Check out Cover Chaos: Part 1 here!
Check out Part 3 here!
Continuing our series of controversial album covers, here are some of your suggestions on albums we missed, plus a few more covers to bloody up your day!
1. Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction (1988)
It’s fitting that the debut album for British extreme metal band Carcass features a collage of autopsy photographs collected from medical journals. Reek of Putrefaction was re-released in 1994 with a ‘clean’ cover and again in 2002 with a censored outer cover and the original artwork contained inside.
2. Pungent Stench - Been Caught Buttering (1991)
Pungent Stench caused quite a stink with their 1991 release Been Caught Buttering. What looks like two severed heads kissing is actually just one man’s head in two halves - turned to face each other. The artwork had to be changed for the Australian release.
3. Slayer – Christ Illusion (2006)
The vision for the cover of Slayer’s tenth studio album Christ Illusion came from guitarist Kerry King. He asked artist Larry Carroll to create an image of Christ in ‘a sea of despair’. The result is Christ with one eye and amputated hands, surrounded by severed heads. Once again conservative American Christians were outraged and the album was released in some stores with an alternative cover.
4. Mayhem - Dawn of the Black Hearts (1998)
The infamous cover of Mayhem’s bootleg live album Dawn of the Black Hearts (recorded in 1990) is an actual post-suicide photograph of Dead, who joined the band in 1988 as vocalist. The picture was taken by founding guitarist Euronymous who discovered Dead’s body. It is said that Euronymous and drummer Hellhammer kept fragments of Dead’s skull on necklaces.
5. Vital Remains – Icons of Evil (2007)
Vital Remains' 2007 release Icons of Evil is packed full of anti-religious sentiments so it’s no surprise they chose a cover to match. The sample in the track ‘Where is Your God Now’ is taken from the Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. The cover displays a modern depiction of Jesus being nailed to the cross.
6. Marduk - Fuck Me Jesus (1991)
The title Fuck Me Jesus was always going to be controversial but in the name of black metal, Marduk chose an image of a girl having sex with a crucifix to really raise hell. The cover was banned in several countries following the release.
7. Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction (1987)
The original artwork for Appetite for Destruction was based on the Robert Williams painting of the same name. It depicts a robot rapist about to be punished by a metal avenger. British and American chains refused to stock the album and a new edition was printed with the now iconic ‘cross’ cover. Williams’ painting was moved to the inside of the sleeve.
8. Nailbomb – Point Blank (1994)
Nailbomb was the love child of Sepultura’s Max Cavalera and Fudge Tunnel’s Alex Newport. Point Blank was their only release and the cover was one to remember with an image of a female Vietcong member with a U.S. soldier's gun held to her head.
9. Cattle Decapitation – Humanure (2004)
Deemed too grotesque by retailers to sell, the cow on the cover of Cattle Decapitation’s third album Humanure was removed. The band posted a message justifying their decision to change the cover saying “We’ve been given the option to change the ‘Humanure’ album cover and we’re doing it. We’ve received too many complaints that people are unable to find the album.”
10. Brujeria – Mantando Geros (1993)
Matando Geros is the debut album from Mexican-American extreme metal band Brujeria. The image of the severed head on the cover was apparently taken from a real image published in a Mexican newspaper. The cover was banned in multiple countries and the head has since been taken by the band as a mascot and logo.
