I had a good run. It was nice to talk about movies and music with “the public”. I’m going to try to sell the domain and archive the blog at thesweetsnob.tinyplace.org.
Tinyplace is my long time personal-projects site and graveyard of many former projects and personas.
If you’d like to keep in touch you can get my email address over there. Live well and enjoy the finer things in life.
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
my darling people, the sweet snob has come to an end
it's categorized as:
Uncategorized
link to it, please: Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025
Ulcerate (I like metal bands that are just medical conditions), REZN, Crypt Sermon (honestly a better place to do one than the Farmer’s Market, guys), Malignancy (even worse than ulceration), SQUID PISSER (there’s nothing funny to say about this), Celestial Sanctuary (sounds surprisingly peaceful), Crowheart, Lucifer’s Hammer (it’s not your grandma’s hellish weapon!), Moru, DAGOBA (not finished, your training is), Golgotha, Fellwarden (but he gets back up again), Darkend, Darkened (if you go to a double bill of these two bands, you can’t tell which one was announced), D’muata, New Horizon, Paradise in Flames, APES, Downfall of Mankind (seems like we’ve been falling down a long time), Astral Lore, LARCɆNIA ROɆ (they could have just removed the E’s, they didn’t have to cross them out), Katakomb, Stonekind, Merged in Abyss (this is a pretty romantic abyss), Shamash (what she-hulk does?), Aelvetica (what the spidery metal font is called), Erzsébet, and Angel Sword!
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
metal bands that came out with albums this weekend (some with bonus crossword puzzle clues)
it's categorized as:
Uncategorized
link to it, please: Saturday, June 15th, 2024
My teenage friends and I liked Skid Row just fine, but considered them a bit of a corny also-ran compared to the unhinged titans of rock we considered Guns N’ Roses at the time. They had a hit with cautionary “18 and Life” about a young guy who drunkenly shoots his friend and gets life in prison, and a couple of other minor songs. They weren’t a laughingstock like Winger or Warrant… my teenage friends and I basically respected them.
We were a little surprised when they took the stage at Alpine Valley and played incredibly energetic versions of all the songs we knew. Sebastian Bach (born Sebastian Philip Bierk), the lead singer of Skid Row, was in top form and crushed the set. We couldn’t help but be impressed. It was the first time I’d ever seen an opening band really impress. By the end of their set, the crowd was hungry for more, but they were clearly not allowed to overshadow the main event and apologized saying they really couldn’t do an encore and their time was up. The crowd was disappointed but… hey, Guns N’ Roses.
It was actually a cold late May night. Alpine Valley is an outdoor venue in southern Wisconsin, and general admission seats past the assigned seats in front have no shelter. You’re just sitting on the grass in the elements. As we began the long wait for GNR, it began to drizzle a little. Axl Rose and company allowed us to wait in the wet cold for a little over THREE HOURS. We really wished we could have had a longer Skid Row set.
By the time Guns N’ Roses finally came on, after 11pm, we had a long drive home, and we were underwhelmed by the first few songs and joined the slow exodus of soggy people filing home early in the show. As we left we heard Axl Rose screaming at us, “Where you going, you wusses*?” (* He didn’t say wusses.)
The rumor is that Bach got fired from the band for being unwilling to open for KISS. Side note: Bach was originally discovered singing at a New Jersey wedding by Jon Bon Jovi’s parents, who told him he should audition for Skid Row. Skid Row didn’t last long after the night of the show we saw, but Sebastian Bach somehow kept going.
He joined a rock supergroup with members of The Breeders, Frogs, and Smashing Pumpkins (hilariously called The Last Hard Men) but Atlantic decided not to release their debut album. He auditioned for the fairly successful supergroup Velvet Revolver, but was rejected because Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash said, “I love Sebastian, but it, if you can imagine, it sounded sort of like Skid N’ Roses.” (The lead singer of Slipknot was also considered, but ultimately they went with the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots.)
Sebastian turned to acting as well. He played Riff Raff in a production of The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar. He had a fairly long run on the sitcom Gilmore Girls as the lead guitarist of a band called Hep Alien (the most Girlmore Girls-ey band name I can possibly think of). He appeared on the show Trailer Park Boys.
