Hello and welcome to The Progressive Subway’s inaugural Best Album Art of the Year post! About halfway through this year, we decided to start crediting album cover artists in reviews wherever possible. Extending kudos to the artists whose work adorns the covers of our favourite music was long overdue, but a new enemy has also arisen: AI art. While there were a few albums we reviewed with AI art, we called it out where we found it and will continue to do so as long as we’re able to distinguish it from real artists and, where possible, just ignore it (fuck you, Pestilence, you’re not getting a review out of us). To all you musicians out there, please credit the human artists that you work with clearly so we can credit and celebrate them (and if you use AI, credit that too so we can bully you). That’s what we’re here to do today (celebrate, not bully). Our writers went through every album we reviewed this year and voted for their favourite album art to bring you the top ten we present to you today (we also attempt art criticism which, it’s safe to say, we’re not good at)!
Ten entries cannot even begin to cover the wealth of great art that adorned both great and not-so-great albums alike. Between us I’m sure we could’ve put together a top fifty of fantastic artwork. Nor were we all united in our favourites (although the top two were universally popular), which means that while the standard metal album cover tropes appear, there are some surprising picks within. If you like skeletons, pigeons, ice cream, alien shenanigans and the woke agenda, then you’ll really love the list we put together! Keep supporting real music, keep supporting real artists, and, if you see a robot this year, be sure to kick it in its junk.
Honorable mention:
Amiensus – Reclamation Pts I & II, artwork by Aria Fawn: having two entries ended up splitting the vote for Amiensus and Aria Fawn, unforgivably sticking them in 11th place, but we couldn’t not pay tribute to not one but two pieces by an institution of prog album art. With her ethereal style, vivid palettes, and inimitably swirling composition, Fawn’s dual pieces of a centaur at first embattled and then triumphant are gorgeous pieces to adorn Amiensus’ brilliant double album, and we’d be remiss not to mention them.
10. Orso – Caffè
Artist: Raul Bortolotti
Write-up by: Francesco
Photography as a medium is becoming more and more difficult to find on album covers; of the ten we’ve listed here, I think two are photographs, and the other might be a photo composite. Orso’s Caffè, like their last work Paninoteca (a sandwich shop), takes direct inspiration from the track listing – in particular, the “Affogato”. An affogato is an Italian dessert consisting of a shot of espresso poured over ice cream. Simple enough would’ve been to capture a scoop of ice cream in an espresso cup with coffee poured over it, but good food photography is never easy, and more challenging still is to use food items that melt or spoil quickly1. So photographer Raul Bortolotti chose to extrapolate a bit (and make his life rather more challenging). As a photographer myself, I can tell you that just like making a good espresso, this took some real preparation and probably a good couple of test shots to get the machine calibrated properly—I mean, exposure and timing correct. Probably fired on burst. But maybe they used a caffettiera (I note the lack of crema on the espresso2.) Anyway, a creative work all in all, and unique to boot. Beyond the obvious connection to the subject matter on Orso’s release, I think it well captures the individualistic nature of the band’s work. And so far removed is it from other metal album covers that I couldn’t help but cast my vote in their direction. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go grab an espresso. Corretto, grazie.
Artist’s links: Instagram | Official Site
Band’s links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
9. Ætheria Conscientia – The Blossoming
Artist: Ëmgalaï
Write-up by: Christopher
On their third album, Ætheria Conscientia told a psychedelic tale of cosmic horror, a lost spaceship landing on a planet only to find extraterrestrial and fungal nightmares. On the album cover, Ëmgalaï portentously renders the hostile world the hapless crew are set to land upon. For a second you could be forgiven for thinking this is one of Earth’s more tropical climes, but then… what’s that metal structure, some sort of extraterrestrial architecture? Are those pine trees or some alien analogue thereof? Wait, why is the sky tessellated? And what’s that lurking in the trees? Between the utterly claustrophobic perspective, the uncanny valley ecology and the earthy palette against a bruised empyrean, Ëmgalaï perfectly captures the bad-trip vibe of The Blossoming. The colonisation of that which cannot be comprehended will destroy the coloniser. You shouldn’t have landed here, this is not for you, and one by one you will fall.
Artist links: Instagram | Facebook | Official Site
Band links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
8. Mountaineer – Dawn and All That Follows
Artist: Nicolas Spearman
Write-up by: Sabrina
Nicholas Spearman’s art piece for Mountaineer’s fifth album immediately brings a beautiful & vibrant ambiance to the bedroom, perfectly encapsulating the sui generis feeling of waking up in a cold sweat after a fever dream. More unsettling, however, is the creeping astral sky spilling into the realm of the mundane; forcing the misplaced feeling of distinctness from the largely apathetic cosmos, the naivete itself, to become viscerally apparent. The clever emphasis on color presents sinister implications as to which entities have real power and which are just sustained by mere complacency—perhaps even making a statement about one having meaning or authority over the other. These upscale suburban interiors will not save one from the twinkling void apparently eager to embrace them with open arms.
Artist links: Instagram | Official Site
Band links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
7. Orgone – Pleroma
Artist: David D’Andrea / Samaritan Press
Write-up by: Zach
I really don’t know what’s going on in this album art, but I fuck with it heavily. Did pigeons peck the skeleton to death? Why is there a man/woman/person hugging said skeleton? What does anything of this have to do with Orgone’s music thematically? I’m not really sure, but it absolutely fits the folk-tinged nightmare that is Pleroma. It feels just as jarring as the music itself, seemingly containing layers upon layers of meaning with regards to the symbology used; the style meanwhile is similar to that of traditional tattoo art, only adding to my theory of double meanings. Or, maybe the artist just presented this and all 600 members of Orgone went “Cool”, and that was that. Either way, it’s an incredible piece of art that’s become one of my favorite covers of the year.
Artist links: Instagram | Facebook | Official Site
Band links: Bandcamp | original review
6. Unsouling – Vampiric Spiritual Drain
Artist: Luciana Nedelea
Write-up by: Sam
Absurdism is one of my favorite brands of artistry (and comedy), and the image of a wormhole abducting some poor wolves [Editor’s note: we had a whole discussion about whether they were wolves, coyotes or, as one person—I’m not going to name names—who has apparently never been to a farm suggested, wild boar] on such a beautiful art piece just absolutely sends me. I have so many questions. What’s a wormhole doing here? And why is it abducting only the wolves? The poor creatures are going to die of malnourishment. Wasn’t this album supposed to be about vampires? Do these animals represent some sort of spiritual essence to Unsouling that the wormhole feels is better suited elsewhere in the galaxy? Why are these wolves so damn chill about it? Isn’t this gonna mess up the local ecosystem? I guess we’ll never know, but at least we can make up for this wormhole’s antics by donating to the Wolf Conservation Center. Save the wolves, everyone.
Artist links: Instagram | Facebook | Official Site
Band links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
5. Vitriol – Suffer & Become
Artist: Dylan Humphries
Write-up by: Cooper
If there’s one thing I love in my album artwork, its detail, and from the impending storm to the cliff adorning castle and chainmail draped skeleton taking center stage, on Vitriol’s Suffer & Become there detail abounds. As I listen to this album on my record player, I sit and stare at the artwork just as much as I read the lyrics, and I truly feel there is equally much to be gleaned from both. I don’t know why those snakes are inside that skeleton. Google tells me red snakes with black stripes are usually harmless, but maybe they killed him through sheer quantity. So many questions. So little answers.
Artist links: Instagram | Official Site
Band links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
4. Hideous Divinity – Unextinct
Artist: Adam Burke
Write-up by: Andy
I’ve got a bit of a thing for Adam Burke and proudly hang two prints of his on my bedroom wall, both gifts from our social media gal Akhila. I’ve also got a thing for maritime artwork, so when Burke takes his brush to the high seas as he does on Unextinct, we’ve got an instant classic on our hands. Burke’s classic acrylic on wood format is the perfect medium for the naturally flowing spume and sickly yellow clouds. While the robed vampire attacking may seem a more frivolous addition, I love that the piece doesn’t take itself so self-seriously that it can’t lean into a more camp sense of horror, and the way his cloak blends into the deck with vermin and light spilling out creates a stunning focal point. Every year we get a dozen or so Burke covers in the metal world, and for me this one bests them all in 2024.
Artist links: Instagram | Facebook | Official Site
Band links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
3. Pyrrhon – Exhaust
Artist: Caroline Harrison
Write-up by: Christopher
To listen to Pyrrhon, CDs or LPs in-hand, is to witness the evolution of two artists at once; every work in their discography features art from Caroline Harrison, the artistic evolution of band and artist indelibly intertwined. No wonder then that Exhaust undoubtedly showcases the finest work from both. An eviscerated pigeon lies rotting in a potholed gutter, fly-blown, eyeless. and all but decapitated, illumined by oily curlicues of rainbowing light that corrupt the squalid New York drizzle. Metal rarely shies away from grotesque imagery, but in Harrison’s striking combination of ink, watercolour and gouache, a macabre idea is rendered beautiful; the tragic bird martyred to a city it cannot fathom, its spilled anatomy a florid counterpoint to the lifeless obsidian asphalt. While Pyrrhon excoriate our urban hellscape and the sick state of a world we continuously poison, Harrison finds them a perfect symbol: the most ordinary tragedy imaginable, a slickened tarmac tomb for an innocent creature, rotting unmourned in the greatest city on earth.
Artist links: Instagram | Official Site
Band links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
2. Vokonis – Transitions
Artist: Kyrre Bjurling
Write-up by: Dave
Vokonis and Kyrre Bjurling have had a long-standing partnership, and it’s no mystery why—Bjurling’s art is colorful, vivid, and spellbinding, conjuring mystical fantasy on 2019’s Grasping Time, enticing psychedelia on 2021’s Odyssey, and, on latest release Transitions, evoking an imposing sense of scale in a grand expanse. Transitions comes as the first Vokonis album released since frontwoman Simona Ohlsson came out as trans, a change which heavily influences both the album and cover’s themes, cleverly utilizing the trans pride flag color palette, Bjurling pairs gentle blues and ethereal pinks with soft whites. In this regard, there couldn’t have been a more fitting cover, its pastel skies and imposing dragon standing as a metaphor for the catharsis to be found in unbounded self-expression. Transitions, and its cover by extension, serve as a gentle reminder that with a full acceptance of your innermost self comes breathtaking skies to explore without limit.
Artist links: Facebook
Band links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
1. Anciients – Beyond the Reach of the Sun3
Artist: Adam Burke
Write-up by: Doug
What’s not to love about a giant, ineffable being wearing the night sky as a cloak? As this is the second Adam Burke illustration featured in our list, I’m sure I don’t have to remind you about his prolific impact on metal album covers the world over, and Beyond the Reach of the Sun is no exception to his towering reputation. While each of the writers here had our own preferences and rankings for this year’s artwork, this was the one piece we all couldn’t help coming back to again and again, and it’s our clear favorite for album art of the year. It truly has it all: a mysterious otherworldly landscape, a vast starscape hinting at unknowable cosmic secrets, even a small party of humanoid figures to emphasize the sheer scale of the scene, all gorgeously rendered with a kind of traditional artistry that sets it apart.
Artist links: Instagram | Facebook | Official Site
Band links: Spotify | Bandcamp | original review
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