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...AND JUSTICE FOR ART – Stories About Heavy Metal Album Covers – Volume 2
By Ramón ‘Oscuro’ Martos
2019 Dark Canvas Publishing
www.andjusticeforart.com

Four years ago, author and artist Ramón Martos released the first volume of his series on heavy metal album cover art entitled …And Justice For Art. This ended up being my all-time favorite book (read my review HERE), and I eagerly awaited Volume Two. Fast forward to 2019, and the release of that long-awaited book is finally upon us.

Volume Two is the perfect companion piece to Volume One, and is set up the same way: with an index of the artwork featured within, an introduction by Martos, and a forward (contributed by SOULFLY’s Max Cavalera). It’s also in chronological order like Volume One. This volume features nearly the same number of album studies as Volume One (59 total) and spans 252 pages. Volume Two’s cover is red and features another amazing illustration, by Romanian guitarist/artist Costin Chioreanu (who also wrote the afterward). Putting together a book like this is not a simple process. It involves a massive amount of research and interviews. It’s also a MAJOR amount of work as far as layout and design, which is again beautifully done by Martos.

As in Volume One, Martos explores some of his favorite album covers in several different genres of metal – there is something here for everyone: Traditional, Power, Doom, Death, Black, Thrash, Nu, Symphonic and Prog metal areas and more are all touched on in the book. A variety of mediums are again addressed, from photography and illustration, to watercolors, paint and mixed media.

Some of the more noteworthy things to me were: studies of Patrick Woodroffe’s artwork for JUDAS PRIEST’S Sad Wings of Destiny and the JUDAS PRIEST cross emblem, as well as the angels that appear on their covers. An interview with the artist who created them, Mark Wilkinson, is a nice addition. Lynn Curlee’s process for creating the iconic cover for BLACK SABBATH’s Heaven and Hell is explored in detail via an interview. There’s a dialogue with Fin Costello, the designer of OZZY’s third solo album, Bark At The Moon and discussions about the lengths he had to go to during the photo sessions for the cover. Roger Gorman’s work on QUEENSRŸCHE’s magnum opus Operation: Mindcrime is examined. Learn more about the house of amon and KING DIAMOND’s Them cover artwork, which also features a series of illustrations fans of the album should see. TESTAMENT’s Practice What You Preach and Souls Of Black (which I once airbrushed on the back of my own jean jacket) are given much scrutiny here.

More commercially successful albums are also featured, such as METALLICA’s black album. If you thought the album cover was simple, you don’t know the whole story. Speaking of METALLICA, their Grammy-winning packaging for Death Magnetic is also debated with the men behind the work. Hugh Syme’s photomosaic masterpiece for MEGADETH’s Youthanasia is included, as is Travis Smith’s artwork of mascot Chaly for OVERKILL’s Immortalis. Melodic metal icons EUROPE have an album featured here, as do symphonic masters NIGHTWISH. Conversely, there are several extreme metal album covers included as well, by such bands as CARCASS, BEHEMOTH, and BLOODBATH, among others. Additionally, Dan Seagrave’s super-detailed work for several extreme metal bands is again accounted in Volume Two.

Even if you aren’t a fan of a particular band, you will find tons of fascinating insight into the creative process. I own about half of the albums contained in this book, but the ones I did not were still interesting. There were several covers I saw for the first time, and others I had seen plenty of times, but had never truly examined. Many of the reviews here inspired me to pull out and play albums I had not listened to in years, including CONTROL DENIED’s debut album The Fragile Art of Existence and STRATOVARIUS’ Elysium. As in Volume One, you actually get more than just one album cover in each main review. For JUDAS PRIEST alone, no less than eight album covers are featured in the two main reviews. As was the case with Volume One, this book is chock-filled with trivia, insight, and behind-the-scene revelations that are absolutely riveting to a fan like me.

I am a huge fan of this series of books and I am looking forward to Volume Three, which I was happy to learn is currently being written. Congratulations, Ramon Martos, …And Justice For Art - Volume Two is a complete success and fascinating read. I look forward to Volume Three!

5.0 Out Of 5.0