ALBUM COVER STORY: VOMITORY's "IN DEATH THROES"

Swedish Death Metal collective, Vomitory, just released its new album "In Death Throes" through Metal Blade Records. The cover artwork was crafted by Giannis Nakos of Remedy Art Design. Below, the Greek artist and Vomitory's drummer, Tobias Gustafsson, talk about the making of this artwork and other collaborations.

How did the band discover the works of Giannis Nakos?

Tobias Gustafsson: I've seen his artworks for different bands over the years, and I think his work is amazing. We were first in contact in 2014 when my band Cut Up was looking to get a band logo. We didn't use any of Giannis' logo drafts though, but I noticed right away that he was a cool guy and very easy to communicate with. So, when we were working on the previous Vomitory album "All Heads Are Gonna Roll", we asked him to do the cover art for it. And since he did a fantastic job on that one, we hired him once again for our new album "In Death Throes."

The cover for "In Death Throes" looks very apocalyptic. What is this image depicting?

Giannis Nakos: The initial idea was based on a reference given to me by the band. The whole of humanity is coming to an end. The sky being blood red and cracked, and in the center: a figure in the throes of death, surrounded by others like it, half alive, half ashes. The whole idea is as Death Metal as it can get. So we went for a decaying guy, being ripped from existence. Pretty iconic and with a straight to your face depiction.

Giannis, how did you create this artwork?

Giannis Nakos: This is a digital illustration indeed. A mixture of photobashing and digital drawing to be more precise. The digital medium always makes retouching and re-visiting parts of the art easier.