Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives

Message board

* FAQ    * Register   * Login 



Reply to topic
Author Message Previous topic | Next topic
Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
Posts: 10167
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 8:30 pm 
 

Spoiler: show
Image


This one has always just freaked me out. It's not so much dreadful to me as it is terrifying.

Image

This is for Sorrowseed's Portents EP. The foggy, burnt out cityscape always had that appropriate feeling of "severely bad shit has happened" for me.

Image

And another Sorrowseed one. Technically the back cover from The Extinction Prophecies, but since it's a double album I've always considered it the second front cover.
_________________
Earthcubed wrote:
I'm just perpetually annoyed by Sean William Scott and he's never been in a movie where I wasn't rooting for his head to sever by strange means.

Blacksoul Seraphim Gothic Doom Metal
Autumn's Ashes Melodic Death/Doom Metal

Top
 Profile  
metalistkrieg
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2003 5:02 pm
Posts: 488
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 8:34 pm 
 

Image

I hope I never end up dying like this, desperate & alone. So sad.

Top
 Profile  
Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
Posts: 10167
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 8:41 pm 
 

Also, I must say that that Leviathan cover posted early is probably the most depressingly terrifying album cover I've ever seen.
_________________
Earthcubed wrote:
I'm just perpetually annoyed by Sean William Scott and he's never been in a movie where I wasn't rooting for his head to sever by strange means.

Blacksoul Seraphim Gothic Doom Metal
Autumn's Ashes Melodic Death/Doom Metal

Top
 Profile  
Delta_Wing
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 1:20 pm
Posts: 924
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 8:54 pm 
 

Damn I personally like the Amebix and Locrian covers , they are fantastic. Amebix has to be a mass execution during WW II. Truly terrifying to think about that being so dramatically captured for eternity.

Locrian cover looks like it might be Pipyrat the ghost city within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Very cool and dreadful stuff.

I'm glad the thread has remained on track and everyone has gotten the meaning of dread pretty much spot on. Found some good shit here too, thanks and cheers!

Top
 Profile  
~Guest 282118
Argentinian Asado Supremacy

Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2011 2:16 pm
Posts: 8300
PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 10:04 pm 
 

metalistkrieg wrote:
Spoiler: show
Image


I hope I never end up dying like this, desperate & alone. So sad.

Don't know if you noticed all of those silhouettes in the background. I've always assumed they were spirits gathering around the recently deceased, silently stating somethin akin to "we've been expecting you". Not dreadful, but eerie as all hell.

Top
 Profile  
pale_horse
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:36 am
Posts: 681
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:27 am 
 

None of these have really felt like dread to me yet. The Leviathan one is very powerful, but I'm seeing hopelessness.
_________________
Trading CDs (USA) | Good Deal Metal CDs USA FB Group | Instagram | Last.FM

Top
 Profile  
DeathfareDevil
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2004 11:30 am
Posts: 1008
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:42 am 
 

Perhaps because I was fifteen at the time, I always got a perfectly unsettled feeling from Kind Diamond's Them. It has that foreboding ambiance akin to the Overlook Hotel or Bates Motel.

Image


And these dudes were far better "purveyors of the weird" before I realized they were beekeepers. I'd thought they had heads of solid wood and were something out of a fever dream.

Image


Metantoine wrote:
Also, any TRoB + this one
Image


Does anyone know what this is? It's my favorite album by one of my favorite bands, but damned if I know what the hell is going on here. Part of me wants my imagination to remain blissfully unshackled by certainty.

Top
 Profile  
OzzyApu
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:11 am
Posts: 10821
Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:27 am 
 

DeathfareDevil wrote:
Metantoine wrote:
Also, any TRoB + this one
Image


Does anyone know what this is? It's my favorite album by one of my favorite bands, but damned if I know what the hell is going on here. Part of me wants my imagination to remain blissfully unshackled by certainty.

