Looking through my metal collection the other day, my eye was drawn to my beloved reissue of Dissection's 'Storm of the Light's Bane'. One of the best things about the album is the fantastically mournful and bleak album cover, painted by Kristian Wahlin (Necrolord). This started me thinking about album covers. Derek Riggs, designer of many of Iron Maiden's greatest incarnations of Eddie (Live After Death and Somewhere in Time for two), plus the artist of the incredible 'Inifinite' cover (Stratovarius), is certainly a contender for 'best cover artist', toom but what are your thoughts?

Myself, I feel drawn towards the naturalistic slant of many of Wahlin's works, like his 'In the Nightside Eclipse' cover. However, I also love the string of album covers Riggs did from Number of the Beast to Seventh Son, and Brave New World (which he partially worked on) is fantastic, as well.

Additionally, there's the third option, which I put in for a few albums with kickass covers that are taken from antique sources. Any fans of Iced Earth and Emperor will be more than familiar with Gustav Dore's work. He was a 19th Century engraver of many works of classic literature (Paradise Lost, Dante's Divince Comedy, the Bible, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner), and his 'Death on a Pale Horse' and 'Lucifer bound in Cocytus' are particularly poignant (in fact, if you look in detail at the ItNE cover, you can see Death on the pale horse!). And one cannot talk about classic art as album covers without looking towards Bathory. Blood Fire Death is an awesome cover, with equally impressive artwork.

I realise this may be very close to the 'Best Album cover' thread in subject matter, but I ask the question as being between those two great artists; Riggsy and Necrolord. Your thoughts, please.

I choose Necrolord, although my favorite out of all of the album artists is probably Dan Seagrave. I don't like choosing other so I will say Necrolord, but Dan Seagrave is my favorite. The album cover for'In The Nightside Eclipse' is the best that I have ever seen. I can't imagine the talent required to create such a piece, with the detail and all. Slaughter of the Soul (At The Gates), The Somberlain (Dissection), Storm of the Light's Bane (Dissection), In The Nightside Eclipse (Emperor), The Gallery (Dark Tranquillity), Iron (Ensiferum), Ensiferum (Ensiferum), The Secrets of the Black Arts (Dark Funeral), Blood On Ice (Bathory), Purgatory Afterglow (Edge Of Sanity), and Elegy (Amorphis) are all really fantastic album covers.

Well other of course. Although I do like Riggs work.

But for example Ed Repka is awesome, his work work is instantly recognisable (Megadeth, Nuclear Assault, Municipal Waste etc.)
Niklas Sundin is also a brilliant cover art artist, (for his own band Dark Tranquillity and the first two Detonation albums)
Travis Smith always captures the gloom so right (Nevermore, Solitude Aeturnus)
Dan Seagrave also nice work (Altars of Madness, Like An Everflowing Stream, Left Hand Path)

and these are just four of the many great artists around.

Derek Riggs did a great job with Iron Maiden, and Kristian Wahlin is very talent (Storm of the Light's Bane is one of my favorit black metal cover), but Travis Smith is the one! Nevermore and Katatonia covers are my favorites, but so many more. He has so unique style!

Although there are many good artists, I must choose D.R. He did good job with Stratovarius and Gamma Ray, but Eddie is whole diferent story. Eddie is like 7th maiden to me. (or you could say D.R. is (was))

Kristian Wåhlin because he has made many incredible covers and my alltime fav cover In The Nightside Eclipse. He is also a great guy! I have met him since he lives nearby.

Sure, Derek Riggs is legendary and his paintings will always have a special place in my heart. But I just can't resist the epic, beautiful paintings of Wåhlin. I mean... Wintersun? That one still makes me shiver everytime I look at it. Storm of the Lights Bane and In the Nightside Eclipse are favourites of mine too.

Hard one.
Think i've got say Derek Riggs after all

Written by spirit_inblack on 08.05.2007 at 21:20

I choose Necrolord, although my favorite out of all of the album artists is probably Dan Seagrave. I don't like choosing other so I will say Necrolord, but Dan Seagrave is my favorite. The album cover for'In The Nightside Eclipse' is the best that I have ever seen. I can't imagine the talent required to create such a piece, with the detail and all. Slaughter of the Soul (At The Gates), The Somberlain (Dissection), Storm of the Light's Bane (Dissection), In The Nightside Eclipse (Emperor), The Gallery (Dark Tranquillity), Iron (Ensiferum), Ensiferum (Ensiferum), The Secrets of the Black Arts (Dark Funeral), Blood On Ice (Bathory), Purgatory Afterglow (Edge Of Sanity), and Elegy (Amorphis) are all really fantastic album covers.

