all grand ingredients; pompous, epic nonsense – juvenile fantasy – innocence/sexuality (see Blind Faith post for a more direct example of nudie kids in rock art history) conceptual mysticism, dynamic contrasts, big effects (for the time) and, ultimately, more depth than a concept that is potentially lacking ’seriousness’ (again, like the band) might have achieved.

Thorgerson, Powell and (later) Peter Christopherson were the core of London-based Hipgnosis (not the polish electronica outfit), something of a popular choice for 70’s rockers, having also done Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Yes, Styx and other contemporary album covers.
Wikipedia claims Thorgerson was fired after getting on the wrong side of the band with an idea involving an electric green tennis court – but Aubrey Powell’s account implies the band simply opted for one of two ideas from the design team.

The design itself was inspired by an Arthur C. Clarke sci-fi story that contained a final act where loads of semi-formed human children run, like lemmings, off the edge of the earth (I always found the fact that no children are facing the camera a little ominous and this backstory makes them even creepier).

Powell explains the shooting conditions at Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland at superseventies.com

- “I shot the whole thing in black and white on a totally miserable morning pouring with rain.” Though the cover appears to be one wide-frame photograph, it is actually a collage of thirty different shots; only two children posed for the shoot. “Originally,” says Powell, “I’d intended the children to be gold and silver. Because I shot in black and white and it was a gray day, the children turned out very white. So when we hand-tinted it, the airbrush artist, by accident, put a kind of purple tinge onto them. When I first saw it, I said, ‘Oh, my God.’ Then we looked at it, and I said, ‘Hang on a minute — this has an otherworldly quality.’ So we left it as it was.”

It’s definitely a side effect of living in an age that plunders the past for modern ideas but the fact these images could still sit comfortably (apologies to anyone noting the cart before the horse) underneath a Wolfmother or Priestess logo gives creedence to clarity of the concepts and the contribution Powell/Thorgerson made to setting a standard for contemporary 20th century album art design.

Originally, the album was released with a thin paper cuff, featuring the bands name and album title, which covered the little phosphorous asses of the kids.
Unfortunately, just like 2 years earlier, the Spanish government went a bit pink in the cheeks and banned the album (apparently some southern states in the U.S. did the same) and the familiar image is now the one with Atlantics’ contribution to ‘functional’ design.

The almost hand-drawn, thin-lined, b&w font actually looks great with the photo, complementing the big chunks of colour and soft edges of images – but it’s in the wrong spot innit?

Zeppelin excelled the way a talented athlete does – by moving, running, jumping, sweating – and attacks on their contributions to ’serious’ art/music are like chiding a football team for not knowing how to long divide without a calculator.
So to me, even tho’ some of Led Zeppelins’ artwork may seem a little hokey, including this one – Houses of the Holy remains the perfect banner for it’s team at the time. Confident, epic, menacing, naive and (sorry about the poor pun) cheeky…

This has to be one of the best examples of a cover perfectly conveying the content of the music contained on the album, which in this case is a shitload of aggression. Sure a majority of metal covers have alot of dark and violent themes but it seems many take it for granted, like it’s a given for a metal cover to come across this way. But this cover does it in such a simplistic and timeless way and for me with a slight twist of humor. Vulgar Display Of Power is regarded as a classic and Pantera’s best, and i always wonder does a classic album transform it’s cover into a classic as well.

It’s a shame they decided to follow such a great cover with such a lame and obvious one as the cover for Far Beyond Driven. Although i guess once their original concept for the album (WARNING:this cover may offend) was banned the care factor dropped.

A Vulgar Display Of Hairspray:
Pantera glaming it up in the 80’s

If you like people getting hit in the face then check out these videos:

And one for the ladies:

Art Direction: Bob Defrin, Design: Larry Freemantle, Cover photo: Brad Guice

Movie studios have been dancing under the sequel tree for as long as time can remember, networks caught on and now crank out sequels of shows that are still running but record labels haven’t done much in the way of sequels. That is unless you count Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell series.

Note: This review using the term “kick ass” and “ass kicking” almost to the point where it loses its meaning.

It’s surprising to read that an album that has sold more than 45 million copies was originally a hard sell to record companies. They actually commissioned Richard Corben for the artwork for the album 6 years before it was finally released and 3 years before any record company would touch the album.

