I’ve been a fan of Texan-based metal band The Sword for the better part of 5 years now, and I was surprised recently by the release of their new album, Warp Riders.

I picked up the album yesterday and, not only do the new tracks totally live up to The Sword’s talent but check out the album art and collateral. I really enjoyed the previous logo and artwork the guys put together for previous albums, but I was floored by this old school sci-fi direction. I thought the art looked strangely familiar, and as it turns out Dan McPharlin did all of the painting and design. You might remember his work from this post, or even this one.

I really enjoy seeing my favorite artists work with my favorite bands. You metal-heads might want to check this album out, pretty awesome.

My pal Skratch Bastid put on a hell of a spectacle at the Signalnoise art show on April 25th at Resistor Gallery in Toronto. Not only did he play a solid line-up of great tunes, but he started ripping up the tables near the end of the evening. Check out this video shot and edited by Aaron Van Domelen. Great job catching the vibe of Skratch’s performance, and some really nice shots in there.

Big thanks to Aaron for sending this over, and always mad highfives to the Bastid for killin’ it.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen me talking about the Finnish rock band Reckless Love over the past few months. The 4 boys in the band, Olli, Hessu, Jalle and Pepe hired me last year to create the band’s visual identity including the logo, a couple of cd single covers and their official label debut album cover.

I’m happy to announce that their debut is due to be released on February 24th, coincidentally my birthday! Shown above is the final album cover design I created for the guys.

I mentioned this in a previous post about the band, but there is nothing better then working with someone who is excited about their project. That makes me excited, and inevitably makes the work better. Reckless Love’s sound is inspired by hard rock and hair metal bands from the 80s, polished and updated nicely. So naturally, the design hearkens back to that era being inspired by bands such as Mötley Crüe and Van Halen:

I’ve been listening to the final album for a little while now as I worked on the designs and I really can’t wait for the release. Its construction is honest, and they capture perfectly the elements of fun from the era that inspires them, without any irony. It’s no secret that I love modern updates of things past, so I’ve enjoyed every second of working on this project.

More to come on Reckless Love, but in the meantime you can pre-order the album from Record Shop X.

February 24th, rockers . . . mark your calendars.

Not too many music video knock me flat these days, but I had to write a post about Slow Poison by The Bravery. Beautifully crafted with lots of smooth effects and motion graphics barking back to the psychedelic scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. According to Buck, the production company behind the video:

“With a four week production schedule and a love song of sorts, we travelled back in time to the late seventies and joined a cult of psychonauts to make a video about alien panther love, ontology, and inter-dimensional space travel.”

Late seventies? Psychonauts? Panther love? How could I not love all those things when they are packaged into a full spectrum space scene full of neon lines and lens flares? Man, I would have loved to have been part of the team working on this one.

Swing over to check out the video on Buck’s website. And a big thanks to Steve MacKenzie for sending over the link. You rock.

I’ve mentioned a few times that there is nothing better then working with clients who are excited about what they do, because in turn they make me excited about what I’m doing for them. Reckless Love is a prime example of this.

Reckless Love is a 4-piece hard rock/metal band from Finland inspired by the likes of Mötley Crüe, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Halen . . . everything fun about metal in the 1980s. They just recently released their second single called Beautiful Bomb to follow-up their first, One More Time. Their agent attached this promo shot with the email when he initially contacted me, to which I blurted out “These guys look awesome! I’ll definitely work with them!”

Olli (the lead singer) and I started hammering through the logo style, which went through a few different versions before we settled on the final design. We both wanted something big, like Metallica or Judas Priest, but still captured the fun of the group’s sound. I posted a few of the different iterations above to show how the process went, from the stripped down vectors to the final renders. As for the cover of the single they wanted something bright and colorful, which I was happy to hear :) ’80s metal goodness.

These are the kind of clients you want to work with, man. They are as excited about the music and design as I am, and we’re all coming from the same sources for inspiration in our different fields. Great bunch of guys, and more to come from Reckless Love, for sure. But in the meantime you can catch up with the guys on their Myspace.