In The Nightside Eclipse has a very nice cover art. But between the two mentioned I'll choose Necrolord. The reaper on Storm Of Light's Bane is so epic!!!!!

My favorite album artist has to be Jon Zig. I actually discovered one of my favorite bands (Degrade) because I was scanning through a list of album covers and saw one of theirs that he did (Lost Torso Found). Some others of his that I love are, "Devouring the Excavated," by Fumes of Decay, and "Phases of Dimensional Torture," by Decaying Purity.

I have to say, though, Kristian Wahlin has some cool shit ("Storm of the Light's Bane," "King Diamond Voodoo," "The Secrets of the Black Arts," etc.).

You can't go wrong with a good cover from Derek Riggs, I enjoyed his artwork with Maiden. I'm very familiar with a lot of Necrolord's artwork though (even if I had never heard of him before this thread), and a lot of his work is really cool too (Wintersun, Edge of Sanity, and so forth). I still Riggs though.

Necrolord by miles. He held an art exhibition/sale at a festival I was at and it was like nothing else I've ever seen before. Amazing art.

As for others, I second Travis Smith and also nominate Felipe Machado Franco (please don't kill me).

Written by Wukk on 12.01.2014 at 03:18


As for others, I second Travis Smith.

Dang, I forgot about Travis Smith, I should have voted for him. I adore his artwork, especially the work he's done with Opeth and Katatonia.

I really don't understand the love for Wahlin's artwork. He's average at his best.

Derek Riggs, no doubt. Eddie is the most admired and known mascot a metal band has ever had and Riggs never seemed to run out of ideas as Eddie has had numerous incarnations, nearly all of which have been delightful in one way or another (at least when Riggs was at the helm).

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 12.01.2014 at 15:06

I really don't understand the love for Wahlin's artwork. He's average at his best.

This. He is good, I'll give him that, but sounds like he is a little overrated around here.

Derek Riggs all the way. Practically everything he did with Iron Maiden up until the 90's was gold. Got a little sloppy later on but even some of that work was on a higher level than most. The Powerslave, Live After Death, Somewhere in Time and the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son art are among my favourites by Riggs. Just can't fuck with that shit.

Ed Repka is someone everyone here should know especially those who like their Thrash and early Death Metal. His work with Death and Megadeth are iconic, and he has produced a mass of brilliant art with his distinct style for many bands over the years.

Another artist I really like is John Baizley (also guitarist and vocalist of the band Baroness). He is another with a very distinct style. Aswell as doing all the art for Baroness (check out the art for Blue Record) he has worked with many other bands including Black Tusk (Taste the Sin), Kvelertak (Meir), Kylesa (Static Tensions), Torche (In Return) and Skeletonwitch (Serpents Unleashed). Arguably one of the hottest and sought after artists today.

Gotta give credit to Paul Romano, who did Mastodon's art. Dude does some of the coolest shit, the full cover of Leviathan especially.

Written by Silent Jay on 14.01.2014 at 16:20

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 12.01.2014 at 15:06

I really don't understand the love for Wahlin's artwork. He's average at his best.

This. He is good, I'll give him that, but sounds like he is a little overrated around here.

Derek Riggs all the way. Practically everything he did with Iron Maiden up until the 90's was gold. Got a little sloppy later on but even some of that work was on a higher level than most. The Powerslave, Live After Death, Somewhere in Time and the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son art are among my favourites by Riggs. Just can't fuck with that shit.

Ed Repka is someone everyone here should know especially those who like their Thrash and early Death Metal. His work with Death and Megadeth are iconic, and he has produced a mass of brilliant art with his distinct style for many bands over the years.

Haha, "just can't fuck with that shit" indeed! Repka is awesome and underrated, yeah. We can't forget Pushead either! He wasn't so much known for album covers as he was for t-shirt designs and such but his style is often imitated nowadays although never to the same potency or effect. Bands were pretty hard-pressed to get t-shirts as cool as Metallica's from the mid-80s through the mid-90s - Pushead's stuff just killed 'em all really.

I'll have to say I don't really think either of them are great. So I will have to say other and direct you to another thread.

http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=29409