Original Cover Design
- Sleeve 013/100: S&M (1999)
- Live Album by Metallica with Michael Kamen conducting the San Francisco Symphony
- Label: Elektra Records / Vertigo Records
- Genre: Symphonic Metal / Thrash Metal
- Original cover design by Andie Airfix with photography by Anton Corbijn
Sleeve #13 for my project #100albumsleeves 🔥.
After listening to Cerati’s 11 Episodios Sinfónicos last week, I was craving more orchestral music with a twist and I naturally fell for Metallica’s S&M.
I blame the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ theme song for my early interest in metal music😜, but Metallica is the actual band that introduced me to the genre.
I listened to them growing up, as they’re one of my eldest brother’s favorites, and we would watch their music videos frequently from a VHS tape.
I’m not going to lie to you, I had a lot of inner drama working with this design. Twice.
Most of the time I listen to the music and images come to my head, when that doesn’t work I read about the album or the band’s story and something comes up that sparks my creativity. This time it didn’t happen that quickly. Researching didn’t show me anything that I didn’t know already, and even as I was enjoying the music I couldn’t “see” anything.
I tried to pull some ideas from my favorite song, “No Leaf Clover“, but I sketched things that were too complex and I wasn’t convinced. I started to get frustrated.
I researched a little bit more and found a statement by Metallica regarding their self-titled album that they just “wanted to keep it simple.”
Then it occurred to me: “what if I just keep it simple? what if this was easy?”.
And I decided to take a minimalist and self-pleasing approach and had a conversation in my head that went like this:
“What do I feel like drawing? a snake. Great! like in the black album. The snake can represent Metallica, if I wrap it around a classical instrument it can represent the relationship with the orchestra. What instrument? hmm, it was Cliff Burton’s idea for Metallica to do this collab some time, let’s honor that and pick a double bass. I like that. let’s keep it simple, let’s make everything white”
Album Cover Redesign by franzmori. This is fan art, no copyright infringement intended.
Seemed like everything was going to work out, but then came drama #2. I showed my finished piece to my husband and he didn’t like the gray over white as it wasn’t perceptible from afar. 🙃
I took his opinion too seriously and spent a whole day exploring other versions, in black and white, in black with silver, in white and silver, even a rainbow one. After having a ton of versions I felt I couldn’t pick one. I wasn’t convinced again.
I decided to hear other opinions and consulted my younger brother and a friend. They both liked my original proposal better! 🥺 I felt like I tossed a coin and got the answer I was looking for: To follow my heart.
This episode of insecurity reminded me I still have a lot of work to do to increase my trust in my choices. It also reminded me of a universal truth:
Some people are going to like what you do, and others will not, and that’s OK. It has nothing to do with whether they like you as a person or not.
Would you like your own Album Cover design?
I’m available for commissions!
Listen to the art! I’ll be adding a new album each week to this Spotify playlist HERE.
To know more about my personal project and see the rest of the cover designs in this series, go HERE.