He also appeared in countless reality shows including the VH1 reality show Supergroup (where he formed a super group with Ted Nugent, Scott Ian, Jason Bonham, and Evan Seinfeld and was named Damnocracy… you can not make this stuff up), Celebrity Rap Superstar, Gone Country, and a show called I Married…Sebastian Bach.
Incidentally, Sebastian Bach never stopped recording and releasing solo albums. Most are forgettable but decent, but 2007’s Angel Down recieved a lot of critical acclaim and I must admit I found some retro pleasure in how hard it rocked.
Why am I telling this story? Well, today vocalist and guitar player Sebastian Bach, formerly of Skid Row, releases his solo album entitled Child Within the Man. Long may you rock, Sebastian Bach!
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
I saw Skid Row open for Guns N’ Roses on May 25th, 1991
it's categorized as:
Albums, Concerts, Reviews, Uncategorized
link to it, please: Friday, May 10th, 2024
I wasn’t expecting a 33 minute, single track Paul Simon album contemplating death, but Seven Psalms is definitely worth a listen.
It almost feels like a Sufjan Stevens album: spare, pretty, plaintive, faithful.
I was curious if his wife, Edie Brickell’s voice would appear at all, and, sure enough, in the final half, it does. I’m actually a fan of hers, and she’s continued to make music in the last decade, although none of it has really captured me. It’s nice to see her singing the writing of an ultimately stronger songwriter.
I’ve always had an appreciation for Paul Simon, who has had several eras of relevance: several Simon and Garfunkel albums with several monolithic hits, his fun solo hits from the 60’s and 70’s, the way Graceland was so widely loved and then kind of disdained in later eras for his use of African music, I still remember thinking “You Can Call Me Al” was hilarious when it came out.
People are of course comparing this to recent “final albums” like Bowie’s Blackstar and Cohen’s You Want it Darker. If he actually kicks the bucket in the next few months, the comparisons will be inevitable. In any case, it’s a mellow, humble thing, not a giant, crushing, ambitious work like Blackstar.
It’s definitely unlike any other Paul Simon album though. he says that its 33 minutes are designed to be listened to in one go (which I am currently doing) hence why he smashes every track together into one, and ends it with a gentle harmony with his wife of decades, “Amen”.
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
Paul Simon’s perhaps final Seven Psalms?
it's categorized as:
Albums, Reviews
link to it, please: Saturday, May 20th, 2023
I’m finally getting a chance to listen to the new Leslie Feist record, Multitudes.
I’ve long loved Feist, and her first two albums Let It Die and The Reminder are all-time classics in my house. Her songs were always simple, funny, romantic, relatable, and tragic to me.
Her early song “Brandy Alexander”, comparing her FWB to a rich, sweet cocktail made me want to try that cocktail for years, and by the time I had an opportunity I didn’t want to flood my system with all the lactose.
I must admit with each passing Feist album since The Reminder, I have listened less and less thoroughly as they’ve seemed more meditative and their themes less easy to understand.
Feist’s incredible keening voice is like no other, but it was always her funny, relatable songwriting that brought me back. The Fleet Foxes songwriting over the years always kept me coming back, but I always felt like Feist was slipping away from my understanding. The words of her songs never added up to something I’d return to.
Listening to Multitudes I am definitely enjoying it. Its songs are standing out more to me than the songs of Metals and Pleasure, but I’m not quite hearing anything I’d put on the “driving playlist” yet.
It’s definitely worth watching the two great music videos she’s put out in support of the album, especially “Hiding Out in the Open”, where she does some extremely clever green-screen trickery that gets more funny and inventive as the song goes on.
It’s not QUITE as awesome, but the video for “Borrow Trouble” is pretty great as well and has some similar psychedelic trickery and seems recorded in the same studio. The dancing and movements remind a person that she’s steeped in physical performance and once went by “Baby Lap Lap” when she toured with shock electroclash rapper Peaches and performed onstage with hand puppets.
