I prefer Riggs' submission because it reminds me of being scared in the dark, looking at the end of my bed when I was little, I know it's kind of generic, but it certainly has more to do with the final product than Eddie fused into a tree.

Riggs' rejected submission:


The final of course:

Actually, Riggs' submission is pretty bad, especially considering his standards. Not like the actual cover is much better, but it's certainly more organized and it doesn't look like a clusterfuck of contrasting colours and concepts.

By the way man, do you know any other bands besides Maiden and Priest? Just thought I'd ask.....

I also listen to Pantera, Fates Warning, Cannibal Corpse, and a bit of Arch Enemy if you're curious, just not as much.

Current cover, hands down. I actually quite like that album cover.

I've never found anything wrong with the current cover art. Probably one of Maiden's best actually.

Riggs' version is pretty lame to be honest. I love his stuff but that is definitely a dud. I've always loved the Fear of the Dark album cover although I'm not too keen on the album.

Gotta go with the one they went with personally. The Riggs one could've been cool but the execution just looks like a bad foreshadowing for The X Factor.

If the bed wasn't so plain, I'd probably dig the rejected one more. I like the idea of the clouded bat a lot more than the tree eddie. That being said, the cover they did go with does look more like a finished product.

I'm wondering if the Derek Riggs cover shown is just a conceptual sketch versus a finished drawing, hence it's rough, unfinished appearance. I have a feeling if that version would have been chosen, the final version would have looked much cleaner and better.

either way, I gotta go with the actual official album version.

Regardless if the Riggs submission was totally completed... i'd go with the tree eddie. More interesting and I hate shit where it's like some first person perspective where you are lying down and some 'spooky' shit is supposed to be all up in your face.. like that Lunatic Gods cover.

I really just don't even care for the overall idea behind Riggs submission. it's like a direct representation of oh fear of the dark... well let's make it about some kid wetting himself in bed over some nightmares.

The idea for the first one doesn't look bad, but it looks so abstract and out of focus. I'm sure if it was reprised in some way it would be a good cover.

Wouldve worked fine as a singles cover.

Already asked him that before

[/quote]I also listen to Pantera, Fates Warning, Cannibal Corpse, and a bit of Arch Enemy if you're curious, just not as much.[/quote]

Hmmm, I see no Black Sabbath on that list, also if you like maiden and priest you should check out Iced Earth and Blind Guardian, the only two bands i like more the maiden. As for the topic, riggs, pic while bad looks more iron maidenish, but the actual fod pic to me has this 90's feel that I don't like, I don't like things that make me think 90's.

Maiden and Priest are two of my favourite bands and ones that were with me when I first got into metal. But seriously guys, listen to more than half a dozen. You could probably find at least a few hundred you'd enjoy.

I like it because of how odd it looks.

Riggs' cover is obviously unfinished as you can see the outline of a man gripping the bed sheets.
Even Imagining it as finished I'd still go with the final, the first one looks like a bad Goosebumps cover.

Final cover wins by far.

The Riggs picture just looks like a hodgepodge of random "spooky" shit.

Personally, I think the first one would be a lot better if Eddie did not look like that. I think it's the wrong colour. I say the second one is better.

This. That's what I've been feeling and not really been able to speechify. It just looks kinda goofy, not dark at all.

I also listen to Pantera, Fates Warning, Cannibal Corpse, and a bit of Arch Enemy if you're curious, just not as much.[/quote]

Hmmm, I see no Black Sabbath on that list, also if you like maiden and priest you should check out Iced Earth and Blind Guardian, the only two bands i like more the maiden. As for the topic, riggs, pic while bad looks more iron maidenish, but the actual fod pic to me has this 90's feel that I don't like, I don't like things that make me think 90's.[/quote]


Yeah I don't know why I haven't listened to much Sabbath, I'll definitely check them out. I agree that the final art looks extremely 1990's, so does even Riggs' submission to an extent, hard to explain.

No such thing as a bad Goosebumps cover (if we're talking the original series). I think I prefer the Melvyn Grant one as well, but Riggs' has potential.

Goosebumps covers were fucking brilliant. I once wrote a letter to the motherfucker who painted those things when I was seven years old. He wrote me back, too, and sent me some fucking Goosebumps pogs. How fucking cool is that?

The cover of Fear of the Dark is brilliant. The Dax thing looks liked a kid glued a picture of Eddie on their Halloween school project.

While it's cool to see Riggs' submission, the final art is much better IMO. Maybe if this is just a rough draft for Riggs and he had improved upon it, maybe I would have chose it, but "as is" I like the one that was chosen much better.

The real cover is great (the album is not) so I actually have a Fear Of The Dark door flag at home haha

For me, although I think Melvyn Grant's artwork is far superior to that of Derek Riggs submission, I do think that Derek would have done a better job had he come up with the 'Eddie in a tree' idea. I also don't like the Maiden logo on its side like that. But Melvyn has done some far better artwork for Maiden, such as 'Death on the Road' and 'The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg'.

Tree cover.
The other is definitely cheesy, and it just looks like a hodge-podge of random stuff that isn't even really very well laid out... too much negative space at the top, and the bat is just pointless and awkward, but I think it would've been at least good enough for a single as others have mentioned.

One thing I will say is I like the clouds in it... they have an austere and forebodingly surreal/dreamlike/unnatural quality that's I can appreciate.

Crap album, BTW. Like, possibly Maiden's worst up to that point IMHO.

Why does everyone else fail to see this - also makes me think are some people judging the technical quality of the work, or the concept itself? Either way, I also like the official one more although I don't think the Riggs' version is horrible either. And as I never had any problems with random stuff or things not making sense, I don't see it here either.

I also have to disagree with the OP with the claim that the "Eddie as a tree" concept has nothing to do with the album name/theme, think of "when you're walking a dark road" surrounded by trees and your imagination starts to see the branches as claws and some sort of monsters and shit.

I don't think so, really. The tree-Eddie thing is, I believe, supposed to evoke the whole "glimpsing a scary shape that turns out to just be a tree outside your bedroom window" idea.

Riggs's rejected cover is pretty cool, actually. Kinda like Eddie in Salem's Lot.

Well, that's the best summary of the early 90s that I've heard all day.

Because you're assuming they do?

It's obviously not finished. That doesn't somehow make it less cheesy. I mean, the whole concept. As someone mentioned, the first person perspective thing is just cartoonish (no, not "dreamlike", not "surreal", cartoonish), especially for a metal album that didn't come out in the early 80's.