Raven | Outsider Rock

In this latest post of Story Behind The Album Cover, artist Andrej Bartulović (All Things Rotten) discusses the cover art for the brand new RAVEN album All Hell’s Breaking Loose. Andrej has done numerous album covers for the likes of Mortis, Nocturnal Breed, and the latest from Alcatrazz! Enjoy the read, and check out the links below for more on Andrej Bartulović’s work.

First, can you give me a bit of background on yourself, how you got into art (different media’s) and in particular, album art?

I got into art while I was practically a kid. Got more involved into band stuff in high school and started working for bands around 2000. – the great time of MySpace. Awesome times!

Do you have favorite artists, and particular rock album artists, any favorite album covers (by other artists) from your youth?

Always loved Ed Repka, we all grew up with his covers. But artists I admired were regular metal fanboy list artists, starting with Giger then Cappullo. Grew up with Italian comics, not American. Dylan Dog was my fave comic and for many years Corrado Roi was my fave artist back then. Today I worship Riccardo Federici, an absolute beast and God (for me at least).

You’ve done the latest Raven album (did you happen to do the previous one?) Can you tell me a bit about your connection to the band?

If you are referring to “Metal City” as the previous one, then no. I didn’t do that. I did their “Leave ’em Bleeding” EP. I started working for the band years before on some shirts. I think Mike Heller just posted on Facebook that he needed artsy/graphic guy and I answered. He checked my page and I think that’s how it all started, that was years before. Working with Mike since. We toss ideas around, I do sketches, brothers are deciding is it a go or no. They’re all cool guys. I’m honored for a chance to work with them.

What inspired the whole idea and drawing for the All Hell’s Breaking Loose cover? Were there ideas put forth from the band or drawn from the music?

I think the idea came from the album directly, it’s actually all hell’s breaking loose on that record. It’s mayhem of an album (in a good way). Guys wanted madness, monsters, basically Metal City on steroids on steroids on steroids (yes, I wrote that 3 times haha).

Can you detail how you created the artwork for AHBL – techniques, materials,… It is a very detailed piece. Excellent

Thank you for your kind words, appreciated! It was hand drawn on tablet, colored and textured too. There were many changes concerning poses and faces, kinda tricky to pull those out. I used reference photos, of course. Monsters were the easy part haha. Also drew the logo by hand to fit the aesthetics of the cover and get more comic book feel. And yes, would use this opportunity (thank you again) to say loud and not so proud – bass guitar has 2 extra tuning machines. It’s a honest mistake we’ve all overseen. Super weird! But we were busy adding all those laser spiders. So yeah, shit does happen but I think it doesn’t ruin anything, just adding bit of charm.

Anything else you can tell about this cover, and how well it turned out?

The answer is below the previous answer, basically. But I’m happy how it turned out, guys love it and people seem to dig it too. So it’s win-win-win.

You’ve done a number of other covers, notably the last 2 Alcatrazz albums. What are some of your favorite covers you designed, with a line or 2 about them?

Yes, I did the last 2 Alcatrazz covers, gotta thanks to Giles (for the opportunity and trust) and Silver Lining Music for patience. Some of my faves? Bah, I always think the last thing is the best thing. I’m super critical about stuff I do so I really can’t decide about faves. I like the last Nocturnal Breed stuff I did.

What sort of music do you listen to? And any favorite tracks from the new Raven album?

At this exact moment as I write this I have Dissection playing through the speakers. It’s usually death and black metal, but I also love Arjen Lucassen stuff too… weird heavy stuff like Lost Horizon, Laibach, EMF, ABBA…hahah. Last few years I’m mad about video game soundtracks… nostalgia all the way.
My fave Raven track from the new album would proly be “The Far Side”, but the whole album is absolute batshit crazy and young bands should take some notes.

What other projects are you working on (music related or otherwise)?

Just finished some book cover illustrations; but generally it’s more or less about music – shirt designs, banners, whatever the band needs. But whenever someone needs any art done I’m around, like a sleazy weirdo hiding in the bushes.