Those are the "dragon's teeth" along the German border during WW2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s ... ication%29
_________________
gomorro wrote:
Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

Top
 Profile  
Oxenkiller
Veteran

Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:42 am
Posts: 3613
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:40 am 
 

some kind of tank/armored vehicle barricade I'd assume.

Love that charcoal cover of the Sorrowseed cityscape. Reminds me of this dude James Castle who would do these really freakish landscapes out of charcoal drawn on old paper grocery bags.

Best covers for me are the really stark, black and white grainy photos, that portray a gritty realism mixed with a sense of dread. Those work far better for me than some illustrated cartoonish demon/monster thingy. The Winter "Into Darkness" cover is probably the best example here.

Top
 Profile  
soulonfire
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri May 28, 2010 1:56 pm
Posts: 279
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:28 am 
 

Say what you will about their music, but the cover of the first Korn album conveys a sense of dread. Some dude with a hook for a hand casting a shadow over some little girl? Yeah.
_________________
Hircine wrote:
Step 1 for 'How not to create evil atmosphere on a death metal album':

Use Baloo and calypso music.

Top
 Profile  
Cloud0129
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:04 pm
Posts: 169
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:36 pm 
 

Image

Seeing only one face in a man's chest as well as the dark blue colors here made me shiver a bit.

Top
 Profile  
Ritual_Suicide
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:39 am
Posts: 404
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 2:15 pm 
 

soulonfire wrote:
Say what you will about their music, but the cover of the first Korn album conveys a sense of dread. Some dude with a hook for a hand casting a shadow over some little girl? Yeah.


The backside of the K in their logo also gives the effect that the little girl is hanging from a noose.

Image
_________________
http://www.last.fm/user/Toxic_Griever
https://rateyourmusic.com/~ToxicGriever

Top
 Profile  
vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:09 pm 
 

Wolok - Servum Pecus
The artwork is taken from Beksiński, there are better works of his than this one definitely but it's still worth mentioning. The music on this album definitely fits the cover, too. Many other bands also used his work for album covers (Leviathan, Drowning the Light, Blood of Kingu among others mentioned on MA.)
Image

Top
 Profile  
lord_ghengis
Still Standing After 38 Beers... hic

Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:31 pm
Posts: 5953
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:52 pm 
 

That one is actually one of my favourites as him, usually his corpsecluster things look frozen and dead, that one looks like it's writhing its way around your house.
_________________
Naamath wrote:
No comments, no words need it, no BM, no compromise, only grains in her face.

Top
 Profile  
vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:57 pm 
 

I find the black-and-white colouring a turn-off. As often as it help creating dread atmosphere, it doesn't do it for me in this case (or Beksiński's works in general.)

Top
 Profile  
~Guest 220079
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:39 am
Posts: 185
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:06 pm 
 

Image

Portrays a sense of impending doom and nothingness. Being sucked into a void where chaos reigns and darkness is embraced. Reminds me of this quote from Milton: Abashed the Devil stood and felt how awful goodness is.

Top
 Profile  
Veracs
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 8:56 pm
Posts: 1903
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:40 pm 
 

Image

The coverart from Mitochondrion's demo Through cosmic gaze always captured my attention. I know its an original painting but it just has that eternal/epic scale that I adore about those older paintings, the music is decent but the coverart more or less cemented the demo when I owned it in my mind.
_________________
Malignanthrone wrote:

Thing is, Suicide Silence actually are more sonically massive than a good 95% of all the death metal bands in the Archives! Not metal, sure, but definitely a lot more brutal.

Under_Starmere wrote:
Manowar aren't the Kings of Metal. They're pretenders to a throne that doesn't exist.!

Top
 Profile  
Lord_Jotun
Veteran

Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 5:02 pm
Posts: 2747
Location: Italy
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 6:14 pm 
 

^^^

It's not an original painting; I'm fairly sure it's one of Gustave Doré's Divine Comedy-related works. It also appears in the inlay artwork on Frostkrieg's Das astrale Fenster.
_________________
Bands I'm in:
Phenris
In Corpore Mortis
Orgiastic Pleasures
Rust
Black Druid Hymns - my projects on YouTube

Top
 Profile  
NJMike
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:12 am
Posts: 101
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 6:43 pm 
 

I always thought this one was interesting. The music on it reflects it perfectly, as well.

