Black Metal’s Visual Language, Explained Through 10 Real Covers
Black metal built its identity as much through artwork as through sound — stark monochrome photography, borrowed 19th-century paintings, and hand-drawn illustration all became visual shorthand for the genre before most listeners had heard a note. These are 10 real album covers, described accurately rather than invented, that shaped how the genre looks.
Mayhem — De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)
The cover is a monochrome photograph of the east facade of Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway — a real Gothic cathedral, not a fabricated ruin. The choice of a genuine sacred building, rendered stark and almost funereal in black and white, set the template countless later black metal covers would echo: real, imposing architecture photographed to look abandoned and cold. The idea for the cover’s direction came from guitarist and band ideologist Oystein “Euronymous” Aarseth.
Burzum — Filosofem (1996)
Rather than a photograph, Filosofem’s cover reproduces a painting by 19th-century Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen, titled (in Norwegian) “Op under Fjeldet toner en Lur” — roughly, “Up under the mountain a clarion call rings out.” Using a historical fine-art painting instead of original photography or illustration was itself a statement, tying the album to a specifically Norwegian folk-art lineage rather than the horror-movie imagery some contemporaries leaned on.
Darkthrone — Transilvanian Hunger (1994)
A raw, deliberately primitive hand-drawn cover depicting a skeletal figure emerging from a forest holding a candelabra — a detail widely understood as a tribute to Mayhem vocalist Per “Dead” Ohlin, who had died by suicide in 1991. The crude, lo-fi drawing style was a conscious choice, matching the album’s stripped-down production rather than aiming for polish.
Emperor — In the Nightside Eclipse (1994)
A moonlit mountain range rendered in a cold, minimal monochromatic palette, evoking the epic, symphonic scale of the album’s music without any figures or narrative imagery at all — just landscape. It’s one of the more purely atmospheric covers of the era, letting scale and lighting do all the work.
Immortal — At the Heart of Winter (1999)
Painted by artist J.P. Fournier, this was Immortal’s first album cover not to feature a photograph of the band members, and the first to prominently display the band’s now-iconic logo. It marked a visual turning point for the band, moving from corpse-paint band photography toward painted, symbolic artwork.
Bathory — Blood Fire Death (1988)
The cover reproduces “The Wild Hunt of Odin,” an 1872 oil painting by Norwegian artist Peter Nicolai Arbo, depicting a spectral company of horsemen led by Thor racing across a stormy sky. Bathory used a genuine 19th-century Romantic-era painting years before that became a common move in the genre, and the image is now inseparable from the album in most fans’ minds.
Wolves in the Throne Room — Celestial Lineage (2011) and Thrice Woven (2017)
Wolves in the Throne Room consistently break from black metal’s usual iconography in favor of nature photography and design. Celestial Lineage’s cover was created by photographic artist Alison Scarpulla, with the overall package designed by Aaron Turner. Thrice Woven’s cover art was created by Denis Forkas, with interior landscape photographs by John Westrock — together building an ecological, forest-focused visual identity distinct from the band’s Norwegian forebears.
Deafheaven — Sunbather (2013)
A famously unconventional cover for the genre: a flat pink-and-orange field designed by Nick Steinhardt, a graphic designer and Touche Amore guitarist. The colors were chosen to evoke the glow seen through closed eyelids while lying in direct sun, and the cover deliberately avoided the illegible logo typefaces most black metal album covers use, which made it as divisive among genre purists as the band’s genre-blending sound.
Batushka — Litourgiya (2015)
Hand-painted by the band’s founder, credited as Drabikowski, the cover presents a blurred rendering of the Orthodox icon known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The Eastern Orthodox liturgical imagery isn’t incidental — it’s central to Batushka’s entire aesthetic, which blends black metal with actual Slavic Orthodox church-chant structures.
What Ties These Together
- Real photography (Mayhem, Wolves in the Throne Room) and appropriated historical paintings (Burzum, Bathory) are both long-running traditions in the genre, not opposing approaches.
- A shift from band photography toward symbolic or landscape imagery (Immortal, Emperor) tracks the genre’s move from shock-value visuals toward atmosphere.
- Later bands (Deafheaven, Wolves in the Throne Room) used cover art to signal a deliberate break from black metal’s visual conventions, which became almost as controversial as breaking from its musical ones.