I know threads like this are a slippery slope, because people will just throw some gore crap on here or their favorite bands cover and give no reason why they feel that that album cover painting represents a feeling of dread. For those unfamiliar with the definition of dread here you go “Profound fear; terror.”

Straight splatter gore does not equal dread in my opinion, so try and think about what you post, before posting it.

I recently got my copy of Nominon’s excellent new album “The Cleansing” and this inspired me to create this thread.

Gazing upon the wonderful artwork of Jaunjo Castellano I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread.

The back and white post apocalyptic landscape with littered corpses laying all around, after what could only be a plague or other cataclysmic event. Then there are what could be churches burning in the far distance bellowing thick black smoke of the burning remains of humankind into the air choking out the the sun with holocaustic overtones. The smoke chokes out everything and the acrid stench of coal and bodies burning must be everywhere. Those building shapes could even be massive crematory ovens set up to remove the remains of the dead and this sets a very grim stage. I feel that the back ground leaves a lot to the imagination of the viewer.

However, the hooded and face covered Black Priests leering in opposite directions of each other like silent machines on their path of collecting the dead, scanning the littered horizon for any unwanted saviors really tops the sense of dread found here. Their possibly hideous faces are obscured, with only their evil filled eyes peeking out looking for any undead is just so awesome and dread inspiring.

You could almost imagine yourself alive laying amongst the dead, not moving and begging they don’t collect you.



There’s plenty of cool covers out here in the metal world and many that shocked me over the years, especially when I was younger, but this is really the first one in a long time, that brought a sense of unease or dread over me, and I love it for it. Let’s see some others. Enjoy.

Winter - Into Darkness

Another great example. The burnt out remains of a city during great war, possibly eastern front WWII. The child and elderly person walking to nowhere in the frigid cold,truely into darkness. Scary stuff if you think about it.

The cold feeling of the cover and the music Winter actually creates brings a true sense of dread. Ok enough help hehehe.

i really dig the medieval imaginery from Peste Noire...those were dark times and anything related to them its misterious and gives me a strange and dark surreal feel

It makes me feel the unbelievable dread that people must have felt when the bubonic plague was raging in Europe. Sickness and death in every house, the cause unknown, except for the common belief that it's the devil's work. The artwork displays a danse macabre, but with kids, which makes it much more drastic. The way the skeleton on the right looks at the child simply says, "you're next". The figure in the background holding hands with two girls looks like creppy as hell, too.

The Winter one is great, I'd love to see more WWI/II-related ones.

For some reason this albumcover always makes me feel very uneasy. It could be the warped title, the apparent calmness of the surroundings, the desolate ruins growing through or just the ominous as fuck dark figure wading through the scenery.

As a teenager, I thought the cover of None So Vile was quite that. The utterly stoic eyes of the lady holding a head on a tray - it's not frightening or anything, but it portrays a rather deranged aspect of the human mind.

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/9/9/199.jpg

I was really impressed with the Necros Christos "Doom of the Occult" cover. Can't remember the artist but it's a painting of Soddom and Gomorrah.
The little guy in the corner gives it that sense of dread/hopelessness for me.



The cover of Deathspell Omega's "Drought" would also fit into this category.

Yhdarl - Ave Maria



What a great album for those dark nights when you need something to give you a real surprise. The album is executed perfectly in terms of the dread it bleeds into your atmosphere.

I 'get' why some of the covers posted here can be described as dread-inducing - espeially the Winter one - but for me, dread has something more to do with atmosphere I can't understand than people/creatures like the hooded dudes in the first cover posted or the skeletons/Death dancing with the children. Something more abstract, maybe, I don't know. Stuff like



or



This stuff is much more strange and otherworldly, which to me portrays a clear sense of dread, despair...

This album cover just kind of gives me this creepy feeling when I look at it. It's just kind of ominous as to what happened in the events of the art.

melancolia estatica - Letum

This one always got to me. Just imagining an old couple and the hardships they need to endure to survive. Just depressing to think about...

However, that's what I've thought until now. Further examination of the art leads me to believe that the guy is holding a cross, not a pickaxe as I once thought. Plus that type of clothing doesn't exactly shout "manual labor".

Even further examination makes me believe that yes, that is a pickaxe and my sight sucks.

To me, the first Black Sabbath album with that creepy witch was always unsettling.

I react so seldom to cover artwork, but there is one cover that just makes me sick. I can hardly look at it, I have no Idea what the fuck it is.

The Cover is this Lard cover:




Never heard the record and probably never will because of that cover. It was hard to just post that horrible thing. It is probably the only cover that ever awoke any bad feelings in me.

You'll be happy to know people eat them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprey

If we can expand this to include album artwork that isn't necessarily the cover art, then I've got some:



From Katatonia's 'Viva Emptiness'. That city always made me feel so uneasy; the buildings are so oppressive, and it just invokes a real sense of dread. I also like this picture a lot:



And say what you will about Opeth, but they've had some great cover art. 'Blackwater Park' is one of my favorites ever. It's just so... eerie.