Her “Multitudes Mini-Concert” doesn’t have quite as considered production, but still has a few clever visual ideas and is clearly performed in the same place:
Enjoy!
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
Leslie Feist is Multitudes
it's categorized as:
Albums, Reviews
link to it, please: Thursday, April 27th, 2023
Revisited Björk’s Volta for the first time since it came out today. I definitely appreciate it more today than when it came out.
By the time it came out I’d been hanging on Björk’s every word for years. I knew every word of every one of her albums. Even though Medulla was a little bit of a rough listen, I really appreciated what she was doing to innovate here.
When Volta came out it seemed like she was a little out of ideas, and just being weird for weirdness’ sake. It was less grounded in traditional music than most of her albums and just felt like a pastiche of some of the weirder and harsher moments in Post and Homogenic. Also, songwriting-wise it just didn’t seem like the ideas were there.
Listening to it now, I can hear the ways it was ahead of its time, and was influential. Now I’ve also listened to MUCH MUCH weirder music than I had in 2007 and it doesn’t sound quite as out there anymore.
I still don’t love it, but I was able to enjoy it this time, instead of completely dismissing it.
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
A Return to Björk’s “Weird” Volta
it's categorized as:
Albums, Reviews
link to it, please: Thursday, April 27th, 2023
From the sweet snob midnight hour it’s Al Green, with his secret weapon minor hit, Back Up Train. “ease the pain. take me to my baby.”
Sound and color. Blow your mind.
The most dangerous song in freak folk.
“I’m through having your harsh march stare down my size.”
This song makes losers feel like winners.
“I’ve been in showbiz long enough, you need to wait your turn.”
This is a dope rap in its own way.
This dude never made another song this cool but damn.
I actually think it’s pretty cute that the ONLY EVER legally approved Grateful Dead sample is in THIS SONG, and it doesn’t show up until 3:09 in the song and makes the song sound like it’s saying words the original song LITERALLY DO NOT SAY.
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
the sweet snob is the midnight dj
it's categorized as:
_ My Personal Classics
link to it, please: Wednesday, March 16th, 2022
You may not even recognize the artists I picked for my top 25 album covers, since smaller artists sometimes put the most effort into making attention-getting album covers.
Sadly, musicians rarely credit the artist of their covers, but when I’m able to, I call out the artist name. In some rare cases it’s actually the artist themselves who made the cover, like in the case of #10’s Darth Sueder VI by AJ Sueder.
I had to rank the covers in some order but I think every single one of these covers is great. So with that, enjoy my favorite 25 albums. Enjoy, I say!
On the cover for "Wild Type Droid" by Failure, a line of refugees file into a single space-suit, perhaps to animate it, "3 kids in a trench coat" style? Is this actually a composed photo? If so, I'm impressed. pic.twitter.com/6rgeiRzXlj
Retro album covers are surprisingly common. This nutty 1950's style album cover with a photo collaged in for an idyllic impressionist chess game with a chicken is basically genius though. For "Now Where Were We" by The Exbats.https://t.co/J7rav3w3sQpic.twitter.com/oynX5wtGQR
I love this crisp illustration for Castello Branco's new album "Niska: Uma Mensagem para Tempos de Emergência". Dude's rocking some next-level field fashion with his next-level origami kite-drone. pic.twitter.com/aRuIO6uCDO
Forget Crystal Skull vodka, I think Ty Farris needs to exploit this merchandising opportunity, and start selling human skulls made out of cocaine. I frankly would buy one right now. This awesome album cover is for "No Cosign Just Cocaine 2". pic.twitter.com/wJne1wfpyX
This is an iconic album cover released today by Italian stoner metal band Acid Mammoth for their new album "Caravan". Awesome use of color and contrast, a nutzoid illustration, and a super what-the-hell band logo. Nice job @HEAVYPSYCHSOUND.#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/TqI0S8SqAi
Jam band dudes mill about as if they are at a mellow concert, but instead are in the thrall of a giant evil rabbit with a dimensional gate in its coat? Damn that illustration is TIGHT, for "Swagger And Stroll Down The Rabbit Hole" by Diablo Swing Orchestra. pic.twitter.com/GogVIi6NUh
