I think it looks pretty cool. Reminds me a lot of the album art for Deeds of Flesh's Of what's to Come.

It's to be released Feb. 15 2013 and have 10 tracks, according to Blabbermouth. http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?m ... mID=183003

That's....I'm speechless as to how awesome this is.

Looks like Job for a Cowboy's album cover put through Deed's of Flesh's last album's filter.

While it isn't a bad piece I've come to expect more from Suffocation.... but at least it's better art than the self titled cover.

Looks like it could be any generic brutal death metal or deathcore band.

Yeah same font for the latest dying fetus and cover art similar to deeds... Too bad it doesn't really have that suffocation feel to it.

i'm pretty sure its the same artist

I don't really like it. Doesn't look very Suffocation at all and the album title's font is the same that every deathcore band these days seems to use. Just doesn't distinguish itself at all from everything else out there these days. Meh, whatever, the album should be good.

I hate this art, its the worst they've ever had. Corny figure all smothered in a computerised sheen, and the font on the title is disgusting deathcore.

Also not quite a blue orange contrast, but close enough. Booo!

Exactly.


Yup.


I concur.

Kind of let down by the artwork, not gonna lie. It's a good illustration I suppose, but Blood Oath raised the bar so high in terms of artwork that I can't get to like this. It doesn't seem to match the kind of music (I presume) Suffocation will play.

I'm not going to judge a book by it's cover though. Blood Oath was brutal, this should be too.

Yep.

Hopes aren't very high for this album. Suffocation just don't make the grade anymore.

yeah, cover looks awful to me too, got nothing on the blood oath artwork which i thought was fantastic. still pumped to hear the music though, should be killer stuff yet again.

Who care's about the cover? I, for one, think it looks pretty sweet, and cant wait for this. Sounds like it's going to be awesome from what the guys have said about it so far.

Me, to some extent.

The cover doesn't look very Suffocation at all. Seems like touring with generic deathcore bands have made their toll on the band. Let's hope the music is good.

Shouldve had Zig do it.

A striking step down from Blood Oath. You'd think they would've gone further with that old school direction, apparently not.

Those who don't want to look at a turd in reference to potentially good music.

I understand that this isn't the style of artwork people typically like to see from such a classic death metal band. But really, relatively speaking, it looks pretty good. If anything, the album title font is the worst part.

Agreed.

Yeah, the cover and album font reminds me too much of Deeds of Flesh. Hopefully the music will be a step up from Blood Oath (Didn't like that album, although the album cover rules).

Not me, but looks like we're in the minority here. Still stoked to hear what the music will be like.

No one has said the art has any influence on the music. The art is all that as been shown, people may as well talk about it.

I agree with what you said. Nowadays, many bands in the deathmetal genre adopt this whole new school approach towards cover design. It's the same what SLK said, looks like a JFAC design. From most of the covers that you will encounter, you have a protagonist in the image doing something or holding something while the background is given a certain surreal effect.

Usually, when it comes to the cover, I tend to seek out a story that the band is trying to convey...and if not that, the cover better be goddamn unique without being kitschy.

It's not what I envisioned in my mind but I have no complaints. Glad that they're getting it out when they are in mid-February, as I had seen in an interview with Derek Boyer that they were initially looking at late Feb/early March at the latest. Upon revisiting Blood Oath, it's much better than I remembered and the slight murkiness to the production works in its favor so a continuation of that would be welcomed, but something a little more in the vein of their '90s material would be even better.

Well if the music is a continuation of how Blood Oath was I'd be happy. I enjoyed that album, yea sure it's not as great as early suffo but I really don't expect that to be happening. after the 3 albums since reformation I just hope as good as Souls to Deny/Blood Oath and less of the st.

Complete opposite here, I found the st to be better than Souls and Blood Oath to be flat out crummy.

I dont really have a problem with the art, its the album title font. Would be better to put on the side of the cd tray(like slayer divine intervention), but I wont even notice it on my mp3 player.

I'm sure the music will be fine, but the artwork doesn't convince me either.

It's kind a sad to me that people throw around abreviations like "JFAC" here and it means something to people.

