Bandmill

Bandmill on Pinterest

Bandmill — Sun, 06 May 2012 10:03:13 +0000

Hi folks! Youy can now also follow me via Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/bandmill/

Minimalist Heavy Metal Posters

Bandmill — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:07:34 +0000

We have probably all seen these inspirational minimalist movie posters in the web. I decided to give it a go and see what kind of stuff I can come up with metal band fictional posters. As an art movement, the roots and foundation of Minimalism started somewhere during the early 20th Century by De Stijl movement and Russian painters such as Kazimir Malevitš whose paintings were very simple and abstract. But it was Post War time in the 1960′s when Minimalism was identified as an art movement. It’s main purpose is to eliminate all non-essential forms, features or concepts from art, music and architecture. Til this day we have seen many famous consumer products as an result of Minimalism movement such as Morris Mini. Most famous and Minimalist artist are have been Donald Judd, John McCracken, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella. Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said the famous words “Less is more” by meaning to create an impression of extreme simplicity.

Enough history, I hope you enjoy these.

Manowar

Kreator

Judas Priest

Kiss

Iron Maiden

Slipknot

Yngwie Malmsteen

Slayer

Motörhead

Best album covers January 2012

Bandmill — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:27:23 +0000

It is time to start the year 2012 with 8 cool artworks from various bands. I found some pretty cool stuff. Especially I would like to point out Kommando Kap Hoorns extraordinary zombie-orientated album art. It has nice idea and fresh design. Also Caliban album cover really stops whatever you are doing. Haunting and hypnotic.
The winner on the other hand is calm and peaceful. Maybe it is right thing to start this year with more serene stuff instead of dead corpses. Alcest cover has beautiful colors, good illustration and nice typography. What else do you need?

Wolfen - Chapter IV

The Bulletmonks - Royal Flush on the Titanic

Megaherz - Gotterdammerung

Kommando Kap Hoorn - Im Sog Der Finsternis

Kells - Anachromie

Caliban - I am Nemesis

Attack Attack - This Means War

Best album cover Janyary 2012:

Alcest - Les Voyages De Lame

Latest work: logo redesign for ILS.

Bandmill — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:13:02 +0000

At the end of 2011 I got a brief to modernize the logo of ILS (www.ils.fi). ILS company is an independent, private owned consulting and engineering company, situated in the towns of Turku and Helsinki, Finland. Redesigning a logo can be tricky sometimes but I’m happy with the result (and so was the client).

Logo redesign for ILS

Best metal album covers 2011

Bandmill — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:37:17 +0000

Happy New Year 2012! Let’s all hope this one brings as much good album covers as did year 2011. We had a fine selection last year and as my first post in 2012 I’ll share 25 pieces of what was the best. The cream of the crap. Every month I did select one as the best monthly cover. However opinions change and I wanted to point out more variety and some covers I might even missed for some reason. Therefore this selection isn’t just the battle of previous year monthly covers. It is a general battle and ALL of them are really good album covers. I hope you agree with me at least with some of them. They are not in any particular order except the last one which is the best.

As always, it was more than hard to choose the best cover and if asked next year I could have a different opinion. The variety was really good last year. You got some “funny” yet good looking covers like Zombie Inc.’s ” A Dreadful Decease”, White Wizzards “Flying Tigers” and In Extremos “Sterneneisen”. Last two of them has also same and cool airplane theme.

There are planes, zombies, wolfs, statues, skulls and animals. All of them can work really well in a heavy metal album art when used properly. Enjoy these and feel free to comment! Salut!

Zombie INC. - A Dreadful Decease

Good old zombie retro style with good typography. Never fails!

White Wizzard - Flying Tigers

Good album cover can be funny too. Nice coloring and diagonality brings nice movement.

Sonne Adam - Transformation

A classic approach to album cover. B/W brings lot of depth.

Skindred - Union Black

Beautifully aligned elements with nice touch of black color.

Sixx A.M. - This is Gonna Hurt

One of the best albums overall from 2011 deserves a good album cover. Nice touch with the typography in album title.