Richard Corben is most famous for his Heavy Metal covers and at 66 is still drawing today as good as ever. And by the looks of his bio page, he’d kick my ass if I said anything different.

The sequel Bat Out Of Hell 2: Back Into Hell, served up more epic tunes including the hit that wouldn’t go away I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) but all I cared about was the album art.

This time it was Michael Whelan who stepped up to the brush for this cover. Michael’s work has also featured heavily on Sepultura’s covers and my obsession is covered here on our review of Chaos AD.

Note the addition of an angel figure and the use of the buildings to signify tombstones. Pretty deep I know. The Chrysler Building hints at a time frame sometime into the future and the biker here looks more metal and less Tarzan.

What I didn’t realize before I started this post was that Meat Loaf had released a third album just last year, Bat Out Of Hell 3: The Monster is Loose. This time the cover was painted by Julie Bell. That didn’t ring a bell until I realized she’s married to Boris Vellejo. Julie used to model for Boris and since then has become an artist in her own right. I would make a female body builder joke right now but by the looks of her bio page she’d kick my ass.

This is my least favorite of the covers. The poses look staged and the layout is cluttered. The bike is hidden away off the cover and the stone pillars seem to say that we’re in ancient times. And what kind of fool takes on a flame breathing bat with a sword? Get yourself a shotgun dude!

Also worth noting is how Jim Steinman’s name moved from under the title of the album in the first, to the bottom of the album on the second and totally removed from the third. Which also shows the progression of his working relationship with Meat Loaf. Jim is also credited with the concept for the original album artwork.

At first I wondered why Richard wasn’t asked to continue his good work but I think Meat Loaf just wanted to spread the Bat love. Why tie yourself down to just one famous fantasy artist.

Michael got to double dip a little by doing this awesome cover for The Very Best of Meat Loaf. I wonder if this was an unused concept for the previous album? I love the clouds.

Which cover is my fav? It’s a tough choice but color, composition and overall ass kicking style, I’d have to go with Bat Out Of Hell 2.

Art vs Photo:
It was a smart move to use a painted cover and not shove Meat Loaf on there for a few reasons.

1: Meat Load is an ugly guy. Sure under some soft lighting and in monotone maybe he’s passable but check the picture below if you need more proof as to why this guy shouldn’t have been on the cover

2: The art kicks ass! It’s a classic as is as powerful today as it was back in 1977. Few photos can stand up to 30 years of scrutiny.

3: Fantasy art suits the albums sound and themes perfectly.

And finally for those that need aural stimulation here’s the classic Bat out of Hell song performed by the man himself in his prime.

And here’s Meat Loaf in a Michael Bay directed film clip for I Would Do Anything For Love.

Cannibal Corpse’s covers, while not exactly the best examples of good taste or typography have become an important part to the bands image. Fans expect the cover artwork to be as raw and confronting as their sound and lyrics. Extreme sells and Cannibal Corpse has been working this angle for over 15 years.

After watching Metal: A Headbangers Journey last night I was surprised to see that almost every one of Cannibal Corpses album covers had been censored and alternate covers produced. As vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher explains in Metal; “it’s art, just look at it as art. Yeah, it’s disgusting…but go to the Vatican and look at some of the art there. That’s real, that’s representing something that’s real, that could happen. This [artwork], you know, that’s never going to happen…monsters aren’t going to rip out of people’s bodies anytime soon.”

If the cover doesn’t shock you then the band hasn’t done their job properly.

I now present to you the complete discography of Cannibal Corpse, in order, with alternate/censored covers for your enjoyment. If you’re eating you might want to finish it before scrolling further down.

Eaten Back To Life: 1990

You can’t walk past an album cover like that and even the title itself is pure gold.

Butchered at Birth: 1991

Tomb of the Mutilated: 1992

Cannibal Corpse’s first alternate cover to feature artwork. Also the introduction of the Parental Advisory label standard.

Hammer Smashed Face: 1993

This was just an EP but the band was featured in Ace Ventured Pet Detective playing this very song. It’s also probably the worst of all the covers and it’s hard to decide which one is worse. Again kudos for the great song titles.

The Bleeding: 1994

The most conceptual cover and it’s an censored one. Its a very tight crop of the man’s bleeding chest.

