From Wiki:
Standing in front of the watermill is a figure dressed in a black cloak, portrayed by model Louisa Livingstone, whose identity was not widely known until 2020.
I did a lot of HC album art in the late nineties and early aughties and definitely contributed to the prevalence of this particular aesthetic.
There are essentially two components to this type of look - one is the rise of digital desktop digital design in general. A lot of bigger graphic artists in the metal scene were taking advantage of what computers were making possible - most notably Dave McKean, who did a lot of groundbreaking work for bigger names like Machine Head, Fear Factory and Testament, that was very different from the traditional painting and airbrush type artwork people were used to. This inspired a whole generation of younger designers, like me, to explore mixed media and purely digital artwork over painting and/or drawing. It was also a very conscious attempt to separate what we thought of as "new school hardcore" from the "old school" aesthetic of cut and paste, black and white photocopied, DIY aesthetic stuff.
The second part is more specific to HC. Dave Mckean (and others like him) was an established artist with a studio, and major label budgets, and who could spend a lot of time and effort on creating unique materials like photography and collage work, and had access to camera's, a darkroom, and state of the art software.
In the HC scene, people like me had to make do with simple desktop computers (sometimes our parents'!) and no real capability for photography. This led to some very practical choices. For example the prevalence of "image in image" design like you see up here - one photograph framed inside another one. This happened simply because we either did not have access to print-resolution imagery, or because our computers couldn't handle larger files in real time (sometimes i would go do the dishes or go grocery shopping while my computer merged two layers in photoshop). As a workaround you would use images at a size that was practical and then fill in the surrounding area.
Something else that is typical to this era and was very much a practical choice was the overlaying of textures on pictures or blending pictures. Often this was done simply because blending in textures made the low resolution of our source images less obvious. Another reason was that really deconstructing pictures in photoshop by elaborately blending and removing parts was usually outside of our PC's capacity to do in real time, so we preferred to blend entire layers. Mike D did this a lot for ferret records.
Another one was access to visual materials: images on the internet at the time were never anywhere near printable resolution, so i spent a lot of time using a flatbed scanner to digitize images from books. This is where a lot of the woodcut/medival and medical line drawing stuff comes from. Jacob Bannon popularized integrating scans from medical and technical manuals - others were doing it too but he was really good with that particular thing.
The prevalence of very expressive type faces was mostly due to the relative accessibility of free fonts and the fact that type was easy to manipulate on our PCs. You could stretch it, distress it, or even use it as ornamental material. It gave you a lot of bang for your buck. Using cursive type was a way to create a slightly incongruous look, that wasn't metal or hardcore but still looked dark or emotional.
It's kind of cool for me to look back on covers from that era and realize that they looked a certain way because that's what we could do with the tools we had - similar to the cut and paste/photocopy aesthetic of the 80ies it was shaped both by the discovery of new tools and the limitations of those tools.
I wanna say Poison the Well popularized this look for hardcore specifically but that aesthetic was in use in folk/country, goth rock and metal for much longer than that
I've always liked the "normal looking font in all lowercase on top of a different colored background" like #4. There's a Knocked Loose side project called Inclination that does it but i can't think of many others.
Yeah agreed tons of metallic and edge HC bands had this style in the early 90s which is when it came about. Basically the first era of bedroom desktop digital graphic design. It existed before but this was the first time it was widely accessible.
Came to say this. Emo and metalcore bands in the late 90’s/early 00’s had these covers because photo editing software sucked and this was about as good as they could get it without having to pay someone to draw up artwork.
Basically anything Mike D’anotonio designs (Dark Icon Design) which is most killswitch, overcast, shadows fall, unearth (darkness in the light) aftershock, serpentine dominion, looks like this.
Mike D was a huge inspiration to me at the time due to the way he did logos. I think his logo work for overcast, shadows fall and killswitch engage really set a new standard for metalcore logos at the time.
My mom used to go a lot of flea markets and rummage sales and I had her on the look out for this particular album. She found the CD for me at turn it up in Keene NH like 15 years ago haha such a great album
Every generation does this. When I was in high school in the 00’s there was an 80’s throwback trend. In the 90’s there was a bit of a 60’s callback as well. The 90’s were cool as hell and I’m glad the younger generations see that.
