10) Vio-Lence: Eternal Nightmare
What metalhead hasn't had a dark and twisted dream about either falling or being eaten alive, two of the most common dream sequences to have in general? Now combine them both, plus make the thing that's eating you have infinite sets of mouths and razor-sharp teeth? Hell no, that's fucking terrifying. At this point, this kid is probably just trying to reach down for his bed so he can at least hide under the covers while falling into his eternal nightmare.
9) Opeth: Damnation
DOLLS. Movies like Chucky, Dolly Dearest, and most recently Annabelle have gotten me and millions of people around the world convinced that dolls are just porcelain figures filled with nope. The cover is just as haunting as its music, but what makes this cover even creepier is the fact that Mikael Akerfeldt dedicated this album to his grandmother who died in a car accident while Damnation was being recorded. What was probably meant to be a touching tribute ended up being a work passively but powerfully touching upon the universal fear of dying. It still confounds me that something that was once held 60 years ago as a delightful little treasure perfect for a long-lasting collection is now interpreted as little more than a porcelain harbinger of death.
8) Death: Leprosy
Choosing between Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy has to be the toughest decision I've made in writing this list. This poor guy just reeks of impending doom and limb loss with Ed Repka's horrifying illustrations of a timelessly terrifying disease. As if leprosy wasn't debilitating enough, the ostracized colony under a blood red sky is a habitat that none of us want to envision being a part of. Repka's artistic tendencies to make catastrophic backgrounds pale in comparison to the sinister vastness created here. Try staring at this cover while listening to "Open Casket" and "Pull the Plug," and the combination will have chilling effects on you, I promise.
7) Deicide: Once Upon The Cross
Religion has been at the forefront of heavy metal controversy since the birth of the godfathers of Black Sabbath. Sometimes it's at subtle as a rumor about playing a record like Ride the Lightning backwards and picking up fragments of a satanic phrase. Sometimes, it's Deicide, who help themselves to a bowl of "Fuck Your God" for breakfast and a heaping plate of "Kill the Christian" for dinner. Contrary to most savage and sloppy death metal blood works, every blood splotch is perfectly placed forcing you to imagine all the exact places in which Christ's torturers wanted him to experience the utmost anguish, as if His demise was by that of an ordinary serial killer. If Dexter had killed Jesus, we know what it would look like. Compared to the rest of Deicide's covers, it is rather quiet but still as agitating and violent in imagery and in purpose.
6) Obituary: Cause of Death
Just because this album art is probably one of the most classic pieces of death metal artwork ever doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't lose its hellish aura. You can thank H.P. Lovecraft and the remastering skills of Michael Whelan for all the nightmares you will have after staring deep into the blood red eye of that looming leviathan. Turn away, and you encounter a grotesquely twisted tree of anguish leaning helplessly on a pyramid of human skulls. Rabid fans of Lovecraft will recognize this artwork from his collection Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, and death metal fans continue to be bewitched by the fantastical terrors that could only come from the darkest of minds.
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