This album by Architects called "For Those Who Wish To Exist" has a touching and well-executed photo. They get across a complicated feeling without being too maudlin about it. Not bad!#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/pKsR5IsUww
One of the most unambiguously awesome album covers released today is Urban Village's "Udondolo". Also, a very beautiful tribute to African Soweto music. A bold, beautiful, mysterious, modern cover with a dope type treatment. #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/0vSQxAEnBW
One of the freakiest and most effective album covers released today is Ritual Divination's "Here Lies Man". Awesome idea and execution even if the fonts don't quite work together. Making album and band titles work well together is clearly a design challenge. #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/4cd3EFHSyr
Another cool album cover that also turned out to be a pretty good album: Bodies of Water's "Is This What It's Like", with well composed, intimate hand photo printed all lo-fi. Music is funky and Talking Headsish. #todaysalbumcovershttps://t.co/cbACIA2zg8pic.twitter.com/DOv1m5ozyx
I can't tell what is original photograph, what is collage, what is digital manipulation in this album cover, released today, for Press to MECO's "Transmute", but damn is it cool. pic.twitter.com/KG87invsLe
POLYDANS new album released today, "Roosevelt" really gets the throwback 70's feel right, right down to the airbrushed sparkles. This is some great design right here, that gives you a damn good idea what to expect from the music.https://t.co/xyDPC8LLgO#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/8HRaEYLCmB
One of my favorite album covers released today. Ghetts' "Conflict of Interest" does a lot with a little, showing what is probably the rapper himself at different ages. I already have a good sense of the mix of humor and pain that the raps probably contain. #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/P4ohREkiTf
Today's first truly awesome album cover is Fotocrime's (@fotocrime) "Heart of Crime" with an incredible mix of modern color and layout, with a creepy half-tone texture on the album cover. That weird side-eye portrait ads to the feeling of 50's movie paranoia. pic.twitter.com/9reKYSMhY6
Did human beings submerge an actual functioning Limo to get this picture? Was a picture altered? I can’t know, but it gets the feeling of the album across. “Icy Violence” is the (very Gorillaz inspired) song that really goes along with this cover.
Took me some work to get a decent graphic of this cover, but it's one of the coolest ones today. I wonder how they got this image. I like album covers that have me making up a story almost against my will.
AJ Suede does his own covers and he does an incredible job. The cover of Darth Sueder VI just gets everything right. The parental advisory sticker in Japanese Kanji is a particularly slick touch.
AJ Suede (@AJSUEDE) knows what he's doing with album covers, it looks like he makes them HIMSELF.
Is the magical giant bear on the cover of Villagers' "Fever Dreams", released today, menacing this guy in the pool in his cow, protecting them, or just taking a nap in the shrubbery? I can't tell but it seems like it could be all three. pic.twitter.com/3jD0nVvB4c
This is easily the best Christian rap album cover I have ever seen. I challenge you to find me a better one. Was it enough to get me to give this album a serious listen? Not yet. But this album cover is working on me.
Definitely one of the best album covers today is K-Drama's "Both Sides of the Blessing". Putting your face on a playing card isn't new, but this is the best execution of the idea I've seen.
When K-Pop album covers don't try to put every band member on the cover, they are consistently great, like this retro 1940's-esque ray-gun design. Can't tell if KEY's "BAD LOVE", released today is CGI or a hand-built model! pic.twitter.com/9jdjvVPsSQ
This is like the uncanny valley of food. Sure, someone really made it, but my brain still isn’t convinced. Luminously lit, but I’m sure that cherry still has a pit.
Logic1000 envisions an incredibly complicated dessert for her "In The Sweetness of You" album cover. Exquisitely composed and photographed, I would admittedly probably try a slice. pic.twitter.com/O75hTSUMaZ
Odette is gorgeous, her music is gorgeous, and this cover is a gorgeous and grotesque painting of her.