The cover art for Xasthur's 'Suicide in Dark Serenity' is very eerie too, and dreadful in a rather serene way. I always thought it was a very effective front cover.



Edit: Sorry that Xasthur picture is so huge. I guess that's what the spoiler's for, right?

To me, Swallow the Sun's debut album has always been a particularly powerful image and certainly gives off a feeling of dread.

Mortuary Drape's "All the Witches Dance". At a time when black and white forested corpsepainted pentagram covered album covers were all the rage, they went a different route. Much more shocking, and, dreadful, in my opinion.

Can't be bothered linking, but anything using Beksinski art like Evoken's Antithesis of Light or Ilsa's demo/ep or Leviathan's... something, uses the big weed church with the inverted dome on the front. Lots of other bands use him, and rightfully so.

love that album

Few album covers successfully convey the emotions and feelings of the music within like this one does. And to me Leviathan defines dread. The Tenth Sublevel of Suicide is easily one of the bleakest black metal albums to come out of the US. Kinda feels like a Darkthrone tribute too. Which is awesome. Very cool thread.

Was gonna come here to post these two myself. Huge fan of the Leviathan one. Just looks so fucking ominous.

Highly recommended albums btw.

There was this American black metal band that used a still from the movie Begotten that made for a great cover art. Can't remember the band name atm, though. Anybody?

That movie was filled with scenes that could be used as great cover arts, actually. Katatonia used one as well.

There's several. I reckon that you mean Arizmenda's "Within the Vacuum of Infinity"?



There's also Din of Awakening's first demo tape:

That's the one, yes. I thought it was from some older band for some reason.

Because...

Don't forget Katatonia's 'Sounds of Decay'. That cover art actually motivated me to seek out that movie and (try to) watch it. Can't say I liked it, but it's still a cool image.

that's not a fish, it's a skin...disease thingy, and it's on a finger. can't for the life of me remember what exactly, but i know that ain't no fish

OT: the original artwork for Panaramic Twilight. i like the new comp art but there's something about the original.....just a ghoul, sitting vigil on the moon, hanging cold in the empty void. he's at peace-his scythe's on the ground at his side, because why would he need to be eager and alert? death is inevitable, it knows no time.



the dread is in that is all their is-a cold, endless, void and death ever watching but it's not a dread of anxiety, no, more of a calming dread. an accepted dread, if you will. ionno, guess i like the simplicity.

Good thread so far, guys. I'm glad everyone are respecting the topic.

I always liked this cover, it reminds me of Chucky for some reasons. It's both silly and scary.



Also, any TRoB + this one

This one fits pretty well, I think. That goat is so creepy.

Hate to break it to you but that's nothing more than a lamprey eel mouth, just like what was already said. Disgusting things but no disease there.

Back on topic, while this cover isn't even the one Pestilence had originally choosen to use, but instead R/C - Roadrunner made them use it, it still gives me an uneasy feeling even today. I remember buying this album on cassette when I was a kid after it came out for no other reason than the cover. The thought of landing in a giant ant hill and being consumed alive with those little red suckers going down your esphagus and working themselves down your wind pipe into your lungs while you are still alive is a chilling dreadful thought. Has to be a goddamn painful and slow way to die for sure.

Anyone know what happened to the original cover that this cover replaced? Never saw the other one R/C banned. I can only imagine.

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/3/ ... 0.jpg?3036

I think this cover's pretty dreadful at least for the guy standing there.

It was later used for their Chronicles of the Scourge comp. http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Pe ... rge/127490



I'm glad they changed it. It's good but it's not nearly as eye-catching or memorable as the other one.

What you saw was a fairly well-known photoshop of a lamprey's mouth onto the tip of someones finger. Icthyology fail!

I thought this thread wouldn't last long, but seems it turned out well. Really cool topic!

No Sanctuary by Amebix. It has the same kind feeling of dread like the cover art for Into Darkness by Winter. I think the cover art photo is from eastern Europe too, during the WW2. The sickest thing about it is that it has actually happened, and all that dread has been caused by other humans, not any imaginary horror. It gives a really nasty picture of the human race and what it's capable of doing.



On other hand Autopsy's Mental Funeral is a proper example of dread, that is imaginary. The cover art makes me feel pretty uneasy, atleast used to when I saw it for the first time. That thing on the cover is just really repulsive, and when thinking how such thing would move and what kind of sound it would have. Really dreadful! Reminds me a bit of the creature in The Thing movie.

Locrian's Drenched Lands. Really gives me a sense of being alone and helpless in some post-apocalyptic world.

Metbumbnerbone's The Archangels Of Sex Rule The Destruction Of The Regime I don't know what's going on there exactly but it makes me uneasy.