Six Reasons To Kill - Architects of Perfection

Yes, more zombie action! If you want an illustrated monster, use a talented illustrator like SRTK have done here to avoid looking ridiculous.

Septic Flesh - The Great Mass

This is really good example of good macro photography and stylish typography. Those statues look so alive it creeps me.

Powerwolf - Blood of the Saints

One of my personal favorite bands ever delivers excellent album covers also. This one is a killer!

Paradise Lost - Draconian Times MMXI

Excellent typography and good illustration combined to brutal and killing yet romantic package.

Nightbringer - Hierophany of the Open Grave

I would love to see this on LP-format instead of small pic. Lot of cool details to look at.

Neonfly - Outshine the Sun

Bring back the 80′s already! I just stop doing whatever I’m doing when looking at this. It is even hard to type… this.. sent… ence…

Lake of Tears - Illwill

You gotta love the way how the branches orbit around the band logo.

Kittie - I've Failed You

The simplicity is the beauty factor in this touching artwork.

In Extremo - Sterneneisen

Like White Wizzard, cover art can be entertaining. This one is amazing!

Inevitable - End The Oculus

This album art is so powerful and dramatic, yet simple. Nice touch with typography.

Evoken - Beneath The Frozen Soil

This is really haunting. I could place this on my wall with no problem whatsoever!

Disturbed - The Lost Children

A brief to designer: “Put our Disturbed character hanging with weird looking kids. Make it look good, okay.” And so he did…

Decapitated - Carnival is Forever

Good and simple image with nice focus on the face. Very effective.

Cycle of Pain - Cycle of Pain

What I really like this on is the color palette, which is very simple. The beautiful band logo fits here like a fist in the face.

Charred Walls Of The Damned - Cold Winds on Timeless Days

Once again points to the designer. I can only imagine the creative brief he got. “Wintery scene, octopussy-like clock, triangles with hands, more hands, ice, glass…”

Book of Black - Earth The Cold Testament

That wolf is the one wolf to rule them all. Really good illustration!

Bear - Doradus

I just love the creative solution in this. Nice bear hands.

Adversarial - All Idols Fall Before The Hammer

B/W works really well and the artwork is really something. Horns up!

Amorphis - The Beginning of Times

It is an egg. A beautiful one. This is one of the best covers I’ve seen in years. Wolfmother had also the egg-theme in one of their covers but this one is just way better. Everything works here.

Best album cover 2011:

Trivium - In Waves

You don’t even see the band’s name here. Just the symbol which fits perfectly to this odd piece of land that is rising from the sea. Smoke, B/W, excellent photography and good typography makes this the best of the best 2011.

Funniest album covers 2011

Bandmill — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:36:50 +0000

Happy happy joy joy, it is time to reveal all the joy from 2011 in a form of metal album covers. Just remember, most of these covers are not bad in a sense of design. They just appear in some joyful form which no man can explain properly. Even not me. Some of them are truly bad design, some are meant to be bad and some of them are just naive. I hope you enjoy and remember, these are not here to hurt anybody’s feelings (or eyes…).

[Show as slideshow]

Updating the website

Bandmill — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:06:44 +0000

You have probably noticed my website has been acting quite weird within these few days. I would like to blame my computer or even some supernatural forces but it was all because I haven’t watched Star Trek enough. I managed to mess up everything when I decided to do two things: 1. I wanted to use Multisite function and 2. I needed to move my main folder inside my server. I don’t know what went wrong but now I’ve managed to gather things up again. I’m hoping to fix everything before Christmas. I’ve got a new layout coming, shop and maybe even a portfolio (finally!). So before that, rock on!

EDIT TO MY POST: Still fixing…

Best album covers November 2011

Bandmill — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:22:06 +0000

Greetings my dear followers! It is once again time to wrap up last months best album art. You could easily see the Yuletide coming ’cause there was so much more albums out there to choose from. Like always there was some really good stuff and also covers that will appear on my 2011 collection of funniest album covers. This year, I have many of those…

I was glad to see some really good illustrations like Fastway’s “Eat Dog, Eat”. Also “Draconian Times MMXI” reminds me a flowery illustrated version of my own recent design for Hostile. Black Tusk has an incredibly nice illustration and color scheme.

