New Blog Calls Attention to Rampant Plagiarism in Metal Album Art

The thing about plagiarism is, sometimes it’s cut and dry, and sometimes, not so much. There is such a thing as valid reinterpretation of another artist’s work and found object art, to say nothing of the old “great artists steal” adage.

Which is to say that the blog Sad But True: Plagiarism in Heavy Metal Art is bound to be controversial. The blog seeks to call attention to the routine modern day practice of cutting and pasting elements from other people’s work into metal album art, which the author categorizes as “unethical,” “illegal,” “lame,” and potentially dangerous: “the client you are working for (not to mention the label) can get in pretty big trouble by doing blatant stuff like this.” At least as of this writing, the blog focuses on just three artists — Orion Landau, Marcelo Vasco, and Gilang P. Vergiawan. Interpret this fact as you like.

Some examples from the blog are below; you can check out more here. Then head to the comments section to debate whether or not you think these are legitimate examples of plagiarism.