Image

Not really portraying dread much, but this one used to scare the shit out of me when I was in my early teens and haven't heard black metal before, so I thought I'd throw it in. Amazing album, I might add.

Image

Image

Image
_________________
Metal (death, black, doom, gothic, industrial, post-, sludge, drone, avant-garde, experimental, technical/progressive, folk).
Other (post-rock, shoegaze, anything "-core", electronic, ebm, trance, hardstyle, house, dubstep).

http://www.last.fm/user/TheresTheMike

Top
 Profile  
Eh_Timeghoul
Be gentle, I was... Born This Way

Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:35 pm
Posts: 323
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:41 pm 
 

Delta_Wing wrote:
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.


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


goddamnit, was this like an internet thing? cause i remember seeing like a whole page of that shit, oh well-went right over my head for sure

Top
 Profile  
VoidApostle
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:00 pm
Posts: 245
Location: Within The Vacuum of Infinity
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:57 pm 
 

Spoiler: show
Veracs wrote:
Image

The coverart from Mitochondrion's demo Through cosmic gaze always captured my attention. I know its an original painting but it just has that eternal/epic scale that I adore about those older paintings, the music is decent but the coverart more or less cemented the demo when I owned it in my mind.


That's a drawing of Heaven. :lol:

Although, spending eternity in a place that probably discourages metal would be pretty dreadful.

Top
 Profile  
Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
Posts: 10167
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:57 pm 
 

Yeah's, that's Dore's art of the final part of the Divine Comedy, where Dante and Beatrice speak to God.
_________________
Earthcubed wrote:
I'm just perpetually annoyed by Sean William Scott and he's never been in a movie where I wasn't rooting for his head to sever by strange means.

Blacksoul Seraphim Gothic Doom Metal
Autumn's Ashes Melodic Death/Doom Metal

Top
 Profile  
~Guest 132892
Wastelander

Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:18 am
Posts: 6349
PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:20 pm 
 

Image

I would really not like to be at whatever shore these guys land at.

Top
 Profile  
vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 7:25 pm 
 

blackdiamond74 wrote:
Image

Portrays a sense of impending doom and nothingness. Being sucked into a void where chaos reigns and darkness is embraced. Reminds me of this quote from Milton: Abashed the Devil stood and felt how awful goodness is.

The circle structure reminds me of The Wild Hunt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Hunt).

Also, just now realized how metal that thing is.

Top
 Profile  
mekhthecat
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:24 am
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:36 am 
 

Don't know how this hasn't made the list yet

Image

Top
 Profile  
NJMike
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:12 am
Posts: 101
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:46 am 
 

Been on an OMC kick recently.

Image
_________________
Metal (death, black, doom, gothic, industrial, post-, sludge, drone, avant-garde, experimental, technical/progressive, folk).
Other (post-rock, shoegaze, anything "-core", electronic, ebm, trance, hardstyle, house, dubstep).

http://www.last.fm/user/TheresTheMike

Top
 Profile  
Subrick
Metal Strongman

Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:27 pm
Posts: 10167
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 1:20 am 
 

Is it just me or does that cover look like a Seth Siro Anton job?
_________________
Earthcubed wrote:
I'm just perpetually annoyed by Sean William Scott and he's never been in a movie where I wasn't rooting for his head to sever by strange means.

Blacksoul Seraphim Gothic Doom Metal
Autumn's Ashes Melodic Death/Doom Metal

Top
 Profile  
OzzyApu
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:11 am
Posts: 10821
Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 1:22 am 
 

Subrick wrote:
Is it just me or does that cover look like a Seth Siro Anton job?

