Top 10 Disturbing Record Covers
1. Motley Crue, Too Fast For Love, 1982
A spandex-and-leather homage to Andy Warhol’s legendary crotch-with-working-zipper design for the 1971 Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers, the cover of the Crue’s punky D.I.Y. debut (the album was originally released by the band on their Leathur Records imprint) pretty much said it all: “We’re young, dumb, and full of cum, and if you don’t like it, you can suck it.”
2. Quiet Riot, Metal Health, 1983
Ah, the early ’80s: a magical time when a metal album could (finally!) hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts despite showing a mental patient wearing a strait-jacket apparently designed for Michael Jackson. It makes a good mascot though.
3. Scorpions, Blackout, 1982
What is the most upsetting thing about this image of a screaming, bandaged man whose eyes are evidently about to be torn out by forks? Definitely the feathered mustache.
4. Black Sabbath, Born Again, 1983
Widely considered the band’s biggest disaster, Born Again wasn’t helped by an oddly awesome demonic-baby design that looks like it was put together with kiddie scissors and magic markers.
5. Dio, Holy Diver, 1983
Does depicting a priest being chain-whipped by the devil go too far? Hey, if you (Ronnie James Dio) are gonna walk away from one of the biggest bands in the world (Sabbath), you got to do it with style.
6. Metallica, Kill ‘Em All, 1983
With its stark red, black, white, and flesh palette, the bloody image on Metallica’s storied debut put the hard-rock world on notice that messing with this particular band was inviting a world of hurt.
7. Slayer, Reign in Blood, 1986
Widely recognized as the greatest thrash-metal album album of all time, Slayer’s major-label debut boasts a cover by illustrator Larry Carroll, who conjured a hyper-satanic mixed-media collage featuring severed heads, a goat-priest, and a waterfall of blood. Def Jam’s distributor refused to release it; the album was eventually distributed by Geffen.
8. Ozzy Osbourne, Bark at the Moon, 1983
Horrifying or hilarious? Probably depends how old you were when you first beheld the splendor of the Ozzman in full werewolf mode on the cover of his third solo album.
9. Venom, Welcome to Hell, 1981
Venom win the prize for first use by a metal band of the oft-imitated goat’s-head pentagram, technically known as the “sigil of Baphomet,” an arcane symbol found in the writings of 19th-century French occultist Eliphas Levi. Even the Church of Satan, which uses it as their logo, admits that no one is entirely sure of the origin or precise meaning of the sigil. So basically, they just think it’s cool. Several generations of headbangers would most certainly agree.
10. Decide, Once Upon the Cross, 1985
Originally, Trevor Brown’s painting of a dissected Christ (found inside the liner notes) was going to be the cover of Deicide’s third album. But as the final artwork attests, sometimes less is indeed more.
Cans of Hairspray 