The great thing about technology is that it gives everyone a voice, and allows us all to express ourselves in ways that were previously impossible or too expensive. The bad part is that most people are talentless idiots who should remain voiceless and just keep working at the gas station.
There are few better examples of this than the art and design of the 90s hardcore scene, which is what happens when computers get cheap enough that middle-class kids can use them to make the the cover art for their terrible band’s 7″. This is basically the visual equivalent of putting a blind man with cerebral palsy behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, and the results were just as horrifying as you would expect.
I could go on forever, but here are a few of my favorite examples- please post yours in the comments!
So many 90s hxc design memes here: type that’s stretched so far you can barely read it, outlined version of a font from a pirated Adobe Font Folio, and feathered photo of oppressed animals!
I fucking love grunge fonts like this where every letter is distressed exactly the same- the same little bits are missing from both Ns and Ts, like a sign you’d see at a gas station advertising that Monster is 2 for $4 this week only. Also, this is the moshcore band that Pete Wentz was in (not sure if he played on this or not?).
When you first get Photoshop, it’s pretty fun to try out each one of the filters just to see what they do. This cover is an example of when you do that, only instead of saying “well that was kind of fun” and trashing the file, you use it as the cover for your band’s CD.
Somehow, Overcasts next 7″ managed to top “Expectational Dilution” in terms of visual offensivesness!! Stretched, outlined grungy typewriter font on top of a filter-laden scan from some clip art book?? “Hell, ya paid for the pixels, you might as well use em.”
Honestly would not be surprised to see the “someone experimenting with the ‘Artistic’ filters + freeware grunge fonts” look to make a comeback (only this time it would be hipsters doing it ironically)
I’m just including this picture to illustrate the cultural context of 90s hardcore art. I mean, if we thought it was cool to wear giant denim shorts with white gym socks bunched up halfway to our knees, why would we think twice about using an outlined version of the grungiest typewriter font we would find??
Another popular 90s hxc concept was “some generic font over a painting you did for your community college art class,” as you can see here. Bonus points for underlining the name of the band!!
I guess they couldn’t decide which community college painting to use, so they just put both of them on there??
Particularly lulzy example of this concept that also uses a grungy typewriter font and lowercase letters– at least 25% more meaningful and heartfelt than the Snapcase cover!
I have absolutely no idea what the point of the VOD cover was supposed to be, but I always loved it for some reason :( Makes me want to buy an XL Adidas jersey, some Jncos and get frosted tips again!
This old Refused 7″ combines a community college painting with an illegible live photo and a really bad graffiti font- classic! I love reminding people of how before they were international icons of hipster hardcore, they were Jnco moshcore with a graffiti logo.
This doesn’t really fit into any particular category but it’s FUCKING AWESOME. If I didn’t know better I would probably think this was the title screen for some obscure late-80s fighting game (this would be followed by the “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” screen). Also, I fucking love how the type has the Illustrator default “shiny metal” gradient in it and the “g” is like 20% bigger than all the other letters– so ignorant!!
Sorry to pick on OKD twice on one post, but how could I not point out a) that this is the Lethal Weapon font and b) how hilarious it is when people do the “subverting images of idyllic mnstrm American lief to show how fukked up it rly is” thing?
All the Erie bands had super lulzy, terrible cover art thanks to Mike Ski (the singer for Brother’s keeper). Love the perfectly straight playing cards over the stock photo of blood spatters– would be perfect for a graphic design student to use for a movie poster assignment. Just change the purple grungy typewriter font to say “Boondock Saints” and you are all set!
Speaking of Brother’s Keeper, try to keep a straight face when you look at this little number!! It’s a real doozy– I have literally been giggling about it for like 5 minutes, I can’t believe how horrible it is in so many different ways at once (dat grunge font + dat default radial gradient + really bad ‘tattoo style art’ + really bad graffiti + dem colors)
Which is more offensive, the gradient on the BK record or the underline on the Strongarm logo??? Should vegans be banned from publicly expressing themselves via visual art? Did you think grunge typewriter fonts were the shit in 1998???
The early zao album covers are pretty good for 90s era hardcore lulz. Also, the Disembodied album cover immediately made me think of Silent Hill.
…and to a much lesser extent the Giygas fight in earthbound.
