Metal album covers

[c-hammer]

Beherit - The Oath of Black Blood
Gorguts - Considered Dead
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Creed - Human Clay

[in abyssia]

Illustration/ painting is always better then pc art. The Chasm are the kings of attrocious Photoshop usage. Stop it. Now.

As much as I love the band, I agree some of their artwork is pretty shitty. However, the cover for Deathcult for Eternity (and music) conveys useful Aztec cosmic idealism. A +.

[Vajra]

Maniac Butcher get pre-school-creative:

[nordicjew]

thats awsome (to the above)

I think that the best album art of all time is Altars of Madness. Nothing beats that.

[Jofreidr_1488]

Venom - Black Metal

Totally captures Black Metal IMO, the gothic script is good as well.

Nirvana - Bleach

Dudes on the cover just thrashing out, total classic.  (and yes the Bleach Album is Metal, just listen to the song Negative Creep)

An example of an album that sucks is the Bathory 'Greatest Hits' album
Katalog.  Bathory almost always had great album covers, but dude must have dropped the ball on this one.  

[Jofreidr_1488]

Metallica 'Master of Puppets'

I have a friend that has this huge like 4 foot by 4 foot like cloth with this album cover on it and he hangs it in his apartment.  It rules.  

[Flight_of_Zapan]

I knew a kid whose brother had painted Maiden's 'Number of the Beast' and 'The Scorpions 'Blackout' on two huge walls. It looked fantastic.

Dio's 'Holy Diver' used to tickle my fancy as a youth. Great anti-christian artwork.

[Flight_of_Zapan]

Speaking of posers, check out Manowar`s Into Glory Ride, Witchkiller`s Day Of The Saxons
and Maniac Butcher`s Cerna Krev for some other awful covers.

And when it comes to truly terrible, I can`t forget Exciter`s `Violence And Force`
with the dagger hanging from the person/thing`s hand in a totally unthreatening
and laughable manner. What were they thinking?

Manowar's 'Hail to England' and Exciter's 'Long Live the Loud' both utilise dire fantasy art.  Like something from Heavy metal magazine... but worse.

[Christ Fucking Malarkey]

Ildjarn - Forest Poetry

[The_Absu]

Sepultura's Arise and Beneath the Remains always fascinated me. There's so much going on in those pictures. If you try to focus on one aspect of it, it rearranges itself on you and belies all attempts to understand it, especially the Arise cover. Yet, by focusing intently, you can derive more enjoyment of the image by isolating the parts within and then letting the reintegrate back into the majestic whole.

[ghoulboy]

Does Cannibal Corpse's album cover's disgust anoyone else? Not only because they are disgusting to look at but because they belong to a band who are such attention whores.

[death metal black metal]

Sepultura's Arise and Beneath the Remains always fascinated me.

Designed by Michael Whelan.

I always liked Yamatu's cover art.

[nordicjew]

best logo-dark throne

[Jofreidr_1488]

Another album cover that sucks is this one from Dark Funeral, I think from their first CD 'The Secrets Of The Black Arts'.  It was just real bland and boring.  Eventually I just took the CD and put into one of my spare Crystal Cases and threw their art-work away!  However I do like Dark Funerals uptempp Black Metal.

When it comes to the logos (this could be a whole other thread) there is one by Absurd (alot of bands have multiple logos) that incorporates both an inverted pentagram and an upside down cross so that is a favorite of mine!

[brandonk90]

Graveland - In The Glare of Burning Churches

that album cover always appealed to me.  It's also the cover on lords of chaos i believe..