BYZANTINE's PORTRAYAL OF IRENE OF ATHENS

American metallers, Byzantine, are releasing their new album "Harbingers" on June 13 through Metal Blade Records.

According to the band's vocalist, Chris Ojeda, the cover was created by "Ashley Hoey, a mixed media artist from my hometown of Charleston, WV. Ashley has developed a very unique style of drawing her subjects with pencil and then combining actual clothing and jewelry to achieve a 3D aspect to her pieces. She solely focuses on female subjects. When we came up with the concept of having Irene of Athens, the first female ruler of the Byzantine empire, on our album cover, Ashley immediately came to mind."

The group decided to feature a representation of Irene of Athens because "focusing on the maternal side of power was a very intriguing change we thought we needed to make. Irene of Athens was a beautifully striking woman, but also very powerful. She actually had her son, Emperor Constantine blinded so he could no longer rule, which then gave her the throne over the empire. This was just a perfect story to wrap into a song and album cover. Nothing says 'Metal' like Abacination!"

"Harbingers" can be pre-ordered at https://www.metalblade.com/byzantine/

See more of Ashley Hoey's work at https://ashleyhoeyart.com/

Byzantine will be featured in the upcoming book "And Justice For Art- Ultimate Edition." Donate to the crowdfunding campaign to print the book at https://andjusticeforart.bigcartel.com/products

DOOMSDAY's UNDEAD ARMY

American Thrash/Crossover act, Doomsday, just released its debut album "Never Known Peace" through Creator-Destructor Records. Its cover artwork was created by Spencer Davie and shows a sort of Medieval necromancer leading an army of undead soldiers.

“We spent a long time trying to find the right artist," the band collectively comments. "We had a specific vision for the painting when it came to the look, feel and color palette we wanted. We were ready to take a different direction until we stumbled on Spencer’s work. We just gave him the album title and a vague direction of what we wanted and we left him to do his thing because we trusted his vision. Ultimately, he overdelivered and truly captured the essence of 'Never Known Peace.' We’re still blown away with the end result.”

“It's always a great honor to me as an illustrator when a client (especially a new one!) trusts your vision and lets you come up with something with complete artistic freedom," Davie admits. "I wanted to make a painting that captured the unrelentingly heavy quality of the music, and the title 'Never Known Peace' evoked this clear image of an unyielding army of the undead, who are called again and again to endless war.”

The album is available at Doomsday's Bandcamp at: https://doomsdaycahc.bandcamp.com/album/never-known-peace

See more Spencer Davie's work at https://www.spencerdavie.com/

TRIBUNAL's RUINED HALLS OF JUSTICE

Canadian orchestral doom quintet, Tribunal, released its second album, "In Penitence And Ruin" on April 18, 2025.

The cover artwork was created by bassist/cellist/vocalist, Soren Mourne, who designed the sleeve of the band's previous record. "Creating a vivid visual world for our music has always been very important to me," she says. "Painting the cover art for our albums allows me the most direct means of doing this. I take the role of art in our own work seriously. While I execute the art on my own, the concept development process is collaborative; I always hope for everyone in the band’s vision of the album to be reflected in the final art."

According to the musician/artist, this image portrays "the ruins of a once-grand hall with looming sigils on its walls and an ominous statue at its center. These elements allude to morality and justice: the sigils are unbalanced scales, and the statue is a hooded Themis–the classic Lady Justice with sword and scales in hand. By depicting the structure in this time-ravaged state, I intended to illustrate the ultimate impermanence of any given concept of justice. Just as the moss and vines reclaim the stone, all systems of doing justice may be reshaped by human nature and our changing understanding of what it means to make things right."

This piece was painted with oil paint on a 30” x 30” piece of hardboard. Later, Soren "cleaned it up in Photoshop and added the text elements, including the handwritten script of the album title."

"In Penitence And Ruin" through 20 Buck Spin and can be pre-ordered at https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/in-penitence-and-ruin

Watch the video for the band's new single “Incarnadine” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0kmtd8kgI4 

FALLUJAH's ANGEL

The artwork featured on the cover of "Xenotaph" (the 6th album from American Prog/Death Metal act, Fallujah) is titled "Apollyon, Angel of the Void" and was created by Peter Mohrbacher. This is part of the "Angelarium," a series of mythical beings the American artist has developed throughout the years.

"We’re big fans of Peter Mohrbacher’s artwork and have used his pieces on several of our previous albums, to the point where it seems to have become a big part of the band’s identity for many people," comments Fallujah's vocalist Kyle Schaefer. "We chose the 'Apollyon' piece very early on during this album’s writing process mainly due to its bold appearance and striking color palette, but it actually ended up influencing the lyrics to a major degree."

