Nine Circles

Three weeks in a row! Never thought I’d get to this point again. I guess it is easier to keep up with posting when you’re working a three-12-hour-shift nursing schedule than a traditional 9-to-5. Hard to not find enough time to rag on a few album covers with that schedule.

The trouble, this week, was finding album covers that deserved to be ragged on. Since our debut post a couple weeks ago, the well of standout album covers (good or bad) has dried up a bit. Not totally, of course, but…we’ve been forced to get a bit more creative in our selections. There are even some I’m gonna be complimentary of this week! Crazy, huh?

Anyway, enough rambling — hit the jump for my album art highlights from the week of June 21-27!

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Holocausto Canibal — Assintonia Hertziana

According to Metal-Archives, Portuguese grind / brutal death quartet Holocausto Canibal deals lyrically with “gore, cannibalism and perversion.” And you can kinda see that in the cover art for new live album, Assintonia Hertziana, I guess, but — call me crazy, but the whole undead-female-Lloyd-Dobler thing prevents it from getting all the way there. At least we know how Cameron Crowe would design an extreme metal album cover!

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Kryptos — Afterburner

Hell. Fuck. Yes. I’ve never actually listened to Kryptos before but I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume, based on this cover art, that the band is THRASH AS FUCK. Love everything about this: the purple / yellow color scheme, the Painkiller-esque steel biker from hell…you name it. The band’s logo reminds me…okay, perhaps a bit too much of Toxic Holocaust’s. But that’s a minor quibble. This thing slays.

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Hive — Night Cats

The Calgary trio Hive drops its debut full-length this week, and it’s…not exactly the kinda cover design you’d expect from a band / album on the HPGD label! I have to give Hive credit for the minimalist approach here. It may not be in keeping with their sound, but in its odd way, it seems like the artwork will stick with you? If for no other reason than “being out of left field.” Dope band logo, too.

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Fuming Mouth — The Grand Descent

I like this quite a bit. In a strange sort of way, it reminds me of Bell Witch’s Mirror Reaper. Only better, because Fuming Mouth plays quick-hitting deathy / crusty goodness, and also this album isn’t 800 years long.

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Flooded Church of Asmodeus — The Willing Followers of HIM

When you’re an overtly blasphemous black metal band — look no further than song titles like “None to Try and Defy the Power of His Satanic Majesty” for proof of this — going with a predominantly yellow visual aesthetic and hand-drawn copy is certainly…a choice. But, gotta give credit to Finland’s Flooded Church of Asmodeus, who’s done this on literally everything they’ve released so far — they’re, uhh…nothing if not committed to the format?

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Boris — Tears

Sacred Son II, anyone?

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That’ll do it for this week! Leave any suggestions for future editions in the comments, and stay tuned for our next edition!

—Dan