This gross-but-awesome painting is one of the greatest album covers released today for pop musician Odette's (@OdettesOdyssey) "Herald". The mix of realistic and surrealist painting of her face by artist Eben Ejdne marries the gorgeous and grotesque. #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/JZWpNaNmtz
One of the best albums I listened to because of the cover. Fun, funky, Funkadelic-inspired, the music and the cover. The cover does a great job of letting you know the funky Mexican experience you’re about to have. Electric war babies definitely might get spanked. The slop might get cosmic. This cover has the most mystical, Mexican porn pop-up window.
Probably 15% of all album covers are the artist's face. I get why but I generally don't even bother to post them unless they're doing something fresh that reveals something about what the artist wants to say about themselves, like Baker Boy's "Gela". pic.twitter.com/hbG4r0m6gz
I just can’t believe someone did such a good job of making a human heart out of vegetables. That person is a true artist.
Speaking of, I try to find the artists who made these covers, I really do. It’s amazing, however, how uncommon it is to see album covers artists credited.
Make your album cover an anatomically accurate human heart cutaway constructed out of peppers and summer squash, and you've won me over. That's what the band CARCASS (@CarcassBand) did with their "Torn Arteries" cover. pic.twitter.com/2RC1L5MT5L
This cover is good worldbuilding. I immediately can imagine an entire work of fiction where this Architect character exists, where this mask makes sense. Either someone actually fabricated this incredible mask, or very skillfully used CGI to overlay it on an actual photo. Either way, the effect is incredible.
I love this incredible cover for Eidola's album, release today, for "The Architect". Could be CGI but I suspect this is just some incredible prop-making, and suggests the titular architect wears such mad raiments. Are they a villain or hero? pic.twitter.com/dbuaUIdfr1
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
The 25 Sweetest, Snobbiest Album Covers of 2021
it's categorized as:
Album Covers, Reviews
link to it, please: Sunday, January 9th, 2022
These are the odds-and-ends that deserved their own categories.
BEST / Fashion
Lovely photo, but the outfit and hairstyle are what elevate this. This guy’s slightly oversized, rumpled dinner jacket over matching pants with bright red shirt and tangled gold accents are sublime. If I saw this dude in person, I’d walk right up to him and tell him how fresh his style is. I feel like you could pull this off in several decades of the past 100 years.
BEST / Attempt to Get All of the Members of a K-Pop Group on Cover
There were almost as many K-Pop albums released this year as heavy metal, which is a lot. K-Pop albums tend to go one of two different directions:
Incredible graphic design
Fit all the inevitably large number of band members on the cover
A surprising number of K-Pop bands choose #2 and their attempts can often be hilarious. What Red Velvet did here on their album “Queendom” is pretty darn next level, involving baloons, birds, wind, and earth moving equipment. It’s safe to say they “really nailed the shot”.
Remember how I said K-Pop covers are better when they don't try to fit every band member in the photo? Red Velvet's "Queendom" is the exception that proves the rule. Great use of balloons and heavy machinery. pic.twitter.com/d96GwZQESd
In the runner-up, they managed to get everyone’s heads even, and some pretty incredibly typography to boot. Once you see that R kicked in the stomach and doubled over you can’t unsee it, though.
K-Pop bands are often determined to get every member on the cover, by any means necessary. The cover for "Favorite" by NCT 127, manages this feat, with some style, and a cute visual trick. That "R" looks like it got punched in the stomach, though. pic.twitter.com/0Bq5QXzpED
WORST / Attempt to Get All of the Members of a K-Pop Group on the Cover
Boymen are pretty much the worst offender in this category. There’s a lot of gradations of bad before you get here, however. In full size for your eyeball bleeding pleasure:
This K-Pop album by Boys and Men called "Boymen: The universe" breaks new ground by having a horrible album title, and not one, not two, but THREE terrible album covers for one album!
This album cover of a confused knife wielding clown demanding to know what, exactly, is so fucking funny, had me in stitches all day the day I posted it, and I still haven’t found a funnier album cover this year.
