10 Rock + Metal Album Cover Artists You Need To Know About as Chosen by Demon Hunter’s Ryan Clark

Demon Hunter have always taken pride in their album artwork, and as it turns out the album artwork is just part of a wide-spanning artistic endeavor surrounding their forthcoming album, Exile. The record, due Sept. 9, is their first-ever concept album, set in the aftermath of civilized society's collapse and examining the new modern life through a nonconformist lens.

In addition, Demon Hunter are planning a four-issue comic series written by singer Ryan Clark to coincide with the new album, allowing the musician to further delve in to the album's conceptual themes.

Given Demon Hunter's affinity for combining intriguing visuals to accompany their hard-hitting musical pursuits, Loudwire reached out to Ryan Clark to discuss some of his favorite album art artists. While singling out some of the icons of album art, he makes sure to showcase some of the artists he feels should receive more attention.

We'll turn it over to Ryan here shortly, but first, keep an eye out for the band's upcoming Exile album, due Sept. 9. Take a listen to the recently released "Defense Mechanism" featuring a guest turn from Max Cavalera below and check out the eye-catching new Exile album artwork. Pre-orders are currently being taken here.  Below the artwork, Clark delved in to 10 Rock + Metal Cover Artists You Need to Know.

Demon Hunter (Featuring Max Cavalera), "Defense Mechanism"

Demon Hunter, Exile Album Artwork

When discussing the subject of metal and hard rock album artwork, we’re used to seeing similar lists of fine artists such as Ed Repka, Dan Seagrave, Derek Riggs, Kristian Wåhlin and the like. These artists have truly shaped what we all love about the face of extreme music. God knows I often favor this kind of album artwork myself; I’ve hired Dan Seagrave to create eight Demon Hunter covers over the years and have tapped the incredible talents of artists like Eliran Kantor, Dan Mumford, and Justin Kamerer.

The fine art category is well-tread territory for a good reason, but I believe the best album artwork cannot be summed up by this aesthetic alone. A true album art lover cannot reference Killers, Slaughter of the Soul and Arise without also acknowledging the genius behind classic covers like British Steel, Vulgar Display of Power, Roots, Dirt, White Pony and Iowa.

Having worked as a professional art director and graphic designer in the music industry for over 20 years, I thought it might be interesting to take a peek into the world of graphic design for heavy music. Some of the folks below are fine artists as well as designers. Some are also photographers, typographers and collage artists. My hope here is to illuminate some of the lesser discussed graphic artists behind many of my favorite album artworks.