The Art of Metal: Five Decades of Heavy Metal Album Covers, Posters, T-shirts...

Description

Over 400 of the finest examples of metal poster and cover art, spanning the entire 50-year history of metal, and how that art has helped define the genre Without the larger-than-life character and imagination of the art that complements it, metal wouldn’t have had the same impact in capturing the intense spirit and visual identity that define its rebellious essence. From the colorful, outlandish, and sophisticated use of visuals for album artwork and posters, to the immediately recognizable logos of such bands as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Metallica, Slayer, and a host of others across many subgenres, there’s a close-knit relationship between the riffs that thunder from the guitar and the images that have come to represent the songs, anthems, and sheer nature of the beast. Does any other form of music immediately conjure up such evocative and distinctive images as the mere mention of the term "heavy metal"? From its inception in the 1960s through today’s giants, the art has been closely connected to the music. Every quintessential album brings to mind a readily identifiable album cover. Each great band has an immediately identifiable logo. All of the landmark gigs have a poster that quintessentially depicts the time, place, and passion of the event. Today, the art that has been used to illustrate the music now stands on its own. What might have begun as a way of packaging metal has taken on a life of its own. It’s now possible to trace the way the genre itself has evolved, and changed, by looking at its art. The Art of Metal explores the ways in which the art has helped define each of the crucial subgenres that make up the multifaceted and colorful centipede that is metal. Review: Get this book! It rocks! - As a kid I remember the excitement of picking up a new record from Sound Warehouse, rushing home to put it on the turntable while spending hours looking through the artwork that lined the sleeves and especially the covers. Some of the greatest memories are from those days getting lost in that world of music and art. This is an amazing book for any fan of the metal genre or just all around lover of great album cover art from the classic rock and metal days! Beautiful pictures and great detailed information about how the bands chose the covers and artists that they did! I was hoping for a little more on some of my favorite covers from Judas Priest, Ozzy and Metallica, but I understand that you can’t literally talk about every album cover ever! Still a great book for any fan of not just the amazing music from the 70s and 80s but for lovers of all of the amazing art from those days as well. Review: Exceeded my Expectations - Based on some of the not so positive reviews my expectations weren’t the highest. But from the moment I received this beautiful book in my hands I have been really happy and impressed. I received it in a perfect condition. Of course this book doesn’t and neither can cover the entire spectrum of all metal genres and albums. But what it does show it does it in a beautiful way and with a wonderfully laid out book. This is some great graphic design and beautiful artwork, and the print work is of high quality. The source material is crisp and detailed and not some inferior scan job, but looking like in the majority of the cases they truly got hold of the original art work. The size of the book is excellent. As a long time metal head and graphic artist, I’m giving this book two happy horns up! \,,/ \,,/ This is a fantastic addition to my coffee table with large metal related books. Buy this, you will not regret it!