WHEN THE GUITAR IS (LITERARY) A WEAPON

Some say that the pen is, but in this case it's actually the guitar. We all know that words can hurt, but if you modify your guitar into a machine gun it can hurt a lot more.



Known as the Rambo among guitar players this stud rose fame by playing with Alice Cooper... and for being beef-cake. If I saw this record in a store my first guess would be that his chosen name for this project is Roberts Kane. That is Cane spelled with a "K". But that's just stupid, this guy doesn't seem to need any cane, unless his battering someone? So along that road we get that his name is Kane Roberts... There's really not that much to say about this record except that it is sexy. Observe the helicopter in the background!



Fisc, which is almost Fish in Swedish, had an album coming along in 1984 called "Tracker". Yes, this one. As artwork they choose a helicopter with tracking missiles only they are not missiles they are guitars. Tracking guitars... I guess what happened next after this air strike is something like this:



Big Brother was a pretty uninteresting band from Sweden that put out this LP in 1979. "Rock'n'roll Casualty" was its name. This is not my cup of tea so I can't really review it, but the cover is pretty bad ass though.

THE THREE WINDOWS

Caspar David Friedrich's painting "Monastery Graveyard in the Snow" is one of those paintings that has been used as a cover by many bands. Interesting in this post are not these covers, but we name drop them, just because. But first, the original:



On cassette we see it like this:



Featured here is: Redeemer, Regnum, Manes, Eternal Oath, Musica Eternal, Sombre Chemin/Peste Noire (split), Torrent, Gehenna, Abhorrent, Black Destiny, Dark Ages, Insanul Maut, Funeral Spirits, Bane of Existence, Megatera (also did release an additional two tapes featuring the same art, but why bother), Legion (Does/have existed 36 bands with this name).

A band called Ominous Force also used this painting, but without adding either logo or title, so I second; why bother.

On other formats?



As you can see this is a shit load of bands, lets settle with that..

Another example we have is Lugburz album "Forgotten Empire of Desolation". What differs this one from the previous is that it's not taken from the original Caspar David Friedrich painting, but an interpretation of it. As you can see I also added Summoning's debut album "Lugburz" from '95 because while gazing upon "Forgotten Empire of Desolation" I thought to myself "Ha! They even borrowed the logo!"



But as you can see I was wrong. They used another font. "Lugburz" is of course from the world of Tolkien. Do note that they compressed the image for the album cover to get the whole spectra, not to shaggy.

Another band who used a "The Monastery Graveyard..." interpretation is Severance with their compilation "Progression Towards Purgatory".



So finally we have arrived at what was supposed to be the content of this post. Which album covers was actually inspired by "Monastery Graveyard in the Snow"!?



Convulse version to "World Without God" '88, is a perfect example to what inspiration can do: inspire. The most similar component in this image is the doorway. We get the three window ruin, but in an slightly different version, a tree, a cross, some tombstones and a cloaked man standing in the snow in a world without a god.

Dark Funeral's version to "The Secrets of the Black Arts" '96 are equally genius. Painted by famous Necrolord we get the three window ruin but in a brand new version and a group of cloaked men carrying the secrets of the black arts.

Deathstorm's version to "As Death Awakes" '13 is far more reminiscent to the variation above, used by Lugburz,  but without the trees in the foreground and a couple of other features. We also get what seems to be a mountain range in the background. Even though more true to the original then our previous examples, this piece of art is just as good.

VULCANIC KAMIKAZE APE

Back again. Visiting the mastermind Frank Frazetta and his world of barbaristic art. Once again this will not be a post about bands who just borrow his art straight off, no, that's boring. But actually something of a classic you might not know took inspiration from elsewhere.

We are talking about the amazing live album "Live!" '85 by Brazil's Vulcano.



This is truly a Uncoverseum gold-moment. I mean, what creativity! In both paintings by Frazetta, the characters borrowed into the Vulcano cover has one of their legs obscured, but like if magic existed, we have those guys two legged in the "Live!" cover. Maybe my excitement is little overboard, but I admire, honestly, the kind of creativity that was put into this piece. Of course the angry cave ape with flippers have been tilted backwards left, so he's running straight forward instead of his original kamikaze-fight-til'-death-over-the-cliff-posé. The warrior is mirrored with black hair instead of blonde, and to be fair... A whole lot has been redone with this guy, except maybe the bloody sword and the posé.

I think this is great. It is not a total rip off. I guess the artwork artist for "Live!" didn't know that many big guys who could posé for him while oiling up this masterpiece, so he flipped a fantasy mag and went for it. And the demon in front of the moon is still iconic for the band, so that's huge as well.

MORE KILLERS

A few years back Stormspell Records launched a series called TREND KILLERS. What some of you might not know is that the design for this series is actually from Roadrunners low price series PRICE KILLERS.



If this is a known fact to you, don't feel offended. If you didn't know, what ever. I don't think these records are in that much circulation here in Scandinavia. It's an extremely annoying way to put out records again at a lower price, because you mess up the album cover. But when Stormspell did their homage to this madness I kind of liked it, because it's historical, and a bit stupid to do so.

By the way, Stormspell Records Gandalf logo is super cool, and a masterpiece in logo design:

PARADISE DISMEMBERED

Ok, so a pretty beige post today. I hardly think Dismember was inspired by the back-cover for Paradise Lost's "Gothic" '91, when they released "Pieces" in '92.



But somehow worth mentioning and taking a moment to gaze upon. The idea is pretty much the same here.

KILLERS

Why? Because it's really hard to imagine something called "Killers" without that look! Observe that the metal-comp version are not a replica. It's just, what I presume, inspired.



"Metal Killers" was released in the UK 1984, three years after Iron Maidens second album. The artwork is astonishing. Not only does the warrior have all the right proportions, so does the guitar as well. Nothing looks weird here. But what takes the cake to the prom is the "a" in "metal". Obviously someone in the design room forgot to cut out some white. Pretty dumb mistake.

Viking barbarians are always the coolest. Close planets, lightning and dinosaurs does not(!) overshadow that fact.

TOTAL DEVASTATION

Brazil had a load of great bands in the 80s who made an significant impact on the scene. One bone crushing effort we all should know off is "Bestial Devastation" '85 by Sepultura. Probably my favorite release by them, because I love when music is a little bit shitty while genius.

Why I begin by mentioning this release is because it's likely the most famous of the three covers shown below. But beware, Sad Iron's "Total Damnation" '84 is a beast and should be bought on sight. Death Squad is a bit newer band from Italy, playing Thrash. They have now split up, but they did leave behind "Bestial Domination" in 2010.



So, Sad Iron to Sepultura. I think the Devils face is similar enough to be mentioned here. I wouldn't be surprised if who ever did "Bestial Devastation" had a little sneak peak at "Total Damnation". That Death Squad's cover is inspired by "Bestial Devastation" goes without saying. The name is a tip off as well. Funny with the names on these three releases as well, they do have the same feel right?

The coolest thing here, between all these three cover artworks is the little reaper on "Bestial Devastation". The whole cover is magnificent. Sad Iron's cover is very well done as well, but not as ominous, but they do have a tiger and a bird, and a v-guitar... and a building.

But we are not quite done. I finally give you Morbid Rites, a thrash-four piece from the states. This self titled demo was released this year, 2017, and surely we can all suspect where they got the inspiration for the cover, yes?



...a very nice cover I might add.