Metal Artists

One of the great things about metal is that it has some of the most wonderful, intricate, and spectacular cover artwork of any music on the planet. Of course there is a lot of crap out there too, but that only highlights how great the best cover art really is. As the architects of metal's image, there are some individuals who have really perfected their craft and have become established fixtures as important to the metal community as many of the bands themselves. In this post I'll rank the ones who I think are the top 5, because I like making lists. I've picked out 5 album covers by each artist, so if you want to see more samples of their work you can follow the numbered (but not ranked) links below each entry.

Okay, here we go!

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#5. Spiros Antoniou
As a member of Septicflesh, he's had a role in both music and artwork in the metal world. He incorporates a lot of photography into his artwork and design, and he produces a style that, while not my absolute favorite, can look pretty bad ass and has clearly been a big part of modern metal imagery.

More covers: 1 2 3 4

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#4. Derek Riggs
A notable figure in the power/progressive metal scene, as well as the NWOBHM, Riggs is best known for creating Eddie. And while he has done other artwork, the pile of Iron Maiden covers to his name are his biggest contribution to metal imagery.

More covers: 1 2 3 4

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#3. Michael Whelan
Actually better established as a fantasy and sci-fi illustrator, he has nonetheless done several great metal album covers too (most notably for Obituary and Sepultura). Sadly, while his best is as good as anybody's, he hasn't done as much work in the metal world as any of the other artists on this list.

More covers: 1 2 3 4

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#2. Dan Seagrave
The top two really stand head and shoulders above the rest, and people's agreement with me here will largely depend on whether they prefer the imagery for death metal or black metal. Seagrave, who is known for his highly detailed work, is the king of death metal album art. Just slapping one of his paintings on an album's cover automatically makes the release 25% more brutal.

More covers: 1 2 3 4

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#1. Kristian Wåhlin
Often operating under the name Necrolord, Sweden's Kristian Wåhlin is the world's premier black metal cover artist. His work is not confined to that sub-genre, though, as he has done notable work for bands ranging from death and thrash to prog and power metal. He's even done some Christian metal album covers.  Wåhlin is responsible for many of the most fantastic album covers the metal world has ever seen, including my personal pick for the greatest metal album cover of all time (pictured). It was really hard to limit this to 5 pieces like I did for the rest of the artists on this list, but after some time and effort I managed it. He really is, in my opinion at least, the greatest artist in metal.

More covers: 1 2 3 4