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In the Nightside Eclipse (1994)
Released
Emperor · Play Into the Infinity of Thoughts
The dark, crowded landscape and pale ridges give the picture much of its depth. Start with the album opener for a wash of keyboard and guitar parts that seem to put several distances in the same track.
More about In the Nightside Eclipse23
Nightfall (1987)
Released
Candlemass · Play At the Gallows End
Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life: Old Age singles out a boat and an angel against a vast dark landscape. That little bright opening has a counterpart in the way the voice climbs above the steady riff.
More about Nightfall24
Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986)
Released
Candlemass · Play Solitude
The high-contrast skull and its crossed shapes have a near-monumental stillness. Start with Solitude for its patient introduction and a heavy sound that gives the silence around each phrase a purpose.
More about Epicus Doomicus Metallicus25
Dopethrone (2006)
Released
Electric Wizard · Play Funeralopolis
A horned figure and stylized smoke fill a sleeve that leaves little neutral space. Play Funeralopolis to hear the guitars take up the same amount of room around a repeated idea.
More about Dopethrone26
At the Heart of Winter (1999)
Released
Immortal · Play Withstand the Fall of Time
An icy fortress rises between sheer cliffs under the album’s blue-gray sky. The opener keeps a fast riff moving while widening the arrangement around it, matching the sleeve’s contrast between the sharply drawn center and a vast setting.
More about At the Heart of Winter27
Left Hand Path (1990)
Released
Entombed · Play Left Hand Path
A gravestone, stairs, and dark trees suggest a larger place beyond their blue foreground. The title track follows a comparable route from thick guitar to an ending that opens out into melody.
More about Left Hand Path28
Transilvanian Hunger (1994)
Released
Darkthrone · Play Transilvanian Hunger
A figure with a candle takes up very little of the hard black-and-white sleeve. Try the title track for a narrow production palette that still lets variations in one repeated pattern steer an entire piece.
More about Transilvanian Hunger29
Altars of Madness (1989)
Released
Morbid Angel · Play Immortal Rites
The illustration connects bodies and shapes into a field with almost no blank space. Play Immortal Rites for the way quick riffs, drum bursts and shifts of pace keep that density in motion.
More about Altars of Madness30
Symbolic (1995)
Released
Death · Play Symbolic
The painted hands and fragments of figures make the design feel like several levels of one thought. Play Symbolic to hear the band hold a recognizable line while adding small changes underneath it.
More about Symbolic31
Focus (1993)
Released
Cynic · Play Veil of Maya
Robert Venosa’s floating figure has a precision that makes the image look weightless. The cycling guitar figure and processed voice in Veil of Maya create a similar sense of leaving an ordinary metal band’s arrangement behind.
More about Focus32
None So Vile (1996)
Released
Cryptopsy · Play Crown of Horns
The sleeve crops Elisabetta Sirani’s Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist tightly around the figures. The stillness of the painting makes an unsettling companion to the quick changes in Crown of Horns.
More about None So Vile33
Arise (1991)
Released
Sepultura · Play Arise
The monstrous forms in Michael Whelan’s cover painting seem to grow into one another. Try the title track for the fast changes of guitar and drums that make it difficult to separate one texture from the next.
More about Arise34
Roots (1996)
Released
Sepultura · Play Roots Bloody Roots
The sleeve gives the portrait and its textures nearly all the room. Play the opener for a sound centered on one strongly defined riff and the layered percussion around it.
More about Roots35
Heartwork (1993)
Released
Carcass · Play Heartwork
The sleeve’s photograph of a skeletal sculpture by H. R. Giger sets soft curves against hard joints. In the title song, the guitar melody stays smooth while the band keeps cutting it into shorter shapes.
More about Heartwork36
Vulgar Display of Power (1992)
Released
Pantera · Play Mouth for War
The photograph catches the split second before its force has anywhere to go. The start of Mouth for War uses a tight, quick change in a riff to make a comparable impact.
More about Vulgar Display of Power37
White Pony (2000)
Released
Deftones · Play Digital Bath
The original gray sleeve reduces the image to a small white horse. Digital Bath also keeps its first ideas spare, letting texture and a vocal build do the work that a more crowded arrangement might do.
More about White Pony38
Blackwater Park (2001)
Released
Opeth · Play The Drapery Falls
The wooded cover gives you a pale opening inside a darker frame. Play The Drapery Falls for the clean passages that make the louder sections feel like different spaces in the same landscape.
More about Blackwater Park39
Still Life (1999)
Released
Opeth · Play Face of Melinda
The figure and uneasy sky turn the album’s historical story into a still scene. The clean opening of Face of Melinda gives the heavy turn that follows a similar coming-out-of-the-distance effect.
More about Still Life40
Lateralus (2001)
Released
Tool · Play Schism
Alex Grey’s anatomical covers for the record show overlapping layers rather than one surface. In Schism, the repeating low figure is easy to recognize even when its timing fits over several different patterns.
More about Lateralus41
The Sciences (2018)
Released
Sleep · Play Marijuanaut's Theme
An astronaut floats against a dark field. Play Marijuanaut’s Theme for the way the slow, heavy riff expands around a few repeated notes, fitting the sleeve’s sense of one body moving through empty space.
More about The Sciences42
The Art of Self Defense (2000)
Released
High on Fire · Play Blood from Zion
An eagle with its talons out occupies almost the entire sleeve. Choose Blood from Zion for the sound of a guitar and rhythm section putting the same single-minded pressure on a spare idea.
More about The Art of Self Defense
