Showing posts with label booklet illustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label booklet illustration. Show all posts

1/12/2018

CD Review: Manach Seherath - Timeless Tales (Symphonic Heavy Metal, 2018)

A ancient book long lost has been found again...Symphonic Heavy Metaller's Manach Seherath have put out one hell of a epic debut album. 2018 kicks off heavy!

Having heard their demo back in the day it gave me great feelings because it reminded me of a style in metal music long lost. The use of keyboards was outstanding.

The cover of Manach Seherath's debut album Timeless Tales drawn by Roberto Toderico, (c) by Manach Seherath, used with kind permission

Story Telling
This time around the band has taken all of their strengths and exanded them to the very maximum. The biggest one is the ability to give the listener a narrative experience - you know the way a good story is told. But they underlay the fine lyrics with even more power letting their instruments speak out properly and heavily skilled.

What can be found inside?
The album turned out to be a surprise to me. I didn't expect such a fast album when it comes to tempo. Just listen to the opener "The Cursed Collector" and you know what I'm writing about. The vocals have evolved a lot since the days of the demo. There's much more volume and variations in them and they sound more dry and professional this time. Plus they reach much higher parts. Think of the classic vocalists of the 80s and you know what I'm speaking about.

As for the music: there are many diverse sides to be heard on the record. Also the overall style is constant and can be heard as trademark on all of the tracks they vary and every tale has a own vibe and character with it.

There are always changes coming in and I didn't had the feeling that the album became too one-sided instead there were surprises around every corner. I think that's one of the hardest parts for band's like Manach Seherath - to keep the listener entertained. But the band kept a close eye upon this and "Timeless Tales" has many changes in it that will keep you at the stereo. So many details that have been put inside of tracks such as "Restless" or "Chasing The Beast" that will reward re-listeners with many fine moments. The guitar solos for instance are furious. Many times they give a new ignition to a different section of the song.

The timing is challenging on this silver disc. There are fast parts to be heard many times but you can also find slower parts that come creeping through your boxes. "Asleep" is the song that stands out as proof of this for me. I love band's that use this formula but they are rare. This song package holds this special something I'm after. It's hard to believe how the band managed to get all of this together. It's such a big bag of fun to listen. All the up and down's "Sword in the mist" has gives the feeling of experiencing a adventure of depth and intensity yourselves. Close your eyes and you'll feel.

The tracks of the demo have been included at the end of the record but have been outworked and fully professionallised for the album. They sound bolder, straighter and darker this time. Happily the songs have not been changed otherwise too much.

Booklet with a extra
The lyrics have been visualised on the outside of the release and the design of the booklet. I feel that this could be a unique mark this offering could point on the map of releases. There are illustrations to be found that point towards the meaning of each track on the page of the corresponding lyrics . It is one more reason beside all the great music to pick up this album. It's a full feature experience well worth all your money and time.

Purchase-Link and Preview-Track
Make sure to keep a eye on the Manach Seherath Facebook page. That's where you'll be notified where to buy the record but I'll also update this post as soon as the release details come in. Below I can give you a listen to one full track of the album.

You can already purchase this track as a digital single with more songs and bonus material in high quality format at the Bandcamp page of the symphonic Heavy Metal band.

7/11/2015

Interview with coverartist Andrej Bartulovic (AllThingsRotten.com)

Introduction

What have most of the releases that come out in common? Yes, nearly all of them have a cover that often is made of a artwork. Many of them come with a booklet that often also features illustrations with them.

The point for young and unknown bands is: who can they contact if they need such things? Sure there are the big names out there like Andreas Marshall (Running Wild), H. R. Giger (Carcass, Danzig) or Derek Riggs (Iron Maiden). But those are not affordable for those bands.

Happily enough there are freelance illustrators out there that can help bands to get a decent cover for a affordable price. One of them is Andrej Bartulovic, known as Maggotmaster and under the sign of All Things Rotten.

(c) by All Things Rotten, used with kind permission

Metal Underdogs would like to help bring all the people in the scene closer to each other and so we took the chance and had a talk with Andrej about his way into this job, his past band experiences, where he draw's inspiration for new covers from as well as his thoughts on today's modern and everywhere-present lyric-videos. If you're interested in setting up a interview please send me a message through the contact form at the right navigation bar or look my Email adress up in the Blogger profile.