Totally backed on ZAO’s early 90′s cover art. Super lolzy!
Refused 7″ art not showing up for me.
H8000 bands had some lulzy-ass shit going on, but at a different euro-weird level. Congress, for instance:
http://xstuckinthepastx.blogspot.com/2010/01/classic-layouts-congress-blackened.html
Now xchipx loves this, but I can’t see past the goofy 80s metal style wizard levitating a palantir or whatever. So out of place for great hxc mosh. Looks like a Samael record.
Then, on the random tough-looking art/sculpture pic with aforementioned font stylings:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3269/3080482657_129f1ecf37.jpg
This style was common enough among bands at the time, but never made sense to me.
“subverting images of idyllic mnstrm American lief to show how fukked up it rly is”
via lulzy/facepalm JD Salinger worship
RAEG SO GODDAMN HARD AT THIS BULLSHIT
ugh, exactly. raeg/10
http://www.equalvision.com/media/releases/121.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TBFOrDOjaIQ/S7kkc6WCicI/AAAAAAAABv4/acX8q3OHa_A/s320/04-04-2010+02%3B05%3B13PM+(2).JPG
http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/313/313148_1_f.jpg
those all fall in the line somewhere. Cold as life needs a post on here
oof, that Harvest cover is brutal :/ i always thought they were awful so i never owned that record but wow– file under “collage of random shit with freeware scribble font on top”
http://img.maniadb.com/images/album/171/171918_1_f.jpg?d=20111003030957
Buried Alive’s death of your perfect world album cover is pretty turribul
One of my favorite albums, tho :/
So I guess metal in the 90′s has the upper hand here.
are you joking? metal cover art in the nineties (after 1992) was just as bad: entombed’s “wolverine blues”, testament’s “low”, slayers “divine intervention”, the list could go on. it was the era of “yohoho, computer graphics have arrived, this is the FUTURE!!! all these horrible collages…shudder!
Monstrosity has the cake on this one: http://www.metal-archives.com/images/4/4/2/1/4421.jpg?4203 So fucking horrible…LOVE IT!
Haha great post! I always thought that Snapcase cover was pretty alright though.
As far as other ugly HXC 90′s covers, I’d say everything Earth Crisis released besides Destroy the Machines looked absolutely awful.
Oh how very wrong you are. Dave McKean did Slither and he is one of the best artists to ever do album art.
but the question we have to ask ourselves now is : have album covers really improved in recent years, or have we reached different levels of shittiness?
just different– much like all albums now sound like generic, overproduced Pro Tools defaults, all album covers look like generic, overproduced Photoshop defaults (or in the case of the new Attack Attack cover, two uncircumcised cocks)
Holy shit, yes! It took me so long to realize those were supposed to be arms.
My favorite shitty 90s hardcore album cover is Blood for Blood’s “Spit My Last Breath.” It is also pretty Boondock Saints.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TJqfPTEXkWs/SOrMFV1R-aI/AAAAAAAABlw/hd-9qMFVBuc/s400/00+Blood+For+Blood+-+Spit+My+Last+Breath+(CD)+1997.jpg
Meaning the cover is shitty, not the album.
Its possible that everything useful I could learn through an art degree was all laid out in this one single post.
not sheriff srs but honestly you aren’t completely wrong!
I now hate myself because of this post.
I didn’t know that have of the bands I listen to and love were from the 90′s
explanation:my brother bought an ipod off of a classified ad when I was 16 me being the loser I am took all the music off of it and put it in my itunes and eventually it hit my heavy rotation. Almost every single one of these bands was on that iPod. No wonder no one had never heard of them and maybe next time ill do some research :S
LOL, embarrassed…i LOVED the art on advent of a miracle when i got it. brb revisiting strongarm.
also, the one king down cover IMMEDIATELY reminded me of the poster for the movie BLEEDERS (starring rutger hauer!): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e8/Bleeders-movie.jpg/220px-Bleeders-movie.jpg
Tension* from Long Island had a hilariously bad Flushing Community College Guido School for Graphic Design album cover in the mid to late 90s if I recall. Why did I buy that CD?