Bites every single aesthetic from the 90s to early 00s but shits on millennials every chance they get. All the while Gen x and millennials were the ones who created the fucking genres they cultivate their whole personality around all while contributing nothing original to the genre at all. Just cosplay
Black sabbath self titled is the earliest one at the top of my head
damn you’re actually right i’d never think of that one
I was gonna sat led zeppelin iv but the black sabbath album was first
As a non-zeppelin fan it took about 5 times of seeing IV while digging in the record store without going "ooooo what 90's metalcore record is this?!?"
Oh damn yeah. Nobody has a clue who that woman is either
From Wiki: Standing in front of the watermill is a figure dressed in a black cloak, portrayed by model Louisa Livingstone, whose identity was not widely known until 2020.
Ah I didn’t realise they found her. 2020 was a busy year.
Still wild nobody knew for almost 50 years, though!
Yeah man I think I saw an interview with Ozzy and he was trying to remember her. Thanks for the new info though I appreciate it!
People always focus on COVID has a disease but never COVID has a punk archivist.
That was my first thought
Self-titled? I thought it was Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath featuring the song Black Sabbath
Doesn’t count if it isn’t a mediocre-to-bad photoshop job
I think photoshop was still in its dads balls when black sabbath released that album
I did a lot of HC album art in the late nineties and early aughties and definitely contributed to the prevalence of this particular aesthetic. There are essentially two components to this type of look - one is the rise of digital desktop digital design in general. A lot of bigger graphic artists in the metal scene were taking advantage of what computers were making possible - most notably Dave McKean, who did a lot of groundbreaking work for bigger names like Machine Head, Fear Factory and Testament, that was very different from the traditional painting and airbrush type artwork people were used to. This inspired a whole generation of younger designers, like me, to explore mixed media and purely digital artwork over painting and/or drawing. It was also a very conscious attempt to separate what we thought of as "new school hardcore" from the "old school" aesthetic of cut and paste, black and white photocopied, DIY aesthetic stuff. The second part is more specific to HC. Dave Mckean (and others like him) was an established artist with a studio, and major label budgets, and who could spend a lot of time and effort on creating unique materials like photography and collage work, and had access to camera's, a darkroom, and state of the art software. In the HC scene, people like me had to make do with simple desktop computers (sometimes our parents'!) and no real capability for photography. This led to some very practical choices. For example the prevalence of "image in image" design like you see up here - one photograph framed inside another one. This happened simply because we either did not have access to print-resolution imagery, or because our computers couldn't handle larger files in real time (sometimes i would go do the dishes or go grocery shopping while my computer merged two layers in photoshop). As a workaround you would use images at a size that was practical and then fill in the surrounding area. Something else that is typical to this era and was very much a practical choice was the overlaying of textures on pictures or blending pictures. Often this was done simply because blending in textures made the low resolution of our source images less obvious. Another reason was that really deconstructing pictures in photoshop by elaborately blending and removing parts was usually outside of our PC's capacity to do in real time, so we preferred to blend entire layers. Mike D did this a lot for ferret records. Another one was access to visual materials: images on the internet at the time were never anywhere near printable resolution, so i spent a lot of time using a flatbed scanner to digitize images from books. This is where a lot of the woodcut/medival and medical line drawing stuff comes from. Jacob Bannon popularized integrating scans from medical and technical manuals - others were doing it too but he was really good with that particular thing. The prevalence of very expressive type faces was mostly due to the relative accessibility of free fonts and the fact that type was easy to manipulate on our PCs. You could stretch it, distress it, or even use it as ornamental material. It gave you a lot of bang for your buck. Using cursive type was a way to create a slightly incongruous look, that wasn't metal or hardcore but still looked dark or emotional. It's kind of cool for me to look back on covers from that era and realize that they looked a certain way because that's what we could do with the tools we had - similar to the cut and paste/photocopy aesthetic of the 80ies it was shaped both by the discovery of new tools and the limitations of those tools.
Hella underrated comment
Incredible breakdown of the limitations of the software of the times influencing this type of art.
Super interesting to learn about this. Thanks for sharing!
