For this blog, I wanted to show you how I turned some ordinary photographs of Lamb Of God into the apocalyptic images that grace the cover and feature pages of Revolver magazine's April 2009 issue, on newsstands now!
The concept for these images goes in line with the overarching theme behind the band's new album Wrath, which is, in short, all things end-times: plagues, pestilence, locusts, hail, blood red skies and rivers, etc.
For the cover specifically, the direction was to place the band in a swarm of locusts, with a sky of deep red looming in the background. For this image, I was able to keep most of the photo intact, and just add the locusts. I also wanted to add a horizon line comprised of steeples and old-world architecture. All in all, this image was pretty cut and dry. The most tedious part of the process was accurately cutting out the locusts, and placing them into the image.
(Click "more" to read how Ryan Clark turned the members of Lamb of God into harbingers of the apocalypse for the cover and inside magazine art.) Read more...
It seems an unlikely pairing -- Demon Hunter working with Machine Head to create art for the special edition of The Blackening. Here, Demon Hunter guitarist and designer Don Clark explains why it had to work.
First off, let me start off by talking about Machine Head -- in general.
I remember when my buddy Brandon Ebel first told me about the band's first album Burn My Eyes in 1994, shortly after its release. At the time, I was playing in hardcore bands and deep into that scene, but metal was also a huge part of my life. Fear Factory, Sepultura, Prong, Metallica (obviously), Pantera, Slayer ... the list goes on. So, when I heard Burn My Eyes ... I was obviously floored. I even remember the day I drove down to Tower Records (RIP) on Broadway Street in Sacramento to pick it up -- and the moment I popped it in the CD deck. It had that new American thrash sound that I loved, but it had something else -- "Davidian." To this day, I don't know if it gets better than that opening riff, following by the classic line "LET FREEDOM RING WITH A SHOTGUN BLAST!" I still get chills when I hear it. From that moment on, Machine Head were my metal band of choice, trumping all others. (click "more" to read the rest of Don Clark's homage to Machine Head and to see the art he and his brother Ryan created for the expanded edition of The Blackening. Read more...
Here's Demon Hunter singer and Invisible Creature designer Ryan Clark talking about the new art work he and created for The Showdown's new album Back Breaker.
Continuing with the theme of our every-so-often design blogs, I've got something hot off the press (actually, it hasn't even been printed yet) to show you.
I started working on the artwork for The Showdown's new record, Back Breaker just before leaving on tour this Summer. The Greek-mythology-themed song titles instantly drew me to a concept that I pitched to the band, which went something like this: Read more...
Today, we thought we'd give everyone a sneak peek at the artwork for Inhale/Exhale's new album, 'I Swear.'
Like every project we work on, we try and gather as much information on the album as possible. What is the meaning behind the title? Is there a theme? Is there a concept that the band has in mind? Is there an overarching emotion or feeling being conveyed? ie. depressing, positive, uplifting, dark, etc. In a nutshell: What is the album about?
Click "more" to see the cover art and details of the rest of the art on the record. Read more...
By now, everyone who reads this blog or -- any other media vehicle that has interviewed Demon Hunter -- knows that siblings Ryan (singer) and Don (guitarist) Clark are mean graphic designers who own a company called Invisible Creature. Here is one of their latest along with a write-up from Ryan:
In our last two blogs, we showed you some of our past design work and gave some insight into what we do when we're not on the road or in the studio with Demon Hunter. This time we'd like to show you something we've been working on recently. Something that was... JUST finished. Something that hasn't seen the light of day until... right now.
Jimmy Ryan, former vocalist for metalcore giants, Haste The Day, has been busy writing and recording with his new band, Trenches. We are very excited to have been given the opportunity to create the artwork for this band's debut album. The music itself is very unique, and really allowed us to think outside the box. The band was very open to whatever we wanted to do (a major plus) and we couldn't help but explore a concept that we've been holding onto for a while now -- waiting for just the right project to come along so that we could go for it (click "more" to see the Trenches art). Read more...
As Ryan mentioned in his last post, when Demon Hunter is not in the studio or on the road, we are busy designing, illustrating and handling art direction. We work primarily in the music industry and have created art for hundreds of bands.
One of the album packages we get asked most is Bleeding Through's The Truth, which I created in 2006. Here's how I pulled it off:
After speaking with singer Brandan Schieppati about the theme behind the album (including the lyrical content and the overarching message the band was conveying), I came up with a concept that I felt was cool enough to pitch to the band. Brandan mentioned to me that while so many bands were attempting to change their sound and message in the hopes of gaining popularity or fame, Bleeding Through was staying true to themselves and their music. To him, this was "The Truth." It's an aggressive record full of rants, tirades and personal vendettas. I immediately wanted to create artwork that embodied this anger. Their deep, dark 'truths' were as black as night and I wanted visually to represent that.
After pitching the idea to the band, I showed them this rough sketch: 
They immediately approved the idea, but they had no idea what they were in for. Read more...
We thought we were clutching at straws when we decided to ask the Grammy award winning art guys from Demon Hunter, Don and Ryan Clark to send us some exclusive illustrations. But we figured, "Well, what the hell (oops, we mean heck). All they can do is say no." To our surprise, they didn't turn us down. In fact, with no hesitation they sent us six kick-ass drawings that haven't been published anywhere else.
We'd like to think we're jaded enough not to get too impressed by anything, but we were genuinely humbled that the dudes who do all of the killer album art for Tooth & Nail and Solid State Records and have designed covers for Foo Fighters, Chris Cornell and Will I Am, were totally into contributing stuff to our metal blog. Kinda makes us reconsider doing so many stories on really evil bands like Deicide and Gorgoroth -- at least for, like, two seconds.
Click "more" to read what singer Ryan Clark has to say about the six original illustrations, then check them out for yourself: Read more...
