Artist who created Slayer's covers including Reign In Blood dies aged 65

By Scott Munro
( Metal Hammer )
published

Lawrence Carroll created the cover art for Slayer's Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven, Seasons In The Abyss and Christ Illusion

Lawrence Carroll, the artist who designed and created four of Slayer (opens in new tab)’s most iconic covers, has died at the age of 65.

The news was confirmed by the Karsten Greve Gallery and his friend Jason Holley, who called him a “giant” and the man behind “some of the best metal covers of all time.”

Carroll, who was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1954, created the covers of 1986’s Reign In Blood (opens in new tab), 1988’s South Of Heaven, 1990s Seasons In The Abyss and 2006 ’s Christ Illusion.

Speaking about his work with Revolver (opens in new tab) in 2010, Carroll said: “Not many art directors were lining up to ask me to illustrate the next Aerosmith or Sting album.

“I think they were afraid of what they would get. I was always told my work was too dark for most folks. So Slayer was a good fit for me.”

Carroll’s work has been shown in museums across the world, including New York’s Guggenheim, the Contemporary And Modern Art Museum of Trento and Roverando and Stuttgart City Gallery.

Image 1 of 4
Reign In Blood
Scott Munro
Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.