Morning, all. Initially, I didn’t really a lot to speak of today in terms of possible #tbt‘s for today, (Duff McKagan’s apparently turning 51 today, but 51 seems like such a strange, random number to celebrate, plus…it’s Duff McKagan) but then I came across the fact that today was legendary Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger‘s birthday. There’s a small part of me that feels a little bit strange calling out the birthday of a guy who passed away less than a year ago, but either way…it’s another chance to celebrate a hugely influential guy and his incredible body of work.

Giger’s work graced movies (chief among them, the Alien franchise, because duh), album covers (Triptykon; Emerson, Lake and Palmer)…hell, even guitars. The guy did genuinely creepy art better than almost anyone out there. Personally, his work never really jumped out and scared me directly; it was always the kind of stuff that lingered, getting progressively more haunting and affecting as time went along.

Anyway, I won’t babble on any further. To celebrate what would have been Giger’s 75th birthday, let’s look back at a song from Celtic Frost‘s To Mega Therion, for which he designed the cover art. Here’s “Circle of the Tyrants”:

Rest in peace, Hans.

Keep it heavy,

-Dan

 Live. Love. Plow. Horns Up.