As part of our Ancillary tasks we have to create an album cover for our artist. As we are using a heavy metal band I have been doing some research into current bands albums covers and have found that they can be quite different to those by more ‘pop’ artists.
System of a Down.
System of a Down is a well know heavy metal band and this is the album cover for their debut album. Instead of featuring a picture of the band, as many album covers do, it instead shows a hand reaching up.
‘The cover artwork is from an anti-fascist, World War II-era poster designed by the artist John Heartfield for the Communist Party of Germany, which was contemporary with and directly against the Third Reich. The text on the original poster is: "5 fingers has a hand! With these 5 grab the enemy!" This slogan inspired part of the text contained on the back of the System of a Down album: "The hand has five fingers, capable and powerful, with the ability to destroy as well as create". Later, it is written in bold letters: "Open your eyes, open your mouths, close your hands and make a fist". (used later by Serj Tankian in the song "Uneducated Democracy")’-Wikipedia.
This shows that sometimes album covers can have political meanings behind them, these type of album covers are more popular with rock/metal artists. For example in addition to System of a Down’s there is also:
Rage against the Machine
They are a punk-rock/metal band known for its political messages in songs and this is shown in the cover art for their debut album. They have used an infamous photo of a monk setting himself on fire as part of a Vietnamese protest against their leader, Diem, who wanted to abolish the Buddhist religion including beliefs and practises.
The Murderdolls
They have used a picture of a devil doll on a hospital bed for their debut album and this is said to represent the current social obsession with plastic surgery and looking perfect. The doll is about to have surgery performed on it whilst the band watches from behind the glass.
However not all rock/metal bands use political pictures , a lot of bands use their band logo as album covers and this can be seen used by,
Avenged Sevenfold
Pennywise,
Aerosmith
In addition many bands also like to use photos or pictures which are often of a slightly disturbing nature to entice an audience, this can be seen on the covers of,
Lamb of God
Black Label Society
Canibal Corpse.
However some metal bands do use the more common album cover idea of having a band picture, but the are often taken in creepy or abandoned looking locations ad can also include lots of other things as well as a picture of the band such as Black Veil Brides, who mix a picture of themselves with superimposed images of fire and burning buildings.
Lostprophets also do this with lightning.
Seether use a picture of themselves for their album Careless Whisper however through use of mise-en-scene, such as the way they have been positioned in frame, the pose they are pulling and the outfits they are wearing it is clear that they are a rock or metal band.
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