Contact Data

If you want to get in touch with Andrej Bartulovic please use one of the links below:
 
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Things-Rotten/158201837535762
Email: contact@allthingsrotten.com
Homepage www.allthingsrotten.com

The interview

Metal Underdogs: Could you please introduce yourself a bit to our readers? (who are you, where do you come from, what are the things you focus mostly upon with your work - cover art, logos, booklets, shirt designs etc.)?

Andrej Bartulovic: I'm Andrej Bartulovic, known as Maggotmaster around world wide web I guess. That has been my screen name since late 90s. And no, it has nothing to do Slipknot, it's the name of the song by Nocturnal Breed (album "Agressor"). Born and living in Croatia for 35 years already. Working for bands mostly, but also doing tattoo designs, book covers, was also a concept artist. I do everything, I'm gun for hire ;)



How did you become a cover artist? What were your first experiences especially with metal bands?

I'm metalhead since I was 13. Always into horror stuff, be it literature, music, video games or movies. I was artist for video games first. Then I decided to bring together 2 things I like the most, my love for everything horror and music. My first experiences were really cheap or even free cuz I've had no portfolio whatsoever. Some of the bands I worked in the beginning were Fury (uk), Hellhounds (Fra) and Snowy Shaw... that was 6 years ago, I think but I can easily be dead wrong. I'm bad with dates, years..

In the process of creating ideas for a cover: do you sometimes pre-listen stuff from artists and they ask you to come around with an idea? Do some even send text-material or something to give you a better idea of what the record will be about?

Depends of the band. Some provide lyrics only, that's perfectly fine. Some provide music, even better but usually it's about description, text description of stuff they would like to see. Then I'm onto sketching, rough shapes.. we go back and forth a lot so we can minimize repairs and mistakes that may occur later on. Everything can be done in timely manner and properly if feedback is on time.

Which sorts of painting techniques do you use/ prefer?

I prefer more comic book approach, but I also do classic digital painting and photomanipulations. Again, depends what band is after. I don't have time to work in traditional techniques sadly. I really, really wanna do more of traditional stuff. But it's slow process and I'd proly had to charge more.

Could you also imagine to fuse your paintings with photography or do you prefer to keep things mutually exclusive to one style?

Actually I do some paint overs from time to time. As I work digitally (drawing tablet) everything is possible.

Do you prefer covers that have a message or do you like to have it a pure fantasy way?

I always prefer covers with symbolism over straight to the point art. But, again, it's usually not my call. If band has a specific vision I have to follow it. I think that symbolic elements lift the whole art to another level together with the music. But it also depends of the mood, sometimes you just wanna work on gory fucked up scenery. Really depends on numerous things. But the band has the last vote. I'm just a tool. Someone who's job is to make band's vision come to life.

Have you ever thought of setting up your work in a gallery for exposition / printing a book with a selections of artworks or an exhibition on events (think of open airs, festivals or shows)?

Well, I've had some exhibitions in my hometown...but that was, oh god, like 15,16 years ago, while I was working traditionally, for myself. One was called "Abominations - a tribute to trash", another was "Copycat". I'm actually planning to do an exhibition soon, but not sure exactly when. Those things require money and extra time. I wanna do it badly, I have a lot of things waiting to be printed. About festival/show exhibitions; well, if someone would call me I'd gladly accept the opportunity to come and show my stuff.

Do you also work on lyric videos? Some of them have a quite impressive "living" coverart in them.

Nah, takes too much time, at least it WOULD take much time from me because I didn't do any of lyrics videos ever. So I'd have to lear the software first. Personally, I don't like them, there's something really lazy about them. I totally understand that music industry is fucked and artists don't have the money to release video with every single. But dammit, I'm sick and tired of lyric videos. It's like screen is slaping you every 3 seconds and forcing you to read stuff.



Which other artists are amongst your favorites? Would you count these as sort of influence for you?

I always mention Greg Cappullo. I love that guy. He was an influence for sure. Others would be Ashley Wood, Giger, Bosch, ...heck, many more.

Are you still playing music? Which instrument do you play or did you play back in a day?

Nope. I was bad at it, really bad. I played rhythm guitar in a band. I was lazy as fuck, never practiced at home. Back then I thought it was perfectly fine, but man, I sucked ass so hard, haha!! Again, that was 16,17 years ago.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer the questions.

Thank you for showing interest, your approach and the opportunity. Appreciate it! Stay naked!

If you want to get in touch with Andrej Bartulovic please use one of the links below:

Contact Data

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Things-Rotten/158201837535762
Email: contact@allthingsrotten.com
Homepage www.allthingsrotten.com