11 Proper Scary Metal Album Sleeves

Satanic, scary and shocking imagery is of course firmly entrenched into the very fabric of metal music. We at Kerrang! Radio have picked out 10 of our favourite chilling album sleeves… see them in their gory glory below! (Warning: Some might be NSFW)

! Uriah Heep: ‘Very ‘eavy Very ‘umble’ (1970) The spooky cobwebbed face on the proper horrorshow sleeve was the band’s barely recognisable vocalist David Byron. As well as changing the title, the American version featured an alternate sleeve of a cartoon snake. Wimps.

! Rammstein: ‘Sehnsucht’ (1997) Austrian-Irish artist Gottfried Helnwein (who later worked with Marilyn Manson) used everyday kitchen objects like spoons, spatulas and egg-lifters to distort each Rammstein member’s face. The result is awesomely effective.

! King Diamond: ‘Give Me Your Soul… Please’ (2007) The concept album written from the perspective of two dead children who murdered their father had a hard-hitting horror sleeve to match.

! Opeth: ‘Deliverance’ (2002) The Swedish prog-metallers have eerie album covers down to an art form but their 2002 tour-de-force is easily our favourite – mainly down to the curious figure in the mirror.

! Cannibal Corpse: ‘The Bleeding’ (1994) True there are infinitely more grotesque and OTT Cannibal Corpse sleeves (the corpses on ‘Tomb of the Mutilated’ enjoying oral sex, for example) but there’s something unsettling about this one from the Kings of shock death metal.

! Cattle Decapitation: ‘Humanure’ (2004) Nothing quite says Halloween like a cow sh**ing out human remains does it?! A totally delectable parody of Pink Floyd’s befuddling 1970 album ‘Atom Heart Mother’.

! Megadeth: ‘Countdown To Extinction’ (1992) Dave Mustaine and co. abandoned their typically Vic Rattlehead adorned sleeves for an elevating, emaciated old prisoner. A gloriously horrific image.

! Korn: ‘Life Is Peachy’ (1996) Continuing the “threatened child theme” which first manifested on their eponymous debut album, Korn upped the anti with this disturbing image of a young choir boy with an ominous dark figure looming in the background. A stark juxtaposition to the album’s cheery title.

! Destruction: ‘Release From Agony’ (1988) Almost two decades before Pan’s Labyrinth, German thrash metallers Destruction pioneered the ‘hideous creature with eyes in his eyes’ thing to brilliant effect.

! Impaler: ‘One Nation Under Ground’ (2000) The Minnesota purveyors of horror metal like to push the boundaries, from their mock disembowellings in their live shows to their stomach-churning artwork – including this visual delight!

! Black Sabbath: ‘Black Sabbath’ (1970) The heavy metal Gods’ iconic sleeve depicts a lone female figure dressed in black standing in the grounds of Mapledurham Watermill. The silhouette of the raven in the tree adds to its strangely unsettling visual potency.

Do you think we’ve missed any gooduns from the list? Have your say in the comments section below!