Schaefer also reveals that the "entire album tells a cohesive story in which the 'Apollyon' figure is represented as a major character, although it’s never referred to by that name. The story involves the narrator waking up after death in an otherworldly dimension and meeting a mysterious inhuman guide, so the idea of an 'angel of the void' felt perfect. I already had vague ideas for the story before we went looking for artwork, but this particular piece really brought it all together and influenced my direction massively from that point on. The first song quite literally describes the scene depicted on the album cover. There’s also a reference to Abbadon in one of the later tracks, which is an alternate name for Apollyon in Hebrew Christian mythology. Overall, I would say this album cover has a much more direct connection with the music & lyrics than anything else Fallujah has released in the past."

Fallujah's "Xenotaph" will be released on June 23 through Nuclear Blast. Pre-order at https://fallujah.bfan.link/xenotaph

See more of Peter Mohrbacher's Angelarium at https://www.angelarium.net/

Fallujah will be featured on the book, "...And Justice For Art - Ultimate Edition." To be part of the upcoming crowdfunding campaign, contact andjusticeforart@gmail.com

BLOODRIDE's STAMPEDE

Finnish Thrash Metal act, Bloodride, will release their new album "Deafening" in July 2025. Its sleeve illustration was created by fellow countryman artist, Niko Bauer, who has collaborated with the band in other projects.

“Niko has been providing us with occasional album art and other related graphics,” comments Bloodride’s bassist Esa Pennala. “The cover for 'Deafening' was already a candidate for the previous album but we finally settled on different artwork designed by Niko.”

At some point, the image of the five undead horses (which represent each of the band’s members) became a stage backdrop and was later reconsidered for Deafening’s cover. “The idea of using the backdrop came up again and that’s how we finally settled on this amazing cover art. So now, we use the artwork both as backdrops on stage and we put it on the sleeve of the new album.”

Bauer remembers that “the artwork started out with me wondering what a ‘bloodride’ actually would look like, which led to the mental image of having horses ride on and on until they rot away and are blown into the wind.” The original piece has a rectangular format and was painted with ink on paper. “It was drawn with old school steel nibs, the kind that you fix in a holder and dip into an ink bottle. First, I had to do research into what a horse’s skeleton actually looks like and I also had to try and get the result to be an ‘organized mess.’ So, I sketched the image twice with a pencil before starting with ink. When thinking about the style that I was going [to use] to draw the image, what I had in mind were very old copper engravings from history and biology books before all such images were replaced by photographs.”

The colors were mainly applied digitally. “I scanned the finished image and added color in Photoshop as well as some watercolor overlays,” Bauer says. “On projects like these, I use the computer for color for practical reasons [as] it’s very hard to make changes to a physical piece of art. And, when working on album cover artworks for bands, many different people are involved, and things tend to evolve and change a lot before everyone is satisfied with the end result.”

Bloodride’s "Deafening" will be released on July 25, 2025 through Wormholedeath. More information at https://bloodride.bandcamp.com/

See more of Niko Bauer’s work at: http://www.poorandstarving.com/index.php/en/

GAME OVER's FINAL GIRL

Italian Thrash Metal act, Game Over, will release its new album “Face The End” on April 25 through Scarlet Records.

"The artwork for 'Face The End' has been painted by Guatemalan artist, Mario Lopez, based on the band's own concept," comments Game Over's guitarist, Luca "Ziro" Zironi. "The cover is a synthesis of the themes explored in this album and the meaning of the record itself, translated into an artistic style inspired by 1980s horror movie posters—an element that has accompanied the band since the beginning. Eerie fog, hellish atmosphere, dangerous places, and demonic presences threaten the protagonist’s safety (represented by the final girl, a classic trope in horror films). However, all of this does not signify the end but rather the will to be ready to face adverse and dangerous events—challenges that may bring you to your knees but ultimately prove that the only thing that truly matters is having the courage to confront them."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Mario Lopez has designed all of Game Over's album covers. See more of his portfolio at: https://www.facebook.com/mario.lopez.1291421

 

"Face The End" can be pre-ordered at https://gameoverofficial.bandcamp.com/album/face-the-end

SIGH AND ELIRAN KANTOR's MACABRE MARRIAGE

Japanese Avantgarde/Black Metal act, SIGH (official page), recently announced the

release of "I Saw The World’s End - Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV," a revamped version of the 2007 studio album, "Hangman’s Hymn."