It was definitely the beginning of when his cover arts started to look the same.
_________________
gomorro wrote:
Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

Top
 Profile  
SolracV
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 3:37 pm
Posts: 60
Location: Puerto Rico
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 10:48 am 
 

Image

Warning's 'Watching From a Distance'. I don't know... The simplicity of the cover art is so dreadful, yet powerful. I love how the character just blends with the background, almost invisible. Reaching for nothingness, I must say.

Top
 Profile  
TheMizwaOfMuzzyTah
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:18 pm
Posts: 1792
Location: the emerald forest
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:24 am 
 

This thread is best enjoyed with coffee, toast, and a purring cat next to your laptop. Furthermore, children laughing outside and the sun spilling fourth golden light also compliment it quite nicely.

Nothing says dread quite like the cover of Billy Squire's Don't Say No.

Top
 Profile  
Yayattasa
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:49 am
Posts: 858
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 10:35 pm 
 

I like all the Doom metal album covers you guys posted.
Really surprised no one posted this one tough:

Tyranny - Tides of Awakening (2006)
It's clealt Cthulhu staring at R'lyeh's ruins.
Spoiler: show
Image


Also, Catacombs - In the Depths of R'lyeh.
_________________
FasterDisaster wrote:
You have to be a real kind of special to break your own neck headbanging.
Diamhea wrote:
I refuse to give metalsucks any web traffic.

Top
 Profile  
IX Leviathan
Bepsi

Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:09 pm
Posts: 804
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:40 am 
 

This one has always stuck out to me as one of the saddest, most dreadful pieces of art I've seen on an album. Captures the album's atmosphere so well. Fuck, even the horse looks sad.

Image
_________________
Last.fm // RYM
always poor // never bored
dystopia4 wrote:
Like holy shit can't you get black out drunk and fist fight someone over a value pick burger in the drive thru and not hear about it for the rest of your life?

Top
 Profile  
Einzige
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2012 5:04 am
Posts: 54
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 7:11 am 
 

Strange as this may sound, the cover of Stained Class has always unnerved me a little.

I'm not sure what it is about it, but... but... well, just look at the damned thing:

Image

It's like a futuristic simulation of the Kennedy assassination run on the mainframe of Skynet. Or something. It's very inhuman, and, speaking of The Terminator, reminds me a little of the T-1000 from T2. People shouldn't be that shiny; I think it's an early example of the uncanny valley, in my case.

Top
 Profile  
~Guest 104167
Metalhead

Joined: Sun May 20, 2007 9:46 am
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:07 pm 
 

Image

Top
 Profile  
The_Apex_of_Collapse
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:29 pm
Posts: 1684
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:59 pm 
 

Mass graves always gave me a sense of dread. It reminds me of those stories from Nazi occupied countries where unwanted people were lined up and executed one at a time. The people must have felt such dread, and hopelessness. This portrays that exact dread I think.

Image
_________________
Resident Speedmetal, and Metalpunk warrior

Top
 Profile  
ThePoop
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:38 pm
Posts: 1075
Location: America
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:45 pm 
 

This cover for Agalloch's first demo always was a bit unsettling to me. The picture is very dreary. It appears that one man is pushing on the others shoulders with his legs so as to hasten his death. The scene always raises questions in my mind. What is going on, why is he driven to kill the other man? Can't deny the badassedness of it though.

The original picture was done by Gustave Doré, who made the picture used in the Mitochondrion demo which was posted earlier. He also apparently did the original picture used for Anaal Nathrakh's In the Constellation... as well. A quick google search and you'll find most of his pieces are in the same vein.

Image
_________________
My favorite Carcass album is Swansong.

Top
 Profile  
dragonzbreath
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:25 pm
Posts: 3
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:48 pm 
 

Image

The fear in the animal's eyes and the ghostly reflection make me feel kinda uneasy.

also this one:
Image

Top
 Profile  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic Go to page Previous  1, 2


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Xytras71 and 71 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

  Print view
Jump to:  

Back to the Encyclopaedia Metallum


Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group