One of the greatest album covers ever must be Absu's 'The Sun of Tiphareth'. It fits perfectly to the atmosphere of the music, and the whole "Mythological occult metal" concept Absu has. Pretty much a perfect album art for a metal band.

I don't know what you mean. It's obviously a perspective thing and looks proportionally correct to me. It's also a church window and not a gate. The angle of the church-ruin relative to the sky is a bit odd but makes enough sense in the context of an apocalyptic scenario.

Awesome cover btw.

Someone should take Wåhlin's blue crayons away.

Best. Ever.

Man, those Crimson Fist Space Marines are all going to die! I think the cover represents the darkness and brutality of war (like BT music) in a great way, no matter how heroic and brave they are, no matter how hard they are fighting, they are going to die.
Still, I agree, Adrian Smith is perfect fit for Bolt Thrower.

Many of my fave covers have been posted already, and there's a ton of them, a few would be:

My favorite album cover of all time.


Also love this one.

Ok, here goes:

Ok, guys, please use the spoiler option... You're already lucky this thread is not locked.

Had to check out this band based on the cover art, I listened to one song and was amazed, thanks for sharing!

Subrick seems to like castles.

Actually yes. Part of it comes from loving Kristian Wahlin's art, I guess. I'm a huge fan of medieval imagery overall, so castles come with the package.

Not Metal, but damn if this isn't great and awesome and important to me...

It's a double album, so both arts can be considered front covers. At least that's how the band presents them.

...and still not one mention of Sepultura's 'Arise'.

I can't put into words how much I love this cover:


I really like Neurosis's Given To The Rising cover:


I know they're not metal anymore but this Ulver cover is pretty excellent:

you're welcome It is indeed fantastic music. Old-school DM with lots of Autopsy, early SweDeath quotes and even some nods
to Samael's "Worship Him" stuff. Yes, I am in some in contact/friend with a band member, but I would also talk that way if I wasn't

One of the big reasons I love Bolt Thrower is how well the artwork fits the sound every album they released especially with Those Once Loyal:

I always loved this one

Nother favourite from Aarni. An excellent cover to play Where's Waldo? replacing Waldo with any people from history that Aarni thinks is cool (and some Joe Schmoes, or whatever the Finnish equivalent is).

I checked out Sulphur Aeon because of that cover. That is some good death metal right there.

Some of my favorites:




















+ the rest of the Paysage d'Hiver covers.








I have way to many covers that I like, this is just a a few of them.

Can ANYONE tell me if the music to that Sulphur Aeon album is a good representation of the music? Because based on the art alone, I fucking want to buy it.

Some of my favourites:


This, and the Armed With Hammers ep share very similar art, and are both awesome. Easily conjures the image of cult(ish) devotion to powers beyond mortal control.



Kris Verwimp can almost do no wrong. My only complaint is that the album quite doesn't live up to the very sombre artwork. But it is only a minor one, as the album is rather intoxicating.



Total fucking badassery, which faithfully backs up the destructive nature of this beastly ep.



I have both of these on vinyl, and let me tell you that the artwork throughout is superb, in a morbid, occult way, overflowing with beautifully heinous images of blasphemy. The Curses Of Annihilation booklet is... just amazing.



Again, just wickedly brilliant.



Awesome. Undeniably as obfuscated as the music within.



Hideously rendered art here, though it is a manipulation of a famous photo I believe. None the less, it's still striking.



Interesting palette for a black metal band, opting for vivid, stark colour instead of mono-chrome black and white.

And there are loads and loads of others...

I see no point in mentioning the old, classic albums I know and love, because... well almost everyone has (probably) seen them a thousand times before, and I want to unearth some of the more recent, excellent art(ist) out there.

An honorable mention goes out to Gustave Doré, as well, for inadvertently being metal's greatest cover artist.

Always had a soft spot for this one,



something about this one,

I'm not so sure about those Dissection covers... If they weren't associated with those albums I could easily see them plastered on some bulbous goth's t-shirt, especially the Somberlain.

I'm not so sure about those Dissection covers... If they weren't associated with those albums I could easily see them plastered on some bulbous goth's t-shirt, especially the Somberlain.

The music itself is really loud, massive, unrelenting death metal. It's like if Portal was more rooted in OSDM than dissonant noise.

One of my favourites. Glad to see all the King Diamond and MF.

EDIT:

This too.

^^^Love that one too. Jim Fitzpatrick is awesome!

Here's another fav. From a famous (long-dead) Italian painter, Alessandro Magnasco. I wonder what he'd say (if we had a time machine so we can make him listen to heavy metal)?

Never like band photos as cover art, but I have a soft spot for this one

Simple yet effective.

The most recurrent topic in Kristian "Necrolord" Wahlin seems to be Dracula's castle, with all its typical elements: a gothic castle on a high peak, surrounded by dense woods, wolves, graveyards and gargoyles. I'm very fond of this kind of drawing, even if they have little to do with the albums' themes.

In the matter of cover arts, I tend to dislike redundant elements like skulls, Baphomet goats, demons and so on. Another more recent but no less redundant cliché is the famous "evil eye" (a poor imitation of the eye of Horus) popularized by Watain's second album. This is the trendiest element in wannabe orthodox cover arts.

[

so ominous

I think Wishdoom's Helepolis is fucking great. I love ancient history, especially that of classical and (as depicted here) Hellenistic Greece, so this cover just really screams awesome to me.

?

Wow, that Wishdoom cover!

Really good album, totally worth picking up.

Speaking of Portal, I think the Outre' album is a perfect representation of the sound. Perhaps not the perfect album cover on it's own, but it does a remarkable job at capturing the aura of the album.



I've always loved the simplicity of this Agalloch album:


And perhaps my favourite:

From Ayat's El Nabi Mojrem Moghtaseb Dajjal

Im a total fan of John Baizley´s work so ill just put a big image with some of his art.
I know there some kind of trend between hipsterish bands to use this art deco style of covers
but anyway, its awesome and refreshing.




Finish With the Dogs by Holy Moses is one brutal piece of art


Opeth´s Still Life is so damn intriguing, best Opeth cover.



Pure mistique, no wonder why they are one of my all time favourite bands.


Mastodon covers are beyond words...


Finally, Cormorant.