“Flushing Community College Guido School for Graphic Design”
lolololololol
My favs:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lk1uxNNhghk/Th9rpYSERcI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/O1EJDkTA-rc/s320/Krutch.jpg
Always wondered what is this:
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/newreleases/dynimages/281_410x410.jpg
Classic (gotta love the army style stenciled font)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8-RPON9Nsfw/R5AL8ZUY4dI/AAAAAAAAAAw/ihDmfzOFVrc/s320/greenrage.jpg
Broncos:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_AQlAPNVIxcU/SrEpC6dcPyI/AAAAAAAAAK0/A5mvP6B-MUs/s320/RemainFront.jpg
The chilean counterpart:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y4ZrrxyUQ68/ThqaYSgKB3I/AAAAAAAABO8/HkBSWQNhf1w/s1600/Asunto+-+No+te+dejes+derrotar.jpg
great additions! the original cover of that Green Rage 7″ is pretty great too (i used to have it, it’s photocopied which adds to the lulziness):
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2XpRQKCUzOU/TWoSANfgY7I/AAAAAAAAAFk/W4o_ibwJpb0/s320/teraz.jpg
Surprise attack records had some solid graphic design gems.
Shockwave- Warpath 7in springs to mind
and Problem Solver Revolver/ ShotPointBlank Split.
Lake Effect hXc represent.
Early to mid 00′s metalcore album covers are te lulziest for me.
At least nobody had gotten their hands on the Bleeding Cowboys font at this point. Man that shitty font is everywhere.
Sweet article, to which I say…
MOAR DESIGN/ART POSTS!
I think the cover of Unruh – Setting Fire To Sinking Ships is the epitome of ugly cover art. Fuck.
http://www.technodisco.net/img/tracks/u/unruh/2409919-unruh-setting-fire-to-sinking-ships.jpg
And it won’t win me any points to say this but I thought that album was boring and impossible to get into. But hey, I could listen to Wolfpack and Driller Killer all day long.
Sarge, as much as you hate them, I’m surprised those first few Botch and Converge albums aren’t on here.
totally forgot about them! i could easily make an entire post about Jake Bannon’s awful art, but i feel like it might be jerky and come off like haterade
15 year olds with relationship issues and dreams of being an artist would blow up the comments section.
.
^ This
I love this band a lot but this shit should have been on the top of your list
http://i26.fastpic.ru/big/2011/0802/64/f261cc6c979f7ccc033609829eafe164.jpg
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/300×300/23256065.jpg
Agreed.
After reading too much SYWH I’ve started to think that the dudes on the cover of Bloodlet’s Entheogen are doing wiggerish arm movements. I believe Aaron Turner did that cover?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kglBFADS3mo/SLLWm2yUgEI/AAAAAAAAAJI/fAOOmrbmVHg/s320/Bloodlet+-+Entheogen.jpg
+1
i like the idea of outsourcing your album art to a graphic design/banner shop in a New Jersey strip mall…
did someone mention Candiria yet?
http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/5299/cover_3730122222010.jpeg
Damn, I was just about to post some Candiria covers!
Oh well:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ACgT7ZLOdII/TspkMyDKUqI/AAAAAAAAAko/E6dZNWMCVxE/s1600/Candiria-SurrealisticMadness19951.jpg
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/c3bda7df76ad3fd65f8bf1584bed5698/40754.jpg
Mike D’Antonio’s (Killswitch Engage) artwork is fucking awful. It comes to me as no surprise he created the Overcast artwork seen in this article. http://www.last.fm/user/metalhead55/journal/2006/09/07/1f68_mike_d%27_antonio_cover-artworks
Stock photo of a statue or a skull + 5 minutes in Photoshop = Success!!
That All that Remains cover was awful, even by the standards at the time. The music on that album is solid metalcore GOLD though!
jesus fuck, it actually get WORSE over time
these don’t come close to the horrificness of 80s metal album covers.
man, these are gross. they’re not even “so awful they’re great” like the no limit/cash money records covers, they’re just terrible and depressing. the ’90s were a really fascinating time for graphic design. technology never ceases to be hilarious.
they’re just terrible and depressing
exactly. bums me out.
Haha, I forgot all about the No Limit Records covers… but you’re right, they were so awful they were awesome:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H6EouhWl2w0/S-jhu9SHqzI/AAAAAAAAALs/zTov6L8tpro/s1600/Soulja+Slim+-+Give+It+2+Em+Raw.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/ChargeIt2DaGame98.jpg
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/y/young-bleed/album-my-balls-my-word.jpg
God, just pick any of the Fury of Five albums.