I'm pretty sure this angry clown is my spirit animal. Webbed Wing invites us to consider "What's So Fucking Funny?" on their new album, released today. Love the credits for both makeup AND model for the cover on bandcamp.https://t.co/mpAvPweEJtpic.twitter.com/KBOIchwB81
First runner up for funniest, these two guys holding an info card over themselves with important info like name and “type of voice” (super high tone!) plus drawn on bowties and hairstyles definitely tickled me.
I love this hilarious "info card" for the members of C&K for their album "CK Token". I love that they provide stats like date of birth, "type of voice", and blood type alongside sharpied-in bowties and alternate hairstyles. pic.twitter.com/DC7Ov7lJNy
Funniest runner up to the runner up. This guys cover for drugs depicts him both “together” and fully drugged out. I love that in the “fully together” version his tie is still loosened and he’s still smoking a cigarette. In the drug photo he looks properly deranged. Hope you’re having fun, Tyler Posey, recovery is not far behind.
I like the humor behind Tyler Posey's cover for his "Drugs" EP (natch) released today. I love how the non-drugged-out version of himself is still smoking a cigarette. pic.twitter.com/O2hM5AWEbt
Ringo. You are a goddamn former member of The Beatles and can presumably afford some real heavy-duty PR muscle, but the reality is, your version of cool ended in 1990, which is why when you saw this bargain-bin album cover, you said “YES! CHANGE THE WORLD! THIS IS MY ALBUM COVER!”
The truly hilarious thing here is, that there’s a runner-up in this category…
Imagine if you're one of the Beatles and could afford and attract any design talent you want, and this is the album design you go with. I guess the look of the early 1990's is "modern" for Ringo Star, for his new solo album "Change The World". pic.twitter.com/yufjCRbqki
…yes, another scrubby photo of Ringo Starr, another laughably outdated sentiment and album cover that would have looked dated in 1990. And those… extra jacket zippers? My god.
BONUS SATURDAY ALBUM COVER REVIEWS!
I appreciate that Ringo Starr is still releasing albums, but I didn't want to "Zoom In" on his weird unkempt chin scrub. And that's your sophisticated 1968 message to the world right now? Peace now?#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/xaaE7rkupg
I saw a lot of comic book cover-type art this year, but nothing nearly as striking as this comic look inside a lonely memory. Incredibly impactful graphic image. Crisp, clean, balanced, perfect depiction.
This incredible, evocative comic-book-style illustration for LogPog's (@logpogtherapper) "Falling Out Of Place" is an incredible depiction of a dimly remembered memory. pic.twitter.com/s5IYQGET5K
There's a Reddit called "ATBGE" or "Atrocious Taste but Great Execution", and I feel like Martia Becerra cover for "Animal" would fit right in there. pic.twitter.com/kOZFHLYudf
There's a subreddit called ATBGE (atrocious taste but great execution) and melodic metal album covers like todays "Psychosomatic" by Immortal Guardian often qualify! #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/99gUjavHn6
I can’t believe I have to report this had to be a category of its own, and that I actually REJECTED several other gross mouth photos. Stop trying to pass off gross photos of your mouth as an album cover, people.
The busted lip and broken tooth somehow make this, every so slightly grosser than…
This album cover wins the "I'm sorry you had to see that" award for grossest photo on a cover released today. It's EUT's "Party Time" so you know what to avoid. #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/Jx0D30P2Gy
I thought I'd made this clear in the past, but Hana Vu and other artists still don't want to hear me. Gross photos of the inside of your mouth don't make good album covers. Cover, released today, for "Public Storage". I'm sorry you had to see that. pic.twitter.com/G9Ey4kXwJt
Hello Cosmos released their debut album "Dream Harder" and are showing us that you don't need an illustration of a wolf with a hyperclub to get the point across for your album cover. This design couldn't be simpler or more effective.#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/Ur8dilAgIE
Everything about the Yung Head$hit title and cover make me feel dumber. Creativiting Us: From Darkness To All… the holy what? I assure you this dude’s raps are just as poorly written and executed. It’s legitimately embarrassing. But to top it off, the weird mix of alignment, type-sizes, and just horrible balance are really a headscratcher.
