Daily Thoughts

[Charger]

Oh poor Gabe...

Hopefully he just went on an adventure!

[Vyn]

Gabe is officially MIA. I suspect as Typhon stated that he's been called home to insect heaven. Or maybe Charger is right and he took off on an adventure...an adventure to INSECT HELL!

Rock on Gabe, you were the best bug I've ever known. 

[Jack the Stripper]

R.I.P. Gabe   

[Zzzptm]

Remember the good times, Vyn.

[Jack the Stripper]

Thought and question of the day...

Has a band in the rock/metal genre had a more consistent run of bad album covers than Deep Purple?

[Charger]

Purple's cover arts haven't been all that great that's for sure. But they have also been rather super simplistic. Which is not always a bad thing. Purpendicular is brilliant for example.

Another band that has had a rather poor list of album cover arts is Metallica. Not a good cover since 1986...that's a pretty consistant run too...in fact I'd say that's more consistant than Purple.

Pantera never really had a good cover art either.

Iron Maiden hasn't had a good cover since Brave New World..

Priest had a last really killer artwork in Jugulator.


So there are quite a few bands (that even I know) that have had bad runs in the artwork department. But ofcourse these are subjective.

[Jack the Stripper]

Metallica’s covers aren’t as iconic as their earlier ones but I think they deliberately swayed away from the typical heavy metal covers, I think some of their later ones have some artistic merit though where’s Purples have none, Purpendicular, Now What?! Bananas and Rapture of the Deep are just godawful, even their font has been shithouse. Some of their earlier albums are pretty average too.

I generally love the covers Mark Wilkinson has done for Priest but Jugulator would be my least favourite, I have the vinyl and the image isn’t vivid at all, looks like a cheap photo copy.

I think Maidens Book of Souls was a great cover, more like their first two which are classic!

AC/DC and Van Halen have had a lot of ordinary covers over the years.

[Charger]

Artistic merit on Metallica's covers? No...not one damn bit.

The Jugulator cover was intented to be not so vivid as it was designed as a video game monster style...thus having a "low" resolution. Which I dig. Plus the monster itself is awesome looking.

Book Of Souls IS The best maiden cover since Brave New World but it's still a far cry from anything up to Virtual XI.


As for Purple...

In Rock, Battle Rages On, Purpendicular, InFinite and Whoosh are all brilliant covers.

The rest vary from good to bad to horrible.
Bananas probably being the worst of them all.

But Purple has always been bit indifferent with their art works. Simplistic is their way to go.

[Jack the Stripper]

Just never been a fan of the Jugulator cover, looks silly to me. Ram it Down, Painkiller, Angel of Retribution, Nostradamus and even Redeemer of Souls are all killer to great Wilkinson covers.

[Zzzptm]

How dare you!

Deep Purple has some of the most iconic album covers in all of rock! In Rock! Machine Head!... uh... ummm... OK, so they didn't go all out on the album covers...

Shades: Band photos with purple overlay
BoT: fun drawing, lots of cartoons in there
DP: band photo pasted on top of famous painting

DPIR: Mount Rushmore cover. Legend.
FB: Uh, band drawing with lots of hair
MH: Cool distorted photo, I like it.
WDWTWA: Band photos in bubbles

Burn: Hey! Look! I got candles!
Stormbringer: The pegasusnado really didn't make sense...

CTTB: Band photo in a wine glass

PS: A D and a P: The band hired a logo designer! Photos on back.
HOBL: Um... a door...

M&S: Cheezey evil hands, I think this guy's cousin is to blame for the Dehumanizer cover

TBRO: Like the drawing, meh on the album

P: minimalistic, broken matchstick, very late 80s
A: Someone bought photoshop. About time.
B: Ummm... some bananas...
ROTD: not a very compelling drawing.
NW: Punctuation
I: They really put some effort into this one, getting the ice breaker to do that move. Well done.
W: Dude, I'm sold on the astronaut dissolving. This is Pink Floyd quality album cover material.

OK, so from Machine Head in 1972 to Infinite some 40+ years later, DP has had fair-to-middling album covers. Definitely the punctuation one was a low point.

So now to compare some apples to apples... Black Sabbath album covers.

BS: that's one helluva spooky cover, basic but effective.
P: Dude with a sword. I lol'd.
MoR: HUGE LETTERS
V4: I like the yellow Ozzy
SBS: Constantly turning over the front of the album because it was just too garish
S: Some cool photo effects. But, uh, Bill... about those red tights...
TE: WTF? Just because we can't explain it, doesn't make it a great cover...
NSD: Dude. Totally sold on the hazmat airmen.

H&H: Great cover by Lynn Curlee
MR: Great cover by Hildebrandt

BA: gag. Both the front AND the back are bad.
SS: nope. Just a photo of Iommi

EE: Well-done photo of a Rodin sculpture (I think it was Rodin...) Not bad.
HC: Not a lot of effort in that painting
T: Tony Iommi hired a logo designer

D: Tony Iommi hired the guy from his D&D group that drew everyone's character portraits

CP: The flamin' angel is cool.
F: Nope. Wrong. Abort.

13: Uh... it's a 13.
TE: Red-hot skull, could be worse.

I'd say that BS didn't have as long a run of bad covers as DP, but it's got two of the worst ones I've seen for a major band, and Ian Gillan was in the band for one of 'em, so, maybe it's him that's the curse? Never did care much for IGB/Gillan album art, now that I think about it...

[Charger]

Yeah you can count good Sabbath covers with one hand digits too...

S/T
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
The Mob Rules
Dehumanizer
Cross Purposes


And the REALLY REALLY REALLY horrible ones
Sabotage (WHAT THE GIANT FUCK WERE THEY THINKING!?!?!?!)
Techincal Ecstasy (Some robots fuckin' I think was Ozzy's description of it which is quite accurate)
Never Say Die (Dude in a weird mask wtf?)
Seventh Star (Even the cover screams Iommi solo album)


The rest all are between meh, okay and good...

[Typhon]

I've never really had much of a problem with any of the Black Sabbath covers.  The ones that are actually Black Sabbath, that is.

[Vyn]

[Edited due to image-wankery]

[Jack the Stripper]

 Picture didn’t post Vyn.

@Charger I’m surprised you left Heaven and Hell of your list of great ones. I think it’s one of not only Sabbath’s best but one of the most iconic album covers of all time. Dehumanizer cover never did it for me though,  a bit too cheesy and cartoonish... Just don’t think it’s a great illustration personally.

As for MOR and Vol 4 I’ve always loved those covers, very simple but classic and they both look great on a T-Shirt as does the NSD pilot or at least what it morphed into on merchandise.

[Charger]

I could say the same about Heaven And Hell that you said about Dehumanizer!

It just never really did it for me...the smoking angels are bit silly...I think it goes to the okay to good department. Worst of the Dio era album covers for sure. A fun fact, it's the only t-shirt design from the Heaven And Hell shirts I don't have!