Metsatöll has an unique visual way to express their identity. It is related to ancient Estonian folk art and it fits perfectly to their album art. That’s why you can see their cover of “Ulg” in this months listing. Pretty close “Ulg” comes the cover of “Afape” by Lantlos. Good water coloring is rarely seen in album covers today.

Four Year Strong’s “In Some Way, Shape, or Form” is cool as f*ck. I would like to see it printed in a huge size in a poster. It would take ages to watch all the details and to think how all the items are related to each others. Very different and nice indeed.

This month’s winner is by no means strange band to anyone. Disturbed has once again done a really good album artwork. Like Iron Savior’s cover it is maybe not very creative but it just works. I like the way it is constructed and built. The character known in previous albums is standing in the middle surrounded by scary and robotic looking “Lost Children”. Nice!

Enough jargon. Be sure to wait for the wrap up of 2011 in early January. Before that date, I will post other cool stuff so be patient. Have a metal Christmas!

Turbowolf - Turbowolf

Thy Catafalque - Rengetec

Paradise Lost - Draconian Times MMXI

Night in Gales - Five Scars

Lost Dreams - Blinded by Rage

Freedom Hawk - Holding On

Four Year Strong - In Some Way, Shape, or Form

Cynic - Carbon Based Anatomy

Backwoods Payback - Momantha

Black Tusk - Set the Dial

Walking With Strangers - Hardships

Metsatöll - Ulg

Lantlos - Afape

Iron Saviour - The Landing

Fastway - Eat Dog, Eat

Cover of the month:

Disturbed - The Lost Children

Best album covers October 2011

Bandmill — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:03:12 +0000

Hello dear reader. I have gathered some really good looking album covers from previous month. I found 14 pieces of truly good looking cover art from various different bands. Once again it was difficult to choose the winner but I think I did the right choice. During my search I also found some really good choices for my annual ‘funniest album covers of the year’. But before that, let’s check out best pieces from October. Once again, if you find your (amazing that it is!) work here and want to be credited. Just let me know and I’ll fix ya up!

Enjoy:

Anorexia Nervosa - New Obscurantis Order

Necrodeath - Idiosyncracy

Mythological Cold Towers - Immemorial

Lunatic Soul - Impressions

Falloch - Where Distant Spirits Remain

Collapse Under the Empire - Shoulders & Giants

Charred Walls Of The Damned - Cold Winds on Timeless Days

Brutal Truth - End Time

Blessthefall - Awakening

Recueil Morbide - Only Hate Left

Skinny Puppy - Handover

Threat Signal - Threat Signal

Tracer - Spaces in Between

Album cover of the month October 2011:

Bear - Doradus

Best album covers September 2011

Bandmill — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:17:02 +0000

Once again I have chosen the cream of the crap from pile of album covers. This September offered lot of good choices and I had difficulties to choose the best. Kitte’s cover is amazing though. It has very simple concept but strong message. Although skulls and roses have been used a lot it doesn’t matter if you do it with taste. Good job!

Some pretty funny stuff also here (fun can look good also!) with White Wizzard and Iron Lamb. Very different covers but handled with good taste.

Enjoy and let me know your thoughts!

Wölli & Die Band Des Jahres - Das Ist Noch Nicht Alles

White Wizzard - Flying Tigers

Warbringer - Worlds Torn Asunder

Truth Corroded - Worship the Bled

The Devil Wears Prada - Dead Throne

The Dangerous Summer - War Paint

Rose Funeral - Gates of Punishment

Rising - To Solemn Ash

Redemption - This Mortal Coil

Opeth - Heritage

Neonfly - Outshine the Sun

Myrath - Tales of the Sands

Machine Head - Unto the Locust

Iron Lamb - The Original Sin

Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events

Divided by Friday - Prove It

Chuck Ragan - Covering Ground

Album cover of the month:

Kittie - I've Failed You