To preface, I listened to Yung Head$hit's new album, "Creativiting Us From Darkness To All" and it's legit some of the worst music ever, in addition to the bad album name, title, cover, and text layout. This is a meme waiting to happen. #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/bqH5MeLVDM
Checking all the mixtape boxes is important in a Hip Hop mixtape cover, but this one checked all the boxes and then some. Sure other mixtape covers have a cup of lean, but does even their pitbull have a Rollie and a scale? Probably not. Lil’ Migo has corrected that.
I wanted to hate this album cover for Lil' Migo's "King of the Trap" for having every trap trope known to man but then…
🗹 lean 🗹 chains 🗹 crowns 🗹 cash 🗹 cash-crowns 🗹 rolex 🗹 trimming a bust made out of weed 🗹 pit bull weighing weed
BEST / Album Cover I’d Definitely Play if it was a Mobile Game
Well, you know exactly what kind of glossy math rock this is going to be as an album, but I couldn’t help wishing this was a mobile game! I want to play the old dude with the flamethrower and sword mowing down approaching biplanes with fire! Missed opportunity!
I can't honestly say Dragony's album cover released today for "Viribus Unitis" is good or bad exactly, but I AM saying it's so batshit insane that I would DEFINITELY play it if it were an iPhone game. #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/AVlOUHEUzv
Some time last year, the experimental and electronic music label Cue Dot Records came up with a simple idea for their album covers: a 5X5 grid of colored circles creating an incredibly low resolution icon. Then, for well over a year, they’ve used this framework to express the concept of the individual artist and album releases they put out.
I couldn’t really pick the best, so I’m just posting most of their release covers for 2021. To see all the rest, just go to the Cue Dot Records bandcamp page.
I particularly love Manfred Hamil’s “Everything Fades” for the clearest illustration of an idea in so very few bits.
STAY TUNED for the best album covers of 2021
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
2021 Album Cover BEST and WORST Honorable Mentions
it's categorized as:
Album Covers, Reviews
link to it, please: Saturday, January 1st, 2022
If I had to guess, I’d say more heavy metal albums are released than any other single genre. Of course, I’m lumping together Drone Metal, Grindcore, Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal, Black Metal, Industrial Black Metal, Space Metal, Melodic Metal, Thrash Metal, Symphonic Black Metal, Funk Metal, Rap Metal, and a bunch of other metals I can’t even think of right now. If you think I made any of those up, you definitely don’t metal. But now you can get a taste, without even listening to any metal.
That is because heavy metal album covers have their own world. Their own aesthetic. Their own complicated iconography. Get a taste of it here, starting with…
The Worst:
Some metal album covers look like a skilled 7th grader did them, or they’re just so corny you can’t believe an adult thought they were cool.
Attika's "Metal Lands" was released today, only one month after they asked the best artist they knew from middle school to paint this. Still somehow pretty dope. If I have to navigate the Metal Lands, I do want a pec-enhanced winged knight with me.#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/IcCIAVgar1
This album cover, for Ordan Ogan's "Final Days" is a mess. Unreadable fonts, and I know for a fact this is going to be deeply overproduced pop metal. Your nattily dressed evil space guy looks boring af.#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/EPZ7xwPYzu
This is the core of the heavy metal aesthetic. Body horror. Apocalypse. Apocalyptic body horror. Gates opening to hell. Horrific monsters. Dystopian future war. Things growing into or out of people’s faces.
