The 2017 Progressive Music Awards is but a month away. And in fact, there’s only one week left to vote. One of several new categories for this year’s awards is for Album Cover Of The Year. We all know how important album artwork is to progressive music, and so it remains. We cast our eye over all the albums that we’ve reviewed over the past 12 months, and painstakingly worked out a list of those that had the most striking covers. We’re presenting each of those ten album covers here for you to view, after which, you can cast your own votes here.
Ayreon – The Source
Arjen Lucassen continues his modern space opera project with this star-packed prequel, featuring a snapshot of the Forever race’s biomechanical creation on its cover
Big Big Train – Grimspound
Folklore’s eponymous crow takes flight again with this full-length mythical companion, which gave the international collective their first chart placing at number 45 in the UK Chart
Heather Findlay – I Am Snow
The Mantra Vega singer gets festive with a winter-themed solo album and seasonal artwork from Mostly Autumn illustrator Richard Nagy
King Crimson – Radical Action To Unseat The Hold Of Monkey Mind
Ben Singleton returns to the Crimson fold and re-imagines the Cyclops for this 3CD/1 Blu-ray box set, featuring material recorded live in the UK, Canada and Japan during the band’s 2015 tours
Kylver – The Island
Eye-catching artwork accompanies the Newcastle four-piece’s eerie conceptual album. The cover features a representation of the ancient monoliths on the eponymous mythical island, providing the inspiration for the cloth-wrapped limited edition package
Mastodon – Emperor Of Sand
Conceptually exploring themes of death and survival, Mastodon’s seventh album includes cover art of the Emperor incarnate by comic illustrator Alan ‘Medusawolf’ Brown
Opeth – Sorceress
Travis Smith’s bold artwork accompanies Opeth’s diver 12th album. His formidable man-eating peacock is a sinister twist on Nazareth’s proud foul.
Robert Reed – Sanctuary II
A vibrant splash of colour graces the colour for the second part of the Magenta man’s Oldfield-inspired side-project
Tim Bowness – Lost In The Ghost Light
An epic tale of a fading fictional prog rocker needs an epic cover. Detailed artwork from Cobalt Chapel’s Jarrod Gosling explores the story of Moonshot’s Jeff Harrison
Wolf People – Ruins
Thematically exploring the idea of nature reclaiming the land, the pagan folk prog four-piece combine psychedelia with the supernatural on this cover from cult designer Luke Insect
