These are just record covers I thought were great. I like when a CD cover provokes thought and makes me want to interpret what message or messages the artist or band are trying to purvey.

#5 – Behemoth, Evangelion

Done by Polish artist Tomasz Danilowicz, who has worked on Behemoth’s previous albums. This is just bad ass.

Click to read more…

Of all the cool shit I’ve heard so far this year, not much of it has been of the reasonably-straight-forward rock variety. But Norway’s Kvelertak just changed all that. The band – whose debut album features John Baizley art, in case you couldn’t tell – is streaming a new song, “Offernatt,” on their MySpace page, and it rocks n’ rolls like Fred Flintstone’s car.

Musically, I’m not even sure if it’s fair to call this metal – it’s very much along the lines of harder-edged Baroness. But the vocals are definitely metal. So maybe think about what it might be like if Tomas Lindberg fronted Baroness. And it’s insanely catchy – this might be that good weather music I was looking for. (So, of course, it’s fucking freezing out today.)

As a bonus, the song also comes with guest vocals from Trap Them’s Ryan McKenney. I’m not a big Trap Them fan, but I know a lot of you folks are, and if his presence gets more of you to check this band out, I’m all for it.

Seriously, give this song a listen – it’s pretty cool. Kvelertak’s debut album (which I’m assuming is self-titled, since I can’t find the name listed anywhere and there’s no mention of it in the press release) comes out in Europe on June 21 on Indie Recordings, and… I guess the rest of us will just have to go fuck ourselves. No, I kid. I’m sure it will, ahem, somehow find its ways to our shores sooner rather than later. The band is also touring Europe with Converge and Kylesa, which makes perfect sense.

-AR

I’m posting this video interview our friends at Noisecreep conducted with Baroness’ John Baizley for two reasons:

1. Baroness is awesome and their new album, The Blue Record, is the cat’s pajamas.
2. It was edited by our friend Tommy Wee. Tommy’s not even really that big a metal guy, but even he thinks The Blue Record is frickin’ sweet.

Enjoy.

-AR

While we were at the Mayhem Festival on Friday, the Internet metal community collectively shit its pants over the brand new Baroness track the band posted on their MySpace page. The “track,” which is in fact the first and second track of their new album Blue Record combined into one, is the first we’ve heard from Baroness since 2007′s Red Record, but it seems like it’s been much longer than two years — amirite? It feels like we’ve been waiting for new Baroness forever.

So head on over to the Baroness MySpace page and get some “Bullhead’s Psalm” and “The Sweetest Curse.” It’s what you’ve come to expect and hope for from Baroness; circular, major-key riffs fueled by down-tuned punk ferocity, stoner metal noodling with prog overtones, and John Baizley (whose beautiful album artwork, previewed at right, you can see in full here) screaming his lungs out on top of it. Not for nothing, it sounds a whole lot less like Mastodon, which I think is a good thing for Baroness.

The record drops October 13th. Pre-order it at the Relapse Shop.

-VN

There’s all sorts of crazy shit going on behind-the-scenes here at the MetalSucks Mansion today, so I gots to makes this brief.

Baroness have named their follow-up to The Red Album… The Blue Record. Okay. I can get behind that. There’s still no release date, but here’s John Baizley’s cover art. Pretty sweet, me thinks:

Click to read more…

John Baizley is quite the talented visual artist in addition to his fantastic music with Baroness (see Axl’s piece from this past Fall). In addition to album covers for his own band he’s done work for Torche, Pig Destroyer, Skeletonwitch and others; his style is instantly recognizable and has become sort of an “in” aesthetic in the metal world in the past year or so.

Crustcake recently conducted a fascinating in-depth interview with Baizley about his artwork, and it’s highly worth your time to check out. An excerpt:

How/when did you get your start in visual art? Did you take lessons?

I think it was a natural inclination of mine when I was young that both of my parents sort of fostered and encouraged in many ways. I took– never really anything too formal. When I was in, like, I’d say middle school I would, from time to time, go take lessons with a teacher and a number of students but I don’t think that was anything that had any lasting effects on it. It was primarily self-motivated up until college.

You started doing visual art before music?

Yeah, I would say I’ve definitely always– I’ve– when I was younger I favored visual arts– it was just more immediate and a little easier to grasp onto I didn’t start actually having and actively participated interest in music until I was like nine or ten. But, I mean if you look through my parents’ photo albums there’s art that pre-dates that by many years, you know?

To read the entire interview, head on over to Crustcake.

-VN