Vile: 1996 It seems maggots don’t like to eat the penis.

Nice and simple crop, some head and chest surgery and you have your alternate/censored cover. Cannibal Corpse also dropped their old logo for a slightly more refined version.

Gallery of Suicide: 1998

I actually prefer this censored cover but it doesn’t fit with the title of the album.

Bloodthirst: 1999

This is probably the most gory alternate/censored cover produced for CC.

Live Cannibalism: 2000

Another cropping effort.

Gore Obsessed: 2002

As a piece of art I feel the censored version is stronger. I guess CC don’t really wan to reply on their fans imagination for the covers.

Worm Infested: 2003 This is the only cover I haven’t found a censored or alternate cover for. It may be that it was only released as a limited edition EP for sale only online.

The Wretched Spawn: 2004 This was the cover featured in Metal: A Headbangers Journey. They definitely upped the ante with this one.

Another copped alternate cover. I wonder if the artist himself suggest’s this or the band do this to save time and money.

Kill: 2006 This is the latest cover and no it’s not a censored or alternate cover. It’s the actual one. The artwork below was on the inside. Has Cannibal Corpse succumb to the pressures of censors or did they think this awful piece of typography would cut the mustard? Even more confusing is this artwork inside would be suitable for display everywhere and is probably the nicest piece for CC to date.

All props to Vince Locke the actual artist behind the horror cover art. The band has shown great loyalty by using him for all their covers.

And if you have never heard a Cannibal Corpse album then Youtube is the best way to experience them.

Here’s the lounge version of Rancid Amputation:

Here’s an unreleased film clip of their early days:

But seriously here is them performing Hammer Smashed Face live:

All these vidoes have over 500,000 views just showing the intrigue this band creates and the mainstream media void they experience.

The only other band I can think of that comes close to using controversy like Cannibal Corpse is GWAR. But they are a joke band right?

If you think censoring these covers are justifed then explain why Tool’s Undertow and Fat Boy Slim’s You’ve Come a Long Way Baby were censored. Do American’s hate the site of fat people?

This album started an unholy obsession with both Sepultura and Michael Whelan’s art. I was actually put onto the band from the standout track Refuse/Resist, after seeing it used as the soundtrack for the Manga video promo seen below.

On the inside was the first time I had seen the Supultura logo. Which would have looked better on the cover as a spot varnish rather than the grungy font they used. But alas I wasn’t the designer of the cover.

I even have a T-Shirt from 1994 with this artwork on it and it’s looking pretty worn right now.

You don’t often see cover art like this anymore. Just a simple graphic element that withstands any trends. It’s timeless. The less you explain to the viewer the more intrigue you create. Fans of bands like Tool love to see the hidden messages and codes in the artwork (even if they weren’t intentional). Could this be one of the first Goaste’s?

This cover art was actually banned in many USA stores. Not due to the rib cage but the contents of the photos within. A fat woman, a cow licking its anus, a board on forks and the band members with acupuncture needs in their face.

Judging by the censorship of the Fatboy Slim album it could have been purely the fat lady.

If you hold the cover artwork up to the light, the fat lady sites nicely inside the rib cage on the cover. Deep.

In response to the covers removal from stores, Tool quickly put out an alternate version which featured just a bar code and a note from the band inside.

You can sense the contempt form the band at having to change their artwork. If anyone has a bardcode version I’m willing to fork out cold hard cash for it so contact me.

Still a classic. I was more of a Sepultura guy but you can’t go past this cover for its sheer beauty. You might have to adjust the brightness or contrast on your monitor to see if properly though.

The cover shows only the band’s logo and a coiled snake (derived from the Gadsden flag – which could be seen hanging on a wall in the “One on One” recording studio where the album was recorded) are visible.

The motto of the Gadsden flag, “Don’t Tread on Me”, is also the title of a song featured on the album. Interestingly this track has never been performed live by the band.

It has been said that the actual album cover was inspired by Spinal Tap’s “Black” album. See below. With Metallica admitting it during a meeting of the guys from Spinal Tap.

The lenticular cover is what sold me. It came with alternate cover art but I never bothered changing it in fear of ruining it. I still can’t get enough of this album even after almost 10 years.