The sleeve artwork was designed by the band’s frequent collaborator, Israeli visual maestro Eliran Kantor, who has created several album covers for Sigh. He reimagined the original Hangman’s Hymn’s cover which also features three characters with their faces covered. “It is based on the image of the original Hangman's artwork,” confirms Sigh's vocalist, Mirai Kawashima. “I guess it has a feel of marriage [Vocalist/Saxophonist] Dr. Mikannibal sometimes wears the wedding costume on stage, so it may have inspired Eliran. The artwork looks very beautiful but if you look into the details, it’s very spooky—like a hooded man holding a hanging rope, etc."

Kawashima chose Kantor to reimagine the original "Hangman's Hymn" cover artwork because the artist "had done this kind of thing with [band's like] Cavalera, Kreator, Sodom etc. I mean, he made something new out of their legacies, and it worked really well. So, it was no brainer for me to ask him to re-do the artwork. Once I talked to him, surprisingly he came back to me with a sketch in a day. The first sketch was very close to the finished product although it was black and white. So, I kind of knew what the artwork would be like from the very beginning, and I knew it'd turn out something really great. Definitely it is what I wanted."

Kantor and Sigh apparently met “in Czech Republic when Sigh played at the Brutal Assault Festival," Kawashima says. "I got to know Eliran through [Israeli sound engineer] Maor Appelbaum, who mastered Sigh’s record, A Tribute to Venom.”

Sigh will release "I Saw The World’s End - Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV" through Peaceville Records on June 13, 2025. Pre-order at https://usa-peaceville.myshopify.com/collections/sigh

See more of Eliran Kantor's work at https://elirankantor.com/

A BEAUTIFULLY HORRIFIC ALBUM COVER

Israeli maestro, Eliran Kantor, crafted the cover artwork for Scalpture 's new album, "Landkrieg." This is the second collaboration (after the cover for the album, "Feldwärts") between Kantor and the German band.

"We knew we wanted to collaborate with Eliran Kantor again," Scalpture's members collectively comment. "In fact, the idea for the concept behind 'Landkrieg' was born while we were celebrating the release of Feldwärts—drinking, talking and already thinking about what would come next. From the beginning, we envisioned a beautiful, almost picturesque landscape painting that, upon closer inspection, reveals something truly horrific happening in the background."

The musicians say that "the central event in the artwork—a man killing another with an axe—went through several iterations before reaching its final form. Eliran was incredibly patient with us as we took our time refining the concept. The scene itself is inspired by an etching from Hans Ulrich Franck, an artist who lived during the Thirty Years' War. Eliran took this historical reference and transformed it into something truly stunning. For a Death Metal album cover, 'Landkrieg' is surprisingly colorful and, at first glance, even idyllic. Our initial stylistic direction was “Goya meets Monet,” and we believe Eliran captured that perfectly. His ability to blend beauty with brutality is unmatched, and we couldn’t be happier with the result."

"Landkrieg" is available through Testimony Records and through Scalpture's Bandcamp at https://scalpture.bandcamp.com/album/landkrieg

See more of Eliran Kantor's portfolio and purchase fine prints from his work at https://elirankantor.com/

THE PROPHET'S PORTRAIT

Polish Black Metal act, PATRIARKH (which basically is a new incarnation of Batushka) recently released the album "ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ" (“Prophet Ilja”) via Napalm Records. The cover artwork is a portrait of the titular character painted by multi-disciplinary Polish artist, Maciek Szupica aka Monsieur Zupika.

"Prophet Ilja is a historical figure who appeared in the Podlasie region during a time filled with unrest and mystery," Szupica reveals to And Justice For Art. "It was an era of self-proclaimed prophets who, in a rather sectarian manner, influenced uneducated groups of people, leading them into various religious rituals and practices."

Szupica had been "collaborating with the band Batushka for several years, which began when I was offered to create their first album cover." This naturally continued when he was offered to paint the artwork for "Prophet Ilja." He always works with vocalist, Bartłomiej "Bart" Krysiuk, "to best capture the mysticism of Orthodox rituals. I always strive to gather as much detailed information as possible to ensure I don’t miss any significant symbolic elements that are important in Orthodoxy."

The artwork was created "sing traditional methods, mainly as hand-drawn illustrations and graphics," the artist assures. "However, this cover is the first one painted in the style of oil painting. It may be less traditional compared to typical Orthodox iconography, but the entire artwork was painted by hand."

"Prophet Ilja" is available at https://napalmrecordsamerica.com/patriarkh