LINKS:

https://www.facebook.com/AllThingsRottenOfficial

https://www.instagram.com/maggotmeister79/?hl=en

https://www.discogs.com/artist/3746421-Andrej-Bartulovic

British metal legends RAVEN have a brand new album out – All Hell’s Breaking Loose. If you like your rock fast and furious, check this out. There’s 3 singles/videos released so far (see below), as well as favorite cuts like “Turn Of The Screw”, “Desperate Measures”, and “Invasion”. Ten tracks that don’t let up from beginning to end. The band has also released a new single/video for the album’s title track (today). Great production, love the sound of this album. Dig the album art courtesy of Andrej Bartulović at All Things Rotten! *For more info check out the press info, videos, and links below…

Prepare yourself for a metal rampage the likes of which you haven’t enjoyed in many a year as New Wave of British Heavy Metal stalwarts RAVEN deliver the electric mayhem of All Hell’s Breaking Loose, their 15^th studio album, released June 30^th on Silver Lining Music.

The Newcastle pioneers, formed by the Gallagher brothers (bassist/vocalist John and guitarist Mark) and rounded out by drummer extraordinaire Mike Heller have emerged from Heller’s own Heaven And Heller Studios in Los Angeles with 10 crisp, visceral metal classics, each fused with riffs, twists, turns, chaos and more hooks than all the Hellraiser movies combined (think hyperbole, ‘turn-it-UP’ and find out for yourself)!

Among the stand-outs are lead single “Go For The Gold”, with the redline pushed hard by a cavalcade of riffs and furious, percussive madness, yet behind it all a melodic journey that makes it multi-dimensional skull-crushing.

“‘Go For The Gold’” is our first single as it really represents the new album mission statement… 100% full on RAVEN lunacy!!!!”, enthuses John Gallagher. “If you’ve got an initial great riff, you just build from it,… you try not to milk it to death. You want a good structure. You want a good verse with hooks, a good pre-chorus with hooks, a great chorus, and then you want little left turns here and there to spice it up. Otherwise it can sound boring. And if you have too many left turns then it turns into jazz fusion, so it’s a funny line you gotta dance on to have structure but also the chaos part as well.”

Title track “All Hell’s Breaking Loose” twists and turns with accents and flavours buried inside the chaos. “Lyrically the song is about the constrictions of being locked down during the pandemic and the desire and need to ‘break free’ from it all or risking going insane…” explains co-founding member and guitarist Mark Gallagher. “It’s about taking control of your freedom!” Mark exclaims. Meanwhile “Surf The Tsunami” sees Heller gatecrash your eardrums with a furious flurry of his own, before some supreme twister riffs bring on the full metal chaos; “Turn Of The Screw” bounces on the upbeats before smashing you with a thunderous chorus; “The Far Side” has as classic a metal riff as you’ll hear in 2023; “Desperate Measures” is pure ’81-saturated tales of hardship and despair, if you ever wondered what RAVEN at the Marquee were like on a sweaty metal night in ’83; “Edge of A Nightmare” is your portal to paradise, thundering as hard as the opener “Medieval”.

What RAVEN have delivered with All Hell’s Breaking Loose is permission for everyone to remember exactly what it’s like to lose yourself in the healing aural waters of supreme heavy metal music, resplendent in sweat-soaked denim and leather.

“You got three guys with very strong, passionate, opinions,” offers Mark, “and when those are brought together, it’s a case of ‘iron sharpens iron.’”

“We’re very hard on ourselves,” adds John, “it had to be ‘all killer, no filler’. Absolutely every single part of every song had to make sense, had to mean something, and had to be there for a purpose.”

And All Hell’s Breaking Loose makes it clear that RAVEN aren’t messing around in that regard.

*To order on green vinyl, CD, and Cassette(!), check out – https://raven.tmstor.es/?lf=92b7b4d1d4cd1b587d5f32f64b525256