I've always adored this fantastically complex and luminescent masterpiece by Kristian "Necrolord" Wahlin. If the nonchalant observer was asked to paint a picture of "heavy metal" they would most likely attempt something along these lines: an icy realm inhabited by armed trolls, pointy medieval strongholds, frosty bridges, brooding clouds, malevolent nordic trees and of course...DEATH ON A PALE HORSE! In fact, that's the unofficial title of the classic engraving by suave as fuck French master (Paul) Gustave Doré from which these ghost riders in the sky were lifted. I'm not saying Necrolord didn't do this justice. He did. But at some point the band gave up and simply released this record with Doré's art photoshopped onto a pitch black background. Boring. Doré himself died relatively young and left a handsome corpse in 1883 but not before unleashing Lucifer and his legions upon the world in the form of hundreds of exquisitely detailed chiaroscuro engravings. The world will be playing catch-up for at least another century.

SLAYER S.A .





Don't worry, hellions. We'll get to the other Slayer momentarily. This, however, is Slayer from San Antonio, Texas' moment. I've never been entirely sure what's going on here. The only logical conclusion I can draw is that the classic EP cover pictured above is the band's photographic reproduction of "homage" to yet another Joseph Smith painting, this one also originally featured in Witches, first as the frontispiece inviting readers to push open that oaken door of mystery and again on page 65 . One might wonder why Joe's work was so unabashedly stolen back then, but if you've ever had the pleasure of poring over his fantastic art it is almost more perplexing why even more bands haven't raided his creative legacy. He's just so damn good! Credit is finally given where credit is very clearly due:



DANZIG

This one is no secret but I'm still amazed and a bit bummed that this sacred icon of my youth came from such a profane source. Ok, most of my sacred icons came from profane sources but...CRYSTAR the Crystal Warrior???? I hope comic artist Michael Golden received some royalties. This grossly uncredited appropriation first appeared on Samhain's November Coming Fire but is most popularly remembered for its appearance on the debut Danzig gatefold LP. I can't believe I don't have this tattooed on my cock...





SLAYER

"Join us...Join Us...JOIN US!!!!" Say what you want about Slayer (or, better yet, please just stop saying, "SLAYER!") but Hell Awaits still rules. The chainsaw riffs shred your corpus callosum leaving you clapping like a one-handed conundrum, the brilliant poetry barely makes sense but somehow still pisses off your parents and Dave Lombardo sounds like he's hammering his way out of a coffin filled with wet skulls. The cover art is simply fucking awesome. So primitive and strange and absolutely at war with the rules of composition, negative space and God.

Where on Earth did cover artist Albert Cuellar come up with such an insane vision of hell? Do you really want to know? Can you accept the truth?



Whoa. It was lifted without much creative embellishment from the July 1977 issue of Heavy Metal magazine and the original artist was none other than French comix visionary Jean Giraud, otherwise known as Moebius. Let's take another look:

Damn.

What about that other demon that's tearing that dude's face up with his savage fucking claw?

Oh. Well, have you ever wondered what else those demons did to that hapless captor of sin?

Now you know.

SLAYER (Part II)

Another great record from Slayer's best period. This vinyl picture disc still hangs on my wall, right above my drawing desk, and never fails to inspire and amuse. Somehow you felt like you already knew this precise scene from the moment you saw it staring back at you from the record store wall. Hmm. Perhaps that feeling of deja vu was not so mystical after all...



Artist Albert Cuellar very conservatively referenced the central image from this very early panel by the master of macabre himself, Berni Wrightson! This drawing originally appeared in an EC horror spoof called Ghastly Horror Comix in 1969 but it was reprinted and made more widely available in the 1980 Wrightson collection The Mutants. You can hardly blame Cuellar for ripping this off. It's a perfectly archetypal zombie and, in the spirit of fair play, Wrightson himself was aping the great comic artist Graham "Ghastly" Ingels when he drew this for an underground fanzine in the late 60's.



What about ol' Dave Lombardo back there shaking his drumsticks at the moon? Lifted from another Wrightson sketch circa 1970. This one was also reprinted in The Mutants, which is most likely where Cuellar discovered it since this drawing appears exactly opposite the above mentioned one-page strip. You can still score this book very cheap at decent used book stores and it's exciting to see Wrightson's evolution from an immensely talented young Frazetta disciple to a genuine icon in his own right just a few years later. While we're on the subject of Frazetta again...



MANILLA ROAD

My kids think this one is a bit of a stretch. Their argument- and they supported it with a pretty convincing google image search- is that this painting is just a by the numbers viking-at-the-helm-of-a-longship rendering. Generic but not strictly derivative. But I'm sticking to my guns. The palette and composition are just too close for coincidence. C'mon. Take a look at Frank Frazetta's gorgeous painting Cane on the Golden Sea and draw your own conclusion. Either way, my kids are still grounded.



