WTF Album Covers: Enochian Night Monumental Evil

WTF?

Being a complete outsider on the metal front, I am constantly bewildered at the never-ending hit parade of metal bands wearing Kabuki face makeup. I get that Kiss started this as a “cool idea” meme, but really! Face paint AND sword-n-sorcery references? And from the title of this record, I have a hard time figuring out what part of this album cover is “evil”.

There has to be a word for the kind of goofiness that’s going on with this album cover. The fire breathing is a nice touch though–at least Enochian has taken it a step up from “I wear spikes and look like I might be grumpy enough to tweak your nipple” to “Hey–I actually BREATHE FIRE and could burn your face off.”  So they get danger points for being brave enough to do something edgy and kinda dangerous, as opposed to sitting in a cemetery someplace looking like they just got grounded. You know, like THESE GUYS in Pagan Altar:


Dust and Grooves Strikes Again…

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One of the best vinyl blogs on the planet (objective, aren’t