An abridged History of painting with metal album covers

An abridged History of painting with metal album covers

A friend of mine did the École du Louvre, to study Art History, so she's quite knowledgeable about, amongst other things, paintings. It has become a habit of mine to send her paintings-looking covers of metal albums, to quiz her about the inspirations/genres/… This blogpost is a super-set of what I remember from some of our conversations, chronologically ordered.

Do note that I don't have the faintest idea about Painting History, so this article will be full of horrible mistakes: please let me know about them, I'll be happy to fix them!

First Millennia

Om — Advaitic Songs (2012)

Looks like a Byzantine painting from about the 7th century, with gold and paint on wood; or maybe something from the Sienese school.

БАТЮШКА — Литоургиіа (2015)

A Russian Icon, on wood, close to Byzantine Art.

Eluveitie — Helvetios (2012)

Celtic Art, more precisely from the Helvetii.

Bring Me the Horizon — Sempiternal (2013)

This one looks like Islamic geometric patterns, in the form of overlapping circles grid, as could been seen on in the threshold of the palace of Assyrian king Aššur-bāni-apli in Dur Šarrukin.

15th Century

Gojira — Magma (2016)

Created via Intaglio, like Schongauer would have done it, but in a moderner style, by Miyazaki.

16th Century

Monarque — Blasphèmes et cultes morbides (2010)

A Danse Macabre] inspired from Hans Holbein's woodcuts, but with inverted colours.

Dopelord — Sign of the Devil (2020)

Wood engraving, in the same vein than the work of Dürer for example. Or maybe one of two centuries earlier, since it seems to be depicting the Black Death.

Cradle of Filth — Existence is futile (2021)

A cover directly inspired from the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch.

Stav — Mediate to kill (2012)

Oil on paper, with Bosch vibes here as well, with a touch of Bruegel the Elder, by Paolo Girardi. A very organic painting, with way too many eyes, slimes, tentacles, helpless human bodies coming out of a vagina to get eaten by insects, … an unsettling melange between Arcimboldo and Lovecraft.

Ghost — Prequelle (2018)

Bosch again, and Bermejo as well, with an insane amount of details. The human excreting gold (on the left) is also present in The Garden of Earthly Delights. The central figure is a disfigured Portrait of Innocent X from Velázquez.

Amusingly, the 3 crosses on the right, the grim reaper on the left, and the big red wings are surely a nod to Sepultura's Bestial Devastation.

17th Century

Haggard — Awaking the Centuries (1999)

Clearly a Vanitas.

19th Century

Killswitch Engage — Atonment

This one could have been done by Bewick, if we was into Japanisme, and bright ink wash.

Sigh — Heir to Despair (2018)

This one looks like one of Valodon's interiors from the 1980s-1900s, with subject painted in a characteristic realistic style.

Cosa Nostra Klub — L'Hymne à la Joie (2007)

It looks like a lithography in the Art Nouveau style, from the late 19th could have produced by Mucha

DVNE — Etmen Ænka (2021)

Another example of Art Nouveau, that could have been a draft of Toorop, late period.

Venom Prison — Erebos (2022)

Strong vibes of van Looy and Verster, from the 19th century Amsterdam Impressionism, with its bold brush strokes. Maybe a hint of Kokoschka as well.

Eldamar — The Force of the Ancient Land (2016)

While it could amusingly be seen as a reverse Weltlandschaft, it's more from the Hudson River School, a landscape painting, but with Romanticism aesthetic. It could have been painted by Thomas or Bierstadt.

The Omnific — Escapades (2021)

Clearly impressionism, with the emphasis on movement and lighting.

Havukruunu — Kelle Surut Soi (2017)

Charcoal drawing, in the style of late 19th century, early 20th.

Der Weg einer Freiheit — Noktvrn (2021)

Monochrome.

20th century

Jinjer — Cloud Factory (2014)

Critical line art with hatching, like what Kollwitz could have done, with strong Western vibes.

1900s

Heaumemortal — Solstice (2019)

A big fat grim version of Fauvism?

1910s

Nine Inch nails — The downward spiral XXX

A mixed media (plaster, acrylic, oils, rusted metals, insects, moths, b=blood, wax, surgical bandaging on a wooden panel) collage, that could have been produced by Frank if she were heavily depressed.

Explosions in the Sky — Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever (2001)

Likely a mix of pastel and paint, depicting the Angels of Mons, a bit in a primitivist style.

