Title says it all. Which album covers make you cringe and gag at how visually displeasing they are?



Heartwork really does this for me. What the hell am I looking at? A peace sign with a nightlight on top? A spine with two hands? Deep. I think I read somewhere that it's a Giger piece, and if that's true it's a ringing endorsement that no one bats 100. When I see this, it makes me think that Carcass were trying to appear more mature/intelligent/artsy than they actually are, which was probably true at the time. Shitty, unbrutal art for a shitty, unbrutal album.

Sorry, but that is pretty brutal, supposedly some phallic symbol or something, and that skeleton thing with the hands. I've read about it and it is does have some kind of meaning.

O.k., I can't say I'm really that crazy about that artwork, but I do think it is a really good album, and I think it was a pretty heavy album musically too. And I don't know why people think it is simple and poppy, it was pretty technical with lots of changes.

That is H.R Giger!

Don't mess!

When did it become a point that because someone has done some great stuff nothing they do can be criticized. It's not amazing (nor absolutely crap) artwork by any means but certainly is the wrong artwork for that album. I would look at that and expect it to be a prog-metal band or something like that.

I agree with Hearwork's artwork sucking.
Now how about this one:



Say what you want about the album, I really liked it. However, this is some seriously shitty artwork. I don't get what the theme is...supposedly they had gothic influences or something? I guess it has a 'scientific' look because of the font and some lyrical themes that are all about a genetic revolution, but couldn't they find a less idiotic face to represent that on the cover?

In the case of Heartwork i wouldnt blame Giger, I think the sculpture was related to a series of pieces based around Swatch watches: http://www.hrgiger.com/watch/exbition.htm

The spine thing is arms covered in interlinked watches (with spikes because hey its Giger)

I believe the piece was simply apporpriated by the band.

I think it's really a great avant-garde black metal album, but the cover really makes me cringe. Not only the idea is ridiculous, but the execution looks plain retarded.

I also dislike pretty much all covers that are just plain white with black font on them.

One of lamest covers ever for one of the lamest albums ever.



I don't hate the band or something, but this cover is repulsive.



WTF is this crap? The rest of their discography has pretty terrible artwork too.



And of course...

No way, the cover for Leviathan is gorgeous!

I was talking about Cemetery Rapist.

I agree with Poisonfume... what the hell were they thinking when they decided to use that skin disease afflicted cunnilingus addict. (not to diss the art of cunnilingus but please don't use it as your album cover)

I hereby nominate this album cover:



He's just sitting there staring at you. Nothing more, nothing less.

Two great thrash albums with godawful artwork. At least the remastered cover art for Killing Is My Business... is decent.

I totally agree with that Carcass cover. It's hideous. I can't believe Giger made that piece of shit, as he's usually great at what he does.

I'll bet Carcass (or Earache) paid a boatload to get Giger to make them a custom cover. Can you imagine what they thought when they first saw it? They had to be severely disappointed, but couldn't say anything because it's H.R. Giger.

Just what the fuck ?



No words can describe how un-metal and gay this artwork is

That is the most awesome thing I have ever seen.

I'd like to collectively nominate almost every hastily made "The very best of..." artwork. Particularly those made by Roadrunner records.

Keydragon is easily some of the worst, but of course, it's not quite the same as Septic Flesh or Carcass putting out album covers like that.

The classic answer:
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/3/6/5/1365.jpg

What can possibly begin to excuse this?

Pantera - Metal Magic
Master - Faith is in Season

90's/early 00's CGI covers...

There are about three Helloween albums that don't fit in this thread.

What were they thinking here?

It’s not horrible, but looks like something from one of those pseudo-inspiration images people post in social networks.

Oh and then of course the original cover for Virgin Killer.

surprised no one has mentioned Razor

It's not THAT bad, yet in the context of the actual music on the album it makes no sense. Normally listening to an album generates a mental image of the cover for me despite how bad it may be, but this just album just doesn't.
I think a cover in the vein of "Far away from the sun" or "In the Nightside Eclipse" from Necrolord would do the album more justice.

Also, the covers of the Septic Flesh reissues are bad.

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/9/2/9/929.jpg


Grandma?

What? Into Glory Ride is amazing. And some of the albums posted aren't bad, what ruins them is the awful CGI.



See? This isn't bad. An iron-clad warrior dude standing in a portal with thunder and fire and metal shit. Yeah, unoriginal, but this could be a kickass cover, the CGI just sinks this into mediocrity.

Early Sonata what also a big on bad CGI, maybe it was a thing in power metal back then.




Tarot covers are strange.





Tsjuder Demonic Possession, now, I know Tsjuder thing is being orthodox, but I like the other covers, this one is just lazy, Desert Northern Hell was imposing with the torches and all, this is dull.



Also, most Judas Priest and Virgin Steele albums. Virgin Steele covers are always bad, but with Judas Priest is weird, because the first albums covers are actually very good (like Sad Wings and Sin After Sin), but then started sucking.

Since all of the bands I'm going to post about have a vast amount of album art tragedies I'll just post one for each:



Then of course the not-even-close-to-metal bands that have a Ph. D in this sort of thing:

Actually, the art for Angels Fall First is probably the best part of the album. Which is to say that it's the only good part of the album.

Now here's something that'll make your eyes roll:

How about Katatonia - Dance of December Souls



I love the album but come on... They like took some band photos and just photoshopped some clouds over, changed color and opacity and maybe added a lens flare? Which my eye just zooms in on most of the time, really distracting. Even the demos looked better.

I like the dream-like atmosphere the artwork gives off, but when you really sit down and look at it, it starts to look kind of cheesy. This was a rather mediocre album anyway, so I guess it's not out of place.



I love this album, but I'm not sure about the album cover. I get what it's supposed to be, a "reflection", but all-in-all it's not one of Morbid Angel's best covers (even if it's not terrible or really offensive).


This is another awesome (and extremely underrated) album bogged down by a shitty cover. What the fuck is that supposed to be? Most of Napalm's covers are pretty nonsensical, but rarely do they turn out looking so stupid and meaningless.


This is a terrible album, and the album cover is extremely fitting. That's all that has to be said...

These are actually two album covers that I love, for different reasons. The concept behind the cover of Technical Ecstasy is kind of stupid, but I have always loved the art deco style. Very different. & the Stratovarius album is obviously over the top & ridiculous and I think that's what they're going for. You just have to enjoy the limitless and silly futurism and fantasy of it.

Always hated this one.



And that reminded me of this.

haha the Gamma Ray logo is the worst thing going on there.

I actually really like that cover, fits the album really well imo.

It's pretty lame when bands just use the same logo over and over again as the centerpiece.



Recurring themes can be great, like Eddie. They can also be terrible, especially when they're not sure what to do with them, like Children of Bodom's "Blooddrunk" - they have the reaper thing going, but this one's a mess on every level. So it's a reaper in the background holding out a scythe and smashing some sort of bottle, with blood spray dominating the cover? That's just awful, and it's not like they could get something better, they just had a terrible concept and poor execution.



Absurd's demos had hilariously terrible artwork. I'm curious as to how they managed to have three or four people in the band without one of them being better at drawing than this, or why they even bothered with artwork rather than text on demos.

One of the most infamously bad album arts of all time.

Dance of death artwork seems like a mod from The sims 1

When it's blown up that large, that artwork becomes more and more terrifying the longer you stare at it. Necks and shoulders don't work that way!

My favorite thing about it is the baby levitating with its feet inside of the dog.