Album cover analysis

The album conver is a very important part of the project as a whole. It is the thing ultimately that lets potential buyers quickly see that this is the album they have seen on tv or advertised in a magazine. Also for people who have never heard of the band before the album is a way of getting across the band image and the message the album portrays quickly.

Here is the album cover for system of a downs album "steal this album". They have gone with a toung in cheek conraversial design that matches the brand image and what the songs on the album portray. The cover art is very eye catching in it's simplicity, proving that cover art doesnt need to be overly complex to be effective. It displays what looks like a pirate copy of a CD, a common sight for any teenager I am sure. This shows the band do not take themselves to seriously or perhaps dont agree fully with the law. As their album on sale is infact telling you not to bother paying for it. This however almost has a reverse psychology effect as it makes you want to buy it rather oddly enough!

Here by contrast is Amon Amarth's album cover for "Twilight of the Thunder God". This cover art is very rich and lavish and encompasses their nieche sub genre of viking metal well. It shows a ship going down in a stormy sea on fire in the back ground a a viking sporting the hammer of Thor dualing with a giant sea creature! Very over the top and showy as is the style of music. It also indicates the historical and mythological angles the music contains.

Finally dimmu borgir's cover art for"Stormblast". Keeping in ming the fact that their metal sub genre is black metal, a satanic based sub genre it goes without saying how effective the artwork is at summing up the feel of the music. The dark stormy sky indidcates the dark gothic tint that the music encompasses. The horned hooded demon figure itself gives glues to the lyrical content and overall would make a fan of the genre go "oh cool!" which is the main goal at the end of the day. Even the overall colour scheme the cold blues and blacks would catch you eye if searching for this kind of music in the shelves af any music store.

Keeping all this in mind I must create and album cover which portrays my band image, genre and is apealing to a potential buyer the moment it enters their field of vision.