The Prodigy: The Fat Of The Land
Linkin Park: Hybrid Theory
Deftones: White Pony
Alexisonfire: Alexisonfire
Rise Against: Siren Song Of The Counter Culture
Motion City Soundtrack: I Am The Movie
The Prodigy: The Fat Of The Land came out in 1997, so just a few years before 2000, but still a good example as the cover is created using digital photo manipulation. A Crab on the beach but the beach is a motion blur, so from a distance the image is quite relaxing but close up is quite an aggressive image and fits The Prodigy's image of being a electro act and a rock act at the same time.
Linkin Park: Hybrid Theory is their first album, it came out in 2000 and the artwork that appears in the booklet was designed by band members Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn who are both Graphic Design graduates. The stencilled Linkin Park logo and Soldier give the album a punk feel and show there is angst behind the music. This is also shown by the grey background and the bold dark red of the soldier. The back to front "N"s and the use of spray paint also show a strong Hip Hop influence, which is the reason the album is called "Hybrid Theory" as their style is a hybrid of Rock and Hip Hop music.
Deftones: White Pony is their third album and it came out in 2000, the cover is literally a grey background and a small white pony stencil at the bottom. The album is still an alternative metal album but sees the band taking on the influence of other genres like new wave, which is why the album cover has an 80's feel to it. The cover is very minimalist as if the album only has a cover because it has to, but also shows a great album doesn't need a great cover as it their highest selling and most popular album.
Alexisonfire's self titled album is their first release and came out in 2004. The lettering is very similar to Linkin Park's again linking to Punk inspiration. The image of the skull within the heart is the bands logo and shows an aggressive punk sound mixed with a bit of a soft side (their genre is called "Melodic Hardcore"). The cover looks like it has been drawn in black ink and then inverted which again is a typical punk style for creating covers.
Rise Against: Siren Song Of The Counter Culture is the band's third album and was released in 2004, it is their first album released on a major record label, and compared to their previous albums has much more budget for album artwork. The cover is a screen printed red, yellow and black image of a blaring speaker with lightning bolts (to emphasise the loud noise) and behind it is a faint image of a two headed eagle. The bold colours help it stand out and make it look like a rock album and the aggressive and rough serif font also gives the album a punk rock look. The cover is nice to look at and shows album artwork at its neatest, even when the music is mainly heavy and aggressive.
Motion City Soundtrack: I am the Movie, is the bands first album and is quite a low budget cover, containing an inky illustration of a city over a picture of roses. The font is very simple and the cover doesn't look like it was designed by a great designer. The bands future albums all have much better design as we can see from My Dinosaur Life and this is just a case of becoming more popular and earning enough money to get better album artwork. In the case of some bands like Linkin Park, it helps to have band members that can design artwork on your first album, but Linkin Park were signed to a much bigger record label and there fore had a lot more of a budget than Motion City Soundtrack.
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