Annotations of an Autopsy, ‘Reign of Darkness’ — Album Art of the Week

On Feb. 9, Annotations of an Autopsy will release 'Reign of Darkness,' their third full-length and first for Nuclear Blast. The British death metal band chose design workhorse Pär Olofsson to swipe colors for the cover art. We also covered Pär recently for his alien landscape for Miseration's 'The Morning Shadow.'

Interestingly, the situation surrounding the creation of the artwork for 'Reign of Darkness' is a first for Album Art of the Week. "They sent me a concept sketch and asked me to render a nice version of it, and so I did," Olofsson told Noisecreep. "So I´m not really sure what it represents."

The metal sub-industry has a special respect for graphic designers and their craft. Because of that, the decision and execution of the cover art is left mostly to the artist themselves -- working in concert with the artists themselves or possibly with a manager. Rarely is it created in a strange vacuum, as in Olofsson's case. "I didn't even talk to the band," Olofsson continued. "The sketch was e-mailed to me by [manager] Darren Toms (I think). So [I] have no idea who made the sketch. I only did the cover, nothing for the booklet and such."

The band has a European tour planned in the spring to promote the release.