Category: Presentation

Exhumed – Red Asphalt: Kuntswerk

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“How come there is the front of a car in our practice space?” asked Sean McGrath. I answered something like lol don’t worry about it, Exhumed stuff. And also “I’ve got $50 worth of pig guts in my fridge rn.” And, basically, that’s all it took to create the album cover art for Exhumed’s newest record, Red Asphalt.

Exhumed Red Asphalt cover

Amongst the Exhumed camp, we’d been discussing for a while about doing another photo cover ala Gore Metal. I’ve been back in the band for years, but no album seemed to have called for such a grotesque creation. That is, until we came up for the concept of Red Asphalt. Continue reading “Exhumed – Red Asphalt: Kuntswerk” →

Making the Cold Slither XMess Music Video

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In late November, 2024, Gerardo from Reigning Phoenix Music hit me up and said he wanted me more closely involved in the next Cold Slither music video. They’d gotten the rights to use footage from an episode of the G.I. Joe cartoon, “Cobra Claws are Coming to Town,” and Gus had written and recorded a song to go with it. He wanted me in creatively as a visionary type fella, but probably more as a huge G.I. Joe fan.

We started a group chat with Costin Chioreanu, who’d done awesome animation for the first four Cold Slither videos. I pitched an idea, and that’s when Costin dropped the bomb that he was already over-booked by RPM and wouldn’t have time to start anything except a simple edit maybe half-way through December. That was understandable but sucked for us. A Christmas video needed to come out before Christmas! So, I thought, I can edit an old show; I already do it for the videos we play during the live show. And hey, I could do a whole lot more if I put my mind to it!

Cold Slither Christmas Video setup

I was going to do stop-motion animation and make this an old school holiday special, courtesy of the greatest heavy metal band in the world, Cold Slither. Now, I just needed to figure out how to do stop motion animation! Continue reading “Making the Cold Slither XMess Music Video” →

Aesthetics of Sickness Book

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G.O.R.E. Corps, ten hut! Check out this excellent new book coming out featuring tons of gory metal artwork, including moi, with great features on the artists and a foreword by legend Jeff Walker. Pre-order now and get 15% off with the code IWANTGORE15‬

https://heavymusicartwork.bigcartel.com/product/aesthetics-of-sickness-the-gore-archetypes

Ludicra – The Tenant: Kunstwerk

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This last weekend, I was helping my wife out taking some band photos of our friends’ band, Serpent Crown. At one point I hoisted her on my shoulders to try for a bird’s eye view. I was reminded of seven years previous, going through some similar extreme measures to get photographs for Ludicra’s The Tenant. I wasn’t blogging at the time, stupidly, so here’s a Throwback Thursday post about this cover.

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Sadly, not sold out and in the virtual bargain bin at profound lore.com

At the time this came out in 2009, some people commented “why did they photoshop a dumb door onto the water?” Well, fuck you. First, don’t use a product name as a verb in a sentence. Second, Photoshop was not involved in editing this door into a body of water. It was me and my own damn two hands what did the work putting a real door into a real body of water.

Continue reading “Ludicra – The Tenant: Kunstwerk” →

Sodom – Persecution Mania re-issue

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While I wait for a bunch of other cool shit to appear, this release follows hot on the heels of the last Sodom re-issue that I did layouts for. Persecution Mania: Sodom’s second full length (and really superior to the first) available for order now from Wax Maniax.

PM... packaging mania.
Sodom: Packaging Mania

This is quite a cool package. Doubly vinyl, gatefold, full lyrics, etc. This release has never been better. But it’s not for want of trying to be worse. It seems that when it comes to the 1980s, there was a little to be desired in terms of archiving all the media that went into creating such a milestone record of thrash metal.

Continue reading “Sodom – Persecution Mania re-issue” →

Sodom – Obsessed by Cruelty re-issue

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Well, this was quite an honor… doing layouts for the re-issue of Sodom’s first LP, Obsessed by Cruelty. I got the gig thanks to my good friend Dan at Mammoth Sound Mastering. He introduced me to the fellas at Wax Maniax. My first gig (not my last) for them was just for, oh, I don’t know, one of the best thrash bands ever? All in all, I think it came out quite smashing.

Sodom Obsessed by Cruelty

This version includes both recordings of the album, one that was released on vinyl in Germany and the other that is pretty much the only version most people have heard. It’s a long story. In any case, I got to sift through photos provided by Tom Angelripper and make a bad-ass photo collage. I tried my damnedest to correct the shoddy, original lyrics sheet, and did a lot of photo correction. Even the LP labels reflect the original releases’ designs of Metal Blade and Steamhammer Records.

This beauty sold out in just a couple weeks, but I’m sure they’ll eventually have more over at the Wax Maniax website.

Path of Dissent Art Show

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If you’re in the Boston area, I’ll be part of a group exhibition featuring some amazing artists. Putrid, Mark Richards, Lucas Ruggieri, and Dan Seagrave are just a few of the talents that my wholly crappy work will be put up next to. I’ll just have a couple prints on exhibition and for sale. I won’t be able to attend myself, unfortunately. Here’s the information if you can.

path of dissent small

Eridanos Tattoo & Gallery
36 Prospect St.
Cambridge, MA 02139

New HD Cover Art Standards

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It’s weird to get an email from Universal Music Group, but that’s the manufacturer used by Willowtip Records for the Impaled “The Dead Still Dead Remain” CD. So, I get the same mass email from them as someone doing layouts for Los Tigres Del Norte and probably Adele.

The gist of this latest email has something to do with HD digital media and a lot to do with Apple. The standard requirement of art provided for an album used to be for CD cover layout size of 1:1 print at 300 DPI. The streaming companies are now asking for cover art to be available in 600 DPI at minimum 5×5 inch. This makes a lot of sense when you consider people are digesting their music more and more digitally and throwing it up on big, oversize monitors and flat screens.

It also means bigger file sizes and my personal need for better photo gear. Shiiiiiit. Well, you need some damn big art as LPs take prominence in the merch market these days, anyway.

Full details are provided here by UMG for any designery folk to check out: Universal Music Group cover standards