The Art of Metal
June 21, 2006Judging by the Top 10 Heavy Metal Album Covers posted earlier, metal artwork has evolved quite a bit since the days of glam bands and such. A few artists have gained a foothold in the metal community and are responsible for quite a bit of the dark, unusual, and sometimes violent imagery found on metal CDs. Here’s a small selection:
Dan Seagrave - if you listen to death metal, you’ve undoubtedly seen his artwork for bands like Suffocation, Entombed, Malevolent Creation, Pestilence, Dismember, and Morbid Angel.
Niklas Sundin - guitarist and founding member of Dark Tranquillity, he’s also a pretty competent graphic designer. He’s done the artwork for several of DT’s recent releases, as well as work for In Flames, Green Carnation, Arch Enemy, and numerous other bands.
Jonzig - a tattoo artist who has also done quite a bit of artwork and logos, mainly for underground death metal bands like Pessimist, Pyrexia, Odius Mortem, Severed Savior and Disgorge.
Wes Benscoter - chances are you have probably seen his work on at least one album. He’s done art for Mortician, Hypocrisy, Sinister, Cattle Decapitation and Broken Hope, among others.
Travis Smith - his work seems to be almost everywhere lately. He is responsible for the majority of Opeth and Katatonia’s recent artwork.
Honorable mention goes to Miram Kim, who created the disturbing artwork on most of Incantation’s albums. She has also done some artwork for X-Files.
I should also mention My Dying Bride vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe, who I think is now handling the artwork for all of MDB’s albums, although I really don’t think too much of his style.