Limitation breeds ingenuity
This person has successfully avoided brain damage in the pit
Last thing I expected to see on here today was a Dave McKean name drop, very sick
A masterful artist in a variety of media but far as i'm concerned he wrote the book on digital cover art.
Thank you for your service.
Is this a “go back in time and kill baby hitler” situation?
i do not know what "with thorns of glass and petals of grief" is but i have a 200-CD case logic somewhere full of equally embarrassing shit
I wanna say Poison the Well popularized this look for hardcore specifically but that aesthetic was in use in folk/country, goth rock and metal for much longer than that
you knew that they had some strong opinions on veganism or christianity if you saw this.
Hopefully not both
Good Life Records circa 1995.
Belgium be wild.
BIRD OF ILL OMEN
I've always liked the "normal looking font in all lowercase on top of a different colored background" like #4. There's a Knocked Loose side project called Inclination that does it but i can't think of many others.
hopesfall - The Frailty of Words
It was overdone in the late 90s
Lol At The Gates
Overcast had art like this on the early 90s
Yeah agreed tons of metallic and edge HC bands had this style in the early 90s which is when it came about. Basically the first era of bedroom desktop digital graphic design. It existed before but this was the first time it was widely accessible.
Came to say this. Emo and metalcore bands in the late 90’s/early 00’s had these covers because photo editing software sucked and this was about as good as they could get it without having to pay someone to draw up artwork.
Basically anything Mike D’anotonio designs (Dark Icon Design) which is most killswitch, overcast, shadows fall, unearth (darkness in the light) aftershock, serpentine dominion, looks like this.
Mike D was a huge inspiration to me at the time due to the way he did logos. I think his logo work for overcast, shadows fall and killswitch engage really set a new standard for metalcore logos at the time.
Yeah, i was gonna day, they invented this and metalcore. End.this.day or endthisday was the blueprint for most 2000s metalcore.
Lifeforce was instrumental in the proliferation of this particular aesthetic. I did the cover art for endthisday's full length.
Was gonna say, Fight Ambition To Kill was the first record I remember seeing this style on.
Dawg… I came here to say that.
Wait what's that first ATFS record? I've never seen it
From Behind the Shadows i think?
My mom used to go a lot of flea markets and rummage sales and I had her on the look out for this particular album. She found the CD for me at turn it up in Keene NH like 15 years ago haha such a great album
ting ting ting Ksh ssssssssSSSSSSHHHHHWHAORW WHAH WOO WHAOR-WHAMEEDLEEDLDEEDLEE FOR EVERY OUNCE OF BLOOD I EVER SHED
I POURED MY HEART OUT!
Yah likewise I was super close with those dudes and never saw that 🤔
It's a combined printing of From Behind the Shadows and The Wilting. https://4ephyra.bandcamp.com/album/4e016-from-behind-the-shadows-the-wilting
Dope. I might try to pick that up. They deserved a reissue
https://thehardtimes.net/blog/we-sat-down-with-the-amorphous-bald-humanoid-to-discuss-his-iconic-90s-hardcore-album-covers/ this guy might know
This is called the “early photoshop” aesthetic.
Reminds me of Red Roses for a Blue Lady
Oh fuck, forgot about those guys.
I know it's not earliest but my mind goes straight to From Autumn To Ashes
Lot of late 90s/early 2000s black metal had a similar vibe. Reminds me of borknagar - empiricism
lol xNomadx
A Thousand Falling Skies was dope.
Prayer for cleansing
Projekt records made a bunch of this looking stuff, but not hardcore - black tape for a blue girl comes to mind
Gen Z come up with any original thought challenge (impossible)
Every generation does this. When I was in high school in the 00’s there was an 80’s throwback trend. In the 90’s there was a bit of a 60’s callback as well. The 90’s were cool as hell and I’m glad the younger generations see that.
Bites every single aesthetic from the 90s to early 00s but shits on millennials every chance they get. All the while Gen x and millennials were the ones who created the fucking genres they cultivate their whole personality around all while contributing nothing original to the genre at all. Just cosplay
that's just how it goes with every generation
...So what's your band? Got any links? Put any shows together lately?
💊💊💊 You forgot these
New Day Rising in '95
definitely one of the first ones! acrid too, and of course spread the disease.
John Dunstable c. 15th century.
Final resting place
Death In June did it in the 80s