No Reason to Smile especially.
The original cover for Hearts Once Nourished with Hope and Compassion by Shai Hulud is pretty much similar to the ones you have already spoke about
I liked that you wrote, “and get frosted tips again!” because you used the word AGAIN.
feelsbadman
Wasn’t 90′s era flyer art equally awesome? Before people learned how to use Layers in Photoshop, they would cut and paste band names and info on paper and tape them to a cool photo or comic book cover, then photo copy it. See link:
http://www.learmason.com/transfer/facedown.jpg
Key points:
• different font for every band name
• forgot the address
• wrong date
• ETID was the opening band (which backs up your previous statement they are/were in fact a hardcore band who got 20 minute opening slots on buried alive tours and sold their 3 song demo for $1 on cassette.)
lololololol perfect example!! i love how they forgot the address
i considered exploring the whole cut-n-paste era of HC art, but that’s really a whole other subject, and artfags have actually covered it pretty extensively so i decided to focus on the Shitty Photoshop era
This is why it’s impossible to make a living off of touring in the underground.
My favorite will always be the 25 a Life style as shown on their “Strength Through Unity” release as shown:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3aFR0cZ-fUI/TMBt_24GooI/AAAAAAAAAEA/W1ZYduKQyPE/s1600/25+Ta+Life+-+Strength+Through+Unity+lp+1997+by+monejo.jpg
Notes to be taken:
– Huge NY tagger-style blocky letters
– The main colors featured remind me of the old early 90′s Cross Colors clothing style that got popular and TV executive were trying to get white suburban kids to understand why black people were pissed in L.A.
– Makes me want to go get a pair of these type of pants; http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ublS5DY61m8/TOWwzJnMf9I/AAAAAAAAA3k/MEABIhKhqZk/s320/jnco-jeans-mammoth.jpg (Dem 40-inch wide leg opening….enough room to shelter and whiteknight a bunch of hot skinny scene chicks who WERE scene and not are weebly and a wobbly to Dub Step these days.)
– Airwalks. One word to sum up the mid 90′s……Airwalks. and You had to get the pair that resembled classic Adidas and Pumas as well.
There was a lot of genre confusion around that time. Check out the band One4One. The singer was like a VeganWarrior/Raver/StraightEdge/Wigger. Bascially a mashup of everything that was popular in 1997.
lolololol dude you have some next-level 90s hc knowledge, you should do some posts about this stuff! gold!
Oops. Meant to post that reply here. #fail
I was in the trenches my friend. And I would be honored.
Fuck those No Limit album covers were definitely the way to use burgeoning computer technology of the ’90s, every other cunt done got it wrong. I can’t believe some of these, but as some have already said, it gets even better when you go into 80s heavy mettle territory
http://img2.ranker.com/list_img/1/140519/full/shai-hulud-albums-discography.jpg?version=1319544043000
Kinda surprised you didnt mention this one. I love Shai hulud but even their new album’s cover art is pretty cheesy.
http://www.useless-distribution.com/552-604-large/in-my-eyes-the-difference-between.jpg
i always thought this one was pretty stupid too. I always thought it was dumb when bands did the whole “cover art has to match the band name” thing and In My Eyes defititely did it here. Although i think it would be hilarious if limp bizkit did that.
also i think pretty much all of shelter’s discography belongs in this category. A lot of bands that have religious views kind of keep it on the down low to avoid alienating fans, I guess Ray Cappo was all about alienating the shit out of the fans haha. 20 summers pass was a pretty solid album though.
This whole article justs makes me feel sorry for you…this many years into life and you’re still stuck on judgemental bullshit! So what if the artistic approach was amateurish? Everything about that time and that music was FUN! I’m sure that when you die you will get an award for being the least impressed!
im pretty sure its all in good fun bro-ski. ever look at your high school pictures and say “i cant believe i wore that”?