I feel like metal bands are always competing for grossest, most overstuffed cover art, and worst band name. Deviloof is definitely competitive on both fronts with the recently released cover for "DYSTOPIA". pic.twitter.com/e7tMu4AkxK
I feel like it's just not Friday if I don't post a new gross body-horror metal album cover that burns a hole in your eyes. Sorry (maybe only slightly sorry). It's Rapture's "Malevolent Demise Incarnation".#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/bxsJrsNSy0
Wow. Metal albums really like to take it to the next level of body-horror gnarliness, and this Culted album "Nous" released today does. This is an impressive image and the tasteful font treatment makes it more unsettling. Swedes!https://t.co/X7e1owAImo#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/mf9iklco2E
Ignoring the fact that Vulvodynia is possibly the most deeply wack band name since Wombbath, this cover for "Praenuntius Infiniti", released today, is a shining example in the genre of "super gnarly and detailed metal album cover".https://t.co/83b3hkT8wPpic.twitter.com/8z9jpcFLZf
Starting off the morning with a trio of gnarly painted heavy metal album covers released today. Inferi's "Vile Genesis" takes things in a nightmare Dune direction with some giant bugs dropping off a gross zombie army.https://t.co/scXzrpChgLpic.twitter.com/t2i51MAXoN
There are gross heavy metal covers released every single Friday, and this Friday is no exception. Aborted's "Maniacult" has heads growing out of the ground that spawn tentacle faces to back this dude. Gnarly. pic.twitter.com/GnDfUtHbEF
There are gnarly metal album covers every single Friday. But NOT every Friday has a new album by the king of gnarly metal album covers, Iron Maiden. I can't decide if the "Sunjutsu" cover counts as cultural appropriation it sure is gnarly. pic.twitter.com/6VFDVhWQQh
When I see a gnarly, elaborate, badly painted tableau with too many elements, I literally KNOW it's a black metal album. The cover for portrayal of guilt's "portrayal of guilt / Chat Pile Split" is just batshit insane enough to win me over, however. pic.twitter.com/8UOcUxTyqb
Pillory is going for kind of a Sharknado-like portmanteau of disasters here but overdoes it a HAIR in their album cover for "Scourge upon Humanity". I knew this was going to be blistering math-metal at a glance. Also, big no on the '90's type treatment. #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/7DV2DnCSQS
These are the best conventional heavy metal album covers. They’re overdone and gnarly, but in a really cool, balanced way!
Just because you make symphonic metal doesn't mean your album cover has to suck! Pick an actually cool, unique art style and don't overdo it on the font, and you could have something like Reborn's "Serenity in Murder"! #todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/Z0hmicCpRJ
It simply wouldn't be Friday without some gnarly hyper-detailed heavy metal paintings with lots of planets. "Impermanence" by STORTREGN is handling the duties today. This is actually a wonderfully balanced cover and painting, implying some giant ancient spine.#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/LdWAcMzPdp
I like this cover quite a lot more than your standard gnarly French death metal cover. The balance between day-glo glyph and distressed textures actually does something fresh with the format. It's "Fleshborer Soulflayer" by OTARGOS.https://t.co/WcR0thlNBZpic.twitter.com/WKdBCQaPmG
Metal bands LOVE super detailed supernaturally apocalyptic album covers. Generally they're pretty amateurish, but this incredible painting for Evergrey's "Escape of the Phoenix" pulls me into their cinematic universe. The font curlicues imply beguiling flute!#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/oVXe7ekka6
I like to see black metal album covers step out of the "gnarly overstuffed painting" mold, and this self titled album by Sol Sistere definitely does that. This crisp, iconic illustration lets you know the metal will be black indeed. pic.twitter.com/tJtniM8pQB
I love detailed, original illustrations for album covers, and also love it when melodic metal bands do something a little more original than the realistic-ish paintings of horrific fantasy scenes like Scar of the Sun's "Inertia", released today. @ScarOfTheSun#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/Gz6DGg5ugr
It's nice to see Heavy Metal albums diversify a bit from gnarly body horror and diseased tree root fonts. This slick sci-fi painting feels ripped right out of a 1950's pulp novel, and the typeface works harmoniously with the theme. It's Chevelle's "NIRATIAS".#todaysalbumcoverspic.twitter.com/cULkhm8lJI
I love when metal album covers expand out past gnarly paintings. This fatally wounded paper crane on the cover of In The Whale's "Vanishing Point" absolutely gets the job done. Great concept, great execution. pic.twitter.com/ApY2cUWOYi
this blog post is now over, thank you for reading.
as a reminder, it was called:
Album Covers of 2021: HEAVY. METAL. EDITION.
it's categorized as:
Album Covers, Reviews
link to it, please: Thursday, December 30th, 2021