Yeah everybody hit my thoughts before I had a chance to post. Far too Par Olofsson-y for my taste (if he didn't do this cover I will eat my hat), and just doesn't have that Suffocation feel to it. And my first impressions were also JFAC meets Deeds of Flesh, both, surprise, Olofsson covers. Okay, so the art kinda sucks, but my real question is whether or not Culross was involved in the writing or not. I'm under the impression is was pretty much done by the time Smith left, and he's great and the Suffo drummer and all, but Culross is equally awesome and doesn't seem to have a shitty attitude towards the music/business/life.

And yeah, Blood Oath is kind of a slow burner for me. Every time I listen to it I like it a little bit more, but it's still the weakest barring the self titled. All three post-reunion albums haven't been as good as the original run's stuff, but I'm still interested anyway because Suffo just rules.

The dude on the cover looks like a World of Warcraft raid boss. But who cares anyway? It's a new Suffocation album.

I'm sure the new album will be good, just because it's Suffocation. Their latest works aren't as great as the pre-union stuff but they're still really good.

The thing about this cover is that the view so close up to the main subject. If the artist pulled the view out more (a lot more, perhaps), this cover would be in line with the previous album covers in Suffocation history.

I care's. It looks pretty damn cool.

Would you like fries with that? The first paragraph of the article says it was Raymond Swanland.

Par Oloffson's stuff is awesome and much better than this. Unfortunately it gets overused by heaps of third rate bands. Every time I see a cover like that, my brain thinks it ought to sound like The Vile Conception.

And I'm excited for this despite the mediocre artwork. Suffocation have always been hit and miss with that, having just gone from the ultra-boring self-titled to the outstanding Blood Oath cover.

This is what happens when I don't read...

That album cover looks like something that would make me want to buy it with money I shouldn't spend, but would ultimately result in bitter disappointment, a lack of finances, and a long, internal monologue about how I was suckered by marketing and I should be ashamed of myself.

Act of contrition?

Buy a different album that I know will be awesome.

Sweet consumerism.

Lame overly digital and processed looking...and awful concept. It's awful when death metal bands pretty much have a figure in the center of their artwork..like some sort of mascot. I loved their early dark artwork. To me, the artwork on effigy is easily the best but that's because I'm a fan of post apocalyptic and futuristic imagery...

The amount of detail in this is unbelievable, whereas in the OP it's just focused on basically an extreme version of Eddie




The same applies to the pierced from within artwork. There is no message, just isolation, darkness, and outwordly/giger-ish influence here


I wish more art was done this way, with minimal processing and computer modification. A modern album with 'oldschool' art that comes to mind is the recent Vader album. I like the overall lack of a 'modern' feel to this



and It would be cool if more artists used less computer enhancements, fonts, or processes.

I actually like the cover but the problem is that it's not really fitting for Suffocation. Also the cover for Blood Oath is much better.

I don't mind it. The art and color scheme does remind me of Deeds Of Flesh and if the view were panned out a bit more I think it would suit the rest of Suffocation's discography better. The title font is the only part that is really upsetting. What the fuck were they thinking with that?

This is pretty typical art for Swanland too. He does a lot of character artwork so the design isn't really too surprising.

Pretty lame cover art, though to be honest I don't think Suffocation has ever had great art, just better and worse. This is probably the worse they've ever had.

Its a pretty poor looking album cover with overly digitally altered and contrasted colours that gives it a photoshop feel. If this was the cover for a band I didn't know, I wouldn't even check it out, assuming that it was another generic deathcore band.

And just to preemptively address that last line for people who think that I shouldn't be "judging an [album] by it's cover", scenes do perpetuate a certain style of cover art, allowing one to determine the type of music to be found within, for the most part.

Not pertinent to the cover art, but I figured since this is going to become the thread for discussion about the album itself it's worth mentioning they've apparently rerecorded Beginning of Sorrow. Interesting to see how this fits in with the concept of the lyrics that's supposed to run through the rest of the songs, if at all, or if it's merely a "bonus track" as the closer as also seen on Pierced from Within, the self-titled album, and Blood Oath. Anyone else think it's a safe bet that we'll see Epitaph of the Credulous, Ornaments of Decrepancy, and Ignorant Deprivation get the same treatment before they call it a day?