James Bulloch a.k.a. The Humanfurnace of the band Ringworm hands us his top 5 favorite covers of all time. Â Â An accomplished artist himself, James has done artwork for a number of bands and is the owner of 252 Tattoo in Cleveland, Ohio. Â In the coming months James will be a frequent contributor to the site, so keep your eyes peeled.
THE HUMAN FURNACE TOP 5
It’s hard to choose favorites, so here’s a list of some of the album covers that influenced me as a really young kid and as an artist, in no particular order. Â I found it a lot easier to break my favorites into time periods of my life. So, what better place to start then the beginning.
1.) NAZARETH – NO MEAN CITY 1979 by Rodney Matthews
This cover blew my face off, when I was a kid. Totally fucking BAD-ASS! I’ve been using this as a template for drawing skulls for the past 30 yrs. Not to mention that this guys done album covers for Thin Lizzy, Diamond Head and Scorpions, to name a few.
2.) AEROSMITH – TOYS IN THE ATTIC 1975 by Ingrid Haenke
I’m not sure why, but back then, this cover scared me. The thought of evil toys coming to life, might have had something to do with it. The art was really wicked and creepy. This one really sent my art in a certain direction. And, I never looked at my toys the same way.
3.) KISS – DESTROYER 1976 – by Ken Kelly
I’ll keep this short. Awesome cover. KISS will destroy your city. I’m not going to get into how this band changed my life in many many ways.
4.) BLACK SABBATH – BLACK SABBATH 1970
Ok, so who isn’t terrified of this cover? I’m still scared and I’m nearly 40 yrs old. I can recall seeing this in my older sisters record collection and being scared to listen to it. I still imagine, every time I see it, how bad I would shit my pants if I was walking through the woods and came across this broad. Holy shit. Boy, am I glad I over came my fear of evil forest witches enough to put the needle on this record. I never really thought of this cover in terms of art, until i was older. It’s effectiveness as an album cover to introduce BLACK SABBATH to the world is unbeatable.
5.) VAN HALEN – VAN HALEN – 1977 – Elliot Gilbert (photography) Dave Bhang (design)
I heard my sister jam this record all the time before I saw the cover. Isn’t funny how, when you, or at least I, hear something that’s awesome, the first thing you want to do is see the record cover? Why? BECAUSE COVER ART IS IMPORTANT! It makes a band that much better! A sweet fuckin VH logo right in the middle, Eddy’s guitar looks like its on fire, Alex’s drums blazing, Diamond Dave and Mike rocking the fuck out!? The cover looks looks like it’s a warning. WARNING: LISTEN WITH EXTREME CAUTION. THESE GUYS FUCKING RAGE LIKE NOTHING YOU’VE EVER HEARD BEFORE. No mystery here. One look and you KNOW what these dudes are all about. It’s not my favorite VH album cover but its the first one I saw and it left an impression, I can tell you that!
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