Analysing some of metal's goriest album art

Ya ya ya, no ya no yah yah YAH no, good afternoon, fellow art lovers – Monsieur De Suede Pompeux here. Today I’m going to cast my expert eye over some wonderful pieces of art, particularly those associated with my second love – music. Art and music go together like quinoa and kumquat, so a combination of the two is a feast for the senses (particularly my refined ones). So accompany me on this journey through some of my favourite artworks that inhabit the arena that I like to term ‘music isn’t it’.

Jack Slater – Metzgore

What a scene! The hand mincing its own body into mush is a clear visual metaphor for the daily grind that befalls us all. Also, notice how the human mince can, if such is your want, be made into Bolognese. Bolognese rhymes with Bollock-neighs – horse testicles. Coincidence? I think not, readers.

Impaled – Medical Waste

Ah, a stunningly beautiful tableau of the inner organs of a human being. There is a genius in this piece – the carefully placed central ‘finger’ motif serves as an ode to anyone who has ever been eviscerated and left as a steaming pile of innards on the floor. Wouldn’t you like to swear at whomever did it to you? Yes, yes you would – a poignant reminder of how annoying it is to be disembowelled.

Cattle Decapitation – Humanure

My, how the tables have turned! I can only assume that Cattle Decapitation are a strict vegan band (what a hilariously ironic name!) and are making a vital social comment on mankind’s mindless and cruel consumption of innocent meat. Your friends, your family, hell, even you may have performed an action in stark contrast to the scene pictured here – the exact opposite, some may say. Think about this next time you pick up your steak at the butchers.

Cannibal Corpse – Bloodthirst

The surrealism inherent in this piece is immediately apparent – the otherworldly being at the centre of the image is a fantastical creation, straight out of a nightmare. The way it has eviscerated the human being to its right (your left) holds an important message. The man has been torn limb from limb and has no obvious way of protecting itself as it is now merely a torso – this symbolises the way in which society itself is completely defenceless against giant female head-arm insect mutant beasts – should they ever happen to attack. We, as humans, are not as all-powerful as we may think.

Infectious Catheter Therapy – Incredible Stories From Daily Human’s Life

Here, we see the artiste has subverted the norms of grammar in order to bring about a sense of confusion, almost Dadaist in its execution. The title – Incredible Stories From Daily Human’s Life – makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, unless of course we were talking about a person whose actual name was Daily Human. Maybe this is the effect the artiste wants to achieve, maybe it is not – such is the nature of art. We are doomed to float in the limbo of constant confusion.

Necrophagia – Holocausto de la Morte

What a glorious tableau of filmic references we have here – the artiste has included an homage frais to the famous movie director Lucio Fulci, with a barrage of imagery from his films, including the dramatic masterpiece Zombi 2 and the critical-darling City Of The Living Dead. They have then offset this with two deliberately terrible fonts – an effect which serves to highlight and critique the horrendous dangers of hiring amateurs to design your cover art.

Exhumed – Gore Metal

The culinary theme of this piece is a comment on consumerism and the natural world. ‘You are what you eat’ is a particularly relevant statement that is highlighted by the human head in the microwave. Not only does this allow the viewer to see themselves as an element of the natural food-cycle, it also goes some way to explaining the meaning of life. How, I don’t know. But it does.

Municipal Waste – The Fatal Feast Waste In Space

This particularly damning attack on the space race is at once controversial, but also refined and informed. Should different countries have their own space programs? Or should the world work together to explore the uncharted regions of space? The ultimate decision is up to the observer, but the artiste makes a valid point, that if space alien zombies attack – it doesn’t matter what country you’re from, you’re still fucked.

Hate Force One – Wave Of Destruction

This interesting piece is presented in monochrome, an effective technique that only serves to cement the fact that in the world of giant skeleton no-guts gun-arm monsters, everything is black and white. But what does this creature symbolise? The dangers of alcohol of course. Notice the three shells being propelled from the abomination’s weapon – it’s no coincidence they look like cocktail shakers. Drink too much and you’ll end up behaving like this fiend – it’s a tender message, one which we should most certainly heed.

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