Ok I get it. Of course the 80 stuff with total king like Pushead, Winston Smith, Rk Sloane or the hernandez Bros. was another level, but I can recall for sure some really shitty artworks that sucked big times and occasionaly even prevented me from buying the record. And nowaday, agreed, most of the artworks are levelled same level shit due to the abuse of computer graphics but still, there are very nice execeptions like, to make you happy, the work of Jacob Bannon of Converge and man, you don’t know shit about lowbrow if you can judge like that Bannon work.That said, I thing the lack of talent cross at least three generations with a full load of terrible stuff so you can do the same article on every other scene/decade but surely you can’t undermine the fact that hardcore as a whole these days sucks way more than it did in the 90
you seem mad.
well maybe my english ain’t that good, take note I write from italy, but if all you can do is answering with insult, learn at least to do it in my language! Until then, I’m still way more intelligent than you are, I can write here and call you pretentious douche bag, and vice versa you wouldn’ t be able to spell a single concept in italian. And make no mistake you really know shit about art since all you can do is insulting artist and reader sounding full of resentment. Is that maybe because all you’ve achieved in your life is to run this ridiculous blog? have fun with it….
ever take note that the title of the website is “stuffyouwillhate.com”?
nobody insulted you bro, but you do seem very upset.
everyone needs to chill out and have a zima.
Probably ran out of pasta :(
no one knows italian except Italians, am I wrong?
All of these bands were out there making a difference, and standing for something. You just sit here at your computer and mock their good intentions. They did this all themselves. DIY is what hardcore is, was and always will be.
defendmid90sHCcoverart.jpg
“insert posi mouthpiece lyrics here”
XXX
DAT XXX
What about 2007ish brown grunge texture raped deathcore album art, with stock photos of old houses, churches and skulls etc?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qRImcmouO3g/TWcJq8zCeaI/AAAAAAAAA0Y/BNtdjskalVw/s1600/The%2BFamine%2BEP%2B-%2B2007.jpg
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9453/00lorenbattlewordsbeginkl9.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6861/blessingsins12qc0.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NASfgmaMiTM/RqQ54yXLalI/AAAAAAAAABs/rf4RU6cwFcw/s320/atthethroneofjudgement.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_71N70ZJyzLM/SXKviJ9ypsI/AAAAAAAAAJs/5OIuGDvNDV0/s320/1194800515_abuba.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ko_LnEN-oAM/Ttu0J5DMr_I/AAAAAAAAF7g/DgU26b80dVQ/s400/we%2Bare%2Bthe%2Bend2.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uD6bOXlMx_g/Rwsf9yoSKSI/AAAAAAAADYs/eOa_WfOZpPg/s400/Carnifex+-+Dead+In+My+Arms.jpg
I found most of these just by quickly searching “Deathcore 2007″ on google images.
You can make one of these in photoshop in just a few minutes.
Oh, and artwork for nintendocore/cybergrind made entirely with default FL studio sounds is pretty terrible too:
http://piranhaparty.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/00sweetsweetrock.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_71N70ZJyzLM/SX6LBOsaOJI/AAAAAAAAASI/B-VKyaBTk4I/s320/453655.png
http://piranhaparty.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/00zombierella.png
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NCvUh-I2kA4/S5h3Opc9KSI/AAAAAAAAAG8/vFhNsl0eWAU/s320/Dinotrax.png
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vkqq8VeuKgs/S3zgUky8opI/AAAAAAAABdk/URpmAZOdVBE/s320/00+Demo.png
http://altrock.su/uploads/posts/2011-10/1317591985_cover-demo-08.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3B9iXaq5R4o/Tbc6IWaYEHI/AAAAAAAAAFw/Fe2wnwnSOiw/s1600/Barney%2BKilled%2BThe%2BHappy%2BFamily.jpg
the last one is probably the worst.
Should E Town Concrete even be brought up…?
dude, I agree with most of these listed here, but the snapcase cover was by Limber Fabian, amazing artist who did some covers for hot water music, hankshaw, among other as well.
Let’s talk about how boss 80s hardcore and 90s powerviolence cover art was. 90s screamo covers were pretty sick too.
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I don’t get what the fuss is about the 90s and hardcore-ness and art from that era. You have a personal vendetta against the 90s???
Really find the article amusing as you’re poking at things that do not matter. There’s nothing substantially concrete to back-up your ‘hate’ for the 90s hardcore. Youneed to love more my man. Hate will eat you up.
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