PORTA NIGRA — Kaiserschnitt (2015)

A modern take on collage and old-school newspaper satire.

Architects — All our gods have abandoned us (2016)

This one looks like Russian Suprematism focused on fundamentals of geometry with a limited range of colours, and could have been painted by Malevich.

System of a Down — Steal This Album! (2002)

Duchamp could have done this one, with his readymades.

Vildhjarta — Thousands of Evils (2013)

Like a moderner and darker version of the late collages from Cubist artist Braque.

VOLA — Applause of a Distant Crowd (2018)

Definitely Fauvism from the 1900s, with the emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. Major contributors to this movement include Braque, Matisse and Derain.

God is an astronaut — Origins (2013)

This one could be be Russian Rayonism from the 1910s, one of the first abstract art movements in this country, under the impulse of Larionov and Goncharova, depicting movement and speed.

Asphodèle — Jours Pâles (2019)

Aquarelle, also know as watercolour, is a painting method using water-based paint. This one in particular is a bit in the vein of Schiele's landscapes from the 1910s.

1920s

Spheron — A clockwork universe (2016)

Clearly surrealism.

Ethereal Moon — Ethereal Moon (2022)

Another example of surrealism.

Mississippi Bones — 2600 AD: And Other Astonishing Tales (2016)

An obvious homage to the 20s pulp magazines.

1930s

The White Stripes — De Stijl (2000)

This cover is inspired from the De Stijl Dutch art movement, from which Mondrian might be the most famous example.

Car Bomb — Mordial (2019)

Geometric abstraction and maybe some touch of Glitch Art.

Neurotech — The Decipher Volumes

More geometric abstraction, but minimalist this time.

1940s

Converge & Chelsea Wolfe — Bloodmoon: I (2021)

Drip Painting, part of action painting popularised by Pollock and Sobel, where the paint if thrown, dribbled, splashed, … at the canvas, putting the emphasis not only on the aspect of the finished work, but on the physical act of painting itself as well. This is associated with abstract expressionism. There is also a snake skin motif, which is definitely more contemporary.

Alluvial — The Deep Longing for Annihilation (2017)

The character on the front, in a suit and without his head gives strong Magritte vibes.

Orbit Culture — Nija (2020)

This one is close to the American Figurative Expressionism, since it looks like Abstract Expressionism, but, … figurative!

Obscura — A Valediction (2021)

Again, Expressionism:

Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.

1950s

MsDrift — the deep (2020)

This looks a bit like the abstraction lyrique style, maybe drawing inspiration from to work of Kline and Motherwell who were part of the abstract expressionist movement.

Polyphia — New Levels New Devils (2018)

Some Neo-Dada from the 1950s vibes, as well as some early UK pop art from the Independent Group's collages.

Mother Engine — Muttermaschine (2012)

Franco-Beligan Bande Déssinée, close to the style of the Marcinelle school, and even closer to Uderzo's one.

1960s

Necroblaspheme — XXVI : The Deeper - The Better (2021)

Pop art, maybe in the vein of Lichtenstein.

Deadline — Cathedral Point (2020)

A clear homage to the Bronze Age of Comic Books, with its aplats, and lighting effects made of dots, denoting the usage of Halftone, or maybe Ben Day process, since they were used for comics between the 1950s and 1970s.

The Wicked Ones — Ain't got a shelter (2020)

This one wouldn't have feel out of place in the 1960s, when the psychedelic posters were all rage:

Richly saturated colors in glaring contrast, elaborately ornate lettering, strongly symmetrical composition, collage elements, rubber-like distortions, and bizarre iconography are all hallmarks of the San Francisco psychedelic poster art style.

Baroness — Purple (2015)

Another example of psychedelic art inspiration, but with strong Art Nouveau influences. All the covers of Baroness are in this peculiar style.

1970s

Paradise Lost — Shades of God (1992)

Looks a lot like the late work of Basquiat, from the Neo-expressionism movement from the late 1970s.

The Algorithm — Compiler Optimization Techniques (2018)

This could could have been done by Vasarely in his 1970's period.

Zeal and Ardor — Zeal and Ardor (2022)

An example of photorealism. The fact that there are two different hand of benediction and blessing with one pointing down leads is likely inspired from traditional Baphomet representations, related to the "as above, so below" paraphrase.

Contemporary

Maha Sohona — Endless Searcher (2021)

Modern take on psychedelic posters from the 1960s.

TesseracT — Polaris (2015)

Fractal Art, close to Kerry Mitchell's Block Party serie.

Upon a Burning Body — Straight From the Barrio (2016)

Clearly taking inspiration from contemporary spray-paint graffiti.

Linkin Park — Hybrid Theory (2000)

Contemporary spray-paint graffiti again, but this time via stencilling.

Violet Cold — Empire of Love (2021)

Obviously protest art, by superposing the rainbow flag with the crescent and star.

Ruins Of Yith — en cyklus af fortabelse og skabelse (2020)

This one has the characteristic touch of American style airbrush.

Sarah Longfield — Disparity (2018)

Modern Face Painting.

Voïvod — Synchro anarchy (2022)

Looks like chalkboard art on a blackboard.

Serj Tankian — Harakiri.

This is a mix of several things: While the colours are screaming Warhol, the drawing looks like stencil, the beard done via collage, some Drip Painting in the background, fat marker pen for the title, …

Alcest — Spiritual Instinct (2019)

This one is looking a lot like a modern xylography (also known as woodcut) or a Linocut, but with a black background.

Rammstein — untitled (2019)

A minimalist found object, tainted of of surrealism. It could even be compared to anti-art. The fact that the album doesn't have a title is another hint at minimalism: the cover features a single matchstick on a white background, yet says and invite for so much.

Perturbator — New Model (2017)

A modern take on geometric abstraction.

Spiritbox — Eternal Blue (2021)

Possibly a colourised picture from an electron microscope.

Behemoth — I loved your at your darkest (2018)

Painted by Nicola Samori, clearly Baroque, but with purposefully physically destroyed part.

KoЯn — See you on the other side (2005)

This one screams Surrealism, albeit with a more modern (and gloomy) touch.

Leprous — Malina (2017)

Strong 1980s/early 1990s aesthetics, with vector-like write-frame rendering, a bit of noise, and washed up/patined paint.

Pensées Noctures — Nom d'une Pipe !

Likely drawn with a mix of Conté, Charcoal and maybe Pastel, along with collages.

Uneven Structure — Paragon

A geometric abstraction take on what looks like stained glass.

Funereal Presence — Achatius (2019)

Definitely Pastel, could have been done by Clemente if he was depressed and under drugs I guess.

Diablo Swing Orchestra — Swagger & Stroll Down the Rabbit Hole

Contemporary take on aquarelle.

Arcturus — Arcturian (2015)

This is a really weird piece: black ink on paper, with some digital processing, definitely some surrealism, Pop Art aplats and textures, hints of collages, and concrete-like reliefs.

It's Arcturus first album after their 10 years long hiatus, and while the cover looks nothing like the previous ones, it's still an obvious nod to them: the jester-like mask and stars from the Sideshow Symphonies, the geometric circular patterns from the Sham Mirrors, the theatrics of La Masquerade Infernale and the motifs from Aspera Hiems Symfonia.

Bonus

Some albums are using famous paintings/statues for their covers, can you recognize them?

Thumos - The Republic (2022)

Heaven Shall Burn — Veto (2013)

Parkway Drive — Reverence (2018)

Black Mass of Absu — Complete Discography 1995-2000 (2018)

Also used for Nuit by Croc Noir

Ulver The Assassination of Julius Caesar (2017)

Abigor — Channeling the Quintessence of Satan (1999)

Black Sabbath — Greatest hits (1977)

Candlemass — Nightfall (1987)

Atlantean Kodex — The golden bough (2010)

Be'lakor — Stone's Reach (2009)

Emperor — Emperor (1992)

Abduction — À l'heure du crépuscule (2018)

Music as part of visual art movements

Some artists and albums directly part of movements, like Laibach, whose covers are part of the Neue Slowenische Kunst. Or Emerson, Lake & Palmer, whose Brain Salad Surgery (1973) album got a cover made by Giger.

Sources and credits

Thanks to the #guy-art crowd for their ideas and support, to Louis from navidrome, to Thomas Brovelli and tlundin for the suggestions, to rugan from DS for his enthusiasm, to Zozo Kraken Kiljoy for her patience answering all my dumb questions about art, to the Wikipedia contributors for having written so many articles about painting.

Resources

Notable album cover artists:

Anthologies and publications: