Rhett Podersoo – Machine Room Design: A taste of futuristic ruin, space, death, and elements of war My father is a keen photographer and I used to help him out in our home darkroom. I loved the hands-on creative process of working with film equipment. The whole thing was like some sort of alchemy. After…
Rafael Melandi: Metazz, Metal Album Covers Redesigned Rafa Melandi is a Creative Director of an Advertising Agency in the city of Sao Paulo – Brazil. He is a former art director and graphic designer. HMA: What possessed you to defame these works of art? Just kidding, how did you get the idea? Rafa Melandi: I…
All the philosophies, creeds, dogmas and beliefs that humanity has evolved are variants of three great paradigms, the Transcendental, the Materialist and the Magical. In no human culture has any one of these paradigms been completely distinct from the others. For example in our own culture at the time of writing the Transcendental and Magical…
Plato has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us from antiquity. Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His ancestor, Solon, was the great law-giver of Athens 600 years before the Christian era. Solon…
Paolo Gerardi: A gradual rot that resulted in becoming myself a painter My background was a good natural talent and sensibility. Matured with the denial of access to art schools and by joining the army service, which resulted in the obsession of “working hard”. Also realized that art institutions (at least in Italy) are worthless.…
John Santos: Every Line Matters I never went to art school, but rather started in the punk scene by drawing flyers for shows and designs for my band as well as friends bands. From there it’s just been sketching, practicing, learning from peers, and testing myself to get better and to really hone my skill.…
Drummer Jimmy gives HMA latest on the new album, Thin Lizzy and Europe tour As I sit in the dressing room waiting for my interview with Black Star Riders drummer, Jimmy DeGrasso to begin, I’m confronted by an interesting question. Can you ever step out from the shadow of your own success? For those of…
Building the Colossus: Designations Artwork creates the cover for Keep of Kalessin ‘Epistimology’ By now, Keep of Kalessin is well-established within the Norwegian extreme Metal scene. Such thing would allow them to choose any illustrator they liked for the creation of the cover art for their album “Epistemology.” However, the menacing trio decided to do…
Daniele Serra: Art in a perpetual motion Before devoting myself entirely to the illustration I worked as a graphic designer for several years. In 2008 I decided to focus my work mainly as an illustrator and cartoonist. I’m a self-taught artist and I I have not attended art schools, just some basic courses to learn…
Alejandro Blasi: Imagination is the most important tool I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1968. In 2000 I moved to Mallorca Island, Spain where I established my studio, and from here I work for bands all over the world. I studied drawing and painting in different art studios, and quickly understood that my…
Anestis Goudas is a Greek graphic artist, mainly focused on creating digital illustrations, graphic and web designs for music bands. His artworks can be described as conceptual with multiple allegoric meanings and often they include elements inspired by the ’80s Heavy Metal covers, filtered with a more digital approach. He uses all type of modern…
Nikos Markogiannakis: Sadness with the sense of death all over it Nikos Markogiannakis grew up in Crete (Greece). At the age of 18 moved to Athens to study graphic arts. Designing artwork for heavy metal bands begun in 2003 when releasing a metal zine and starting working doing logos and covers for bands who were…
Jose Luis Lopez Galván: Interview with Mexican Surrealist Artist Young Mexican painter, Jose Luis Lopez Galván is set to become one of the greatest artists of his generation. His body of work (focused on surreal depictions of human/animal hybrids and other unusual scenarios) keep growing day by day and impressing worldwide audiences – especially through…
Jan Yrlund: I’m completely not into technical snobbery or virtuosity without meaning Been drawing since I was a kid basically. I was fascinated about comic books, and started drawing comics myself too. In the mid eighties I started an underground comic magazine called Tsürps together with some friends. The style was somewhat horror/black humor/science-fiction I…
Lauren Gornik: Rooted in pop-surrealism & narrative illustration For the past five years I’ve been working as a professional illustrator, working with a variety of metal acts. Originally, my interest in working with heavy metal bands began around the time I formed my first band, Panzer. However, I was also driven to make a career…
April Johnson: The will to Grow I have never taken any classes based around on how to create art or any formal education, but if it counts for anything I was in AP art and earned a college credit in my junior year of high school. I was a little hesitant to join at first,…
Darkness is beautiful Normal Gergely comes from Hungary and create graphic designs under the name of ‘Normal Illustrations’. Besides being a graphic designer he is also an abstract artist. Graduated as an art and visual communication teacher. Started to create heavy metal related work through the inspiration of music I love music especially the heavier…
On 20th April, Finnish 4 piece APOCALYPTICA will release their brilliant new studio album ‘Shadowmaker’ through Eleven Seven Music. This time, rather than collect songs with a variety of guest vocals, the band have recorded 7 tracks with one vocalist, Franky Perez, from Scars On Broadway and Slash’s live band, Slash and Friends.The band will be announcing European live…
That’s no moon…. It’s Deathstars! New album and the amazing story of the exploding bus tour. Deathstars are not a band to be easily categorized. This company of Swedes is well known for it’s dark, pessimistic and often misanthropic lyrics. In their trademark face paint and uniforms, they appear to be ageless, almost like living…
Crux CRUX, an instrument of capital punishment, used by several ancient nations, especially the Romans and Carthaginians. The word Cross is also applied to Persian and Egyptian punishments, but Casaubon (Exer. Antibaron. XVI.77) doubts whether they describe the Roman method of crucifixion. From Seneca (Cons. ad Marc. XX, Epist. XIV.1) we learn the latter to…