Favorite Album Covers

My friend Johnnie is working on a book about album covers. He says the book will be pure art – no photos of bands. It's hard to create a comprehensive list so he asked for our help. My fave covers are below – and I'm sure I forgot some as it is. It's always difficult for me to create lists like this because I invariably forget something I would have otherwise included. Let me know what you think of my list and please list your own as well.

  

 

Comments

[Metalboy!]

Sticking to my 80's/90's Glam Metal Gunz, I'll forgot the usual Hypnosis/Frazetta/Dean route and keep it to my fave genre. Also, there may be a bit of Spinal Tappishness to some or all of my picks as I do see humor in most everything about this music, including the album covers...

Here goes...

1) Accept, "Metal Heart"
2) Aerosmith, "Draw The Line"
3) Guns'n'Roses, "Appetite For Destruction"
(original banned Robert Williams cover)
4) Warrant, "Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinkin' Rich"
5) Motley Crue, "Too Fast For Love"
6) Phantom Blue, "Built To Perform"
7) Poison, "Open Up And Say Ahhhh!!!"
8) Saxon, "Destiny"
9) Britny Fox, "Boys In Heat"
10) Vixen, "Vixen"

[bman1968]

If we are going for artwork 1. Molly Hatchet Flirtin With Disaster, 2. April Wine Nature of the Beast,

[i'mtheone]

As far as a cover goes I really like Van Halen 1. Shows them when they were young and hungry. VH were so cool lookin' back then. I also like Judas Priest's 'British Steel', it's simple. Love AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell', Angus especially looked so cool and slightly menacing with his devil horns and holding his tail. Classic cover. There's others I like but I tried to stay within the rock genre.

[Lucas Serpa]

My List:

1 - Appetite For Destruction - Guns N' Roses
2 - 1984 - Van Halen
3 - Too Fast For Love - Motley Crue
4 - Nevermind - Nirvana
5 - London Calling - The Clash
6 - Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath
7 - Angels Cry - Angra
8 - Back In Black - AC/DC
9 - Rocka Rolla - Judas Priest
10 - Seventh Son of Seventh Son - Iron Maiden

[SMKnotSMF]

Motley - theatre
VH - 84
Most Maiden
KISS - Love Gun / Destroyer / Dressed 2 Kill

[Metalboy!]

More...

1) Black Sabbath, "Heaven & Hell"
2) Kiss, "Rock And Roll Over"
3) AC/DC, "If You Want Blood, You've Got It" (front and back)
4) Van Halen, "1984" (excellent choice, Lucas!)
5) Black Sabbath, "Technical Ecstasy"
6) Cheap Trick, "In Color" (front and back -- I know this is band shots, but it's conceptual and hilarious!)
6) Cheap Trick, "Heaven Tonight" (same explanation as above)
7) Alice Cooper, "School's Out"
8) Faster Pussycat, "Whipped"

[JAT]

I am one of the biggest KISS fans and I always thought that the Destroyer cover was fantastic....next was the Love Gun (I think by the same artist who also did the Manowar "Fighting The World" album). I like a lot of the Savatage covers too. Most like the Iron Maiden stuff and so on.

[nc rocker]

Love the "Dressed to Kill" album cover for KISS as well.

[Chessie >^..^<]

1) Asia: s/t - art by Roger Dean. Loved the dragon. Had a chance years ago to buy a print of it and didn't, and I'm now kicking myself...
2) Trans Siberian Orchestra: The Lost Christmas Eve - art by the Hildebrandt brothers. It's Christmas-sy, true, but check out the white guitar in the snow globe wrapped in red roses (a tribute to Chris Oliva).
3) Winger: IV - art by Ethan Van Sciver. The soldier surrounded by his guardian angels pulls out the theme of the album. My copy got signed by the artist before the band, so there nyah, Kip! :)

[Shadow]

Wow, this will be hard!
In no particular order.....

Quiet Riot- Condition Critical
Ozzy- Diary Of A Madman, Ultimate Sin
Sabbath- Mob Rules, Paranoid-(completely random love it!)
W.A.S.P.- first four albums
Overkill- F@#$ You! EP
Van Halen 5150

My Favorite of All time though is reserved for the album that started it All- Boston- Walk On

[KixRules]

Hotwire by Kix is one of my favorites...Appetite has to be the best!

[Hayseed]

Appetite #1. Some newer ones that are intriguing are:
Eden's Curse
Hinder - All American Nightmare
Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien
Live - Throwing Copper

Just for giggles...

[kari]

Albums i have in frames bec I just think they are the coolest: Theatre of Pain, VH II, Appetite, Hysteria, Operation Mindcrime and 5150. Albums I think are noteworthy are Back In Black (simple yet stands the test of time), Destroyer, British Steel, Puppets and Ride the Lightening, Blizzard of Oz, Open Up and Say Ah (full cover).
MAIDEN deserve an entire chapter all their own for they are the Kings of Master Album Art!!

[scott]

Few of mine...

Judas Priest - Painkiller
GNR - Appetite
WASP - Headless Children
Testament - Souls of Black
King Diamond - Abigail

[JohnK]

Scorpions.... Blackout

[Metalboy!]

Google "1000 Album Covers".

The challenge, Johnny, is featuring album covers that aren't in books that are already out there.

It's possible. Just avoid the usual suspects.

Restricting it to nothing but illustration or, if you are going to include covers that are photographic, make sure they are high concept.

Also, if you restrict your subject matter to 80's/90's Glam Metal, you would be carving out a niche that would be different than all of the other album cover art books. Skip all the Hypnosis and Frazetta stuff, as I mentioned before, as it's been done to death...

More with this in mind:

1) Lizzy Borden, "Love You To Pieces"
2) Scorpions, "Break Out" (good call, John K - this artist
is now uber famous for his photo-realist "Pain" paintings )
3) Van Halen, "Fair Warning"
4) Ratt, "Out Of The Cellar"
5) WW III, "WW III"
6) Def Leppard, "Pyromania"
7) Bangalore Choir, "On Target"
8) Crue, "Doctor Feelgood"
9) Mr. Scary, "The World Can Wait"
10) Bullet Boys, "Bullet Boyz"

[Metalboy!]

Oops! I mean Scorpions, "Black Out"! Sheeez!!!

[Brian L]

I love Poison's Look what the cat drug in
Crue too fast for love
Kiss Asylum
Accept metal heart
The Keel album with the big guitar flying...forget the name?? help.

[ROCK-IT]

Is the book going to only include releases that were on vinyl? Or does it include CDs?

Some More Common Covers I Like:

KROKUS - "The Blitz"
AUTOGRAPH - "Sign In Please"
QUIET RIOT - "Down To The Bone"
ALDO NOVA - "Blood On The Bricks"
DREAM THEATER - "Images And Words"
MEAT LOAF - "Bat Out Of Hell"
KICK AXE - "Vices"
FUNNY MONEY - "Back Again"
Y&T - "In Rock We Trust"
STARZ - "Starz"

Some Lesser Known Covers:

BARRACUDA - "Open Fire"
THE DEADTHINGS - "Dead Over Heels"
QUADE - "Heavens Break"
SKIN & BONES - "Not A Pretty Sight"
WHITE WIDOW - "Turn It Up"
OUTRAGE - "Dirty Fantasies"
JOHNNY CRASH - "Neighborhood Threat"
OUTLAW BLOOD - "Outlaw Blood"
GEMINI - "Out For Blood"
SHIRE - "Shire"

It would be cool to have a collection of the lesser known covers. Ones that you don't see everyday.

[florentine]

avenged sevenfold nightmare and bullet for my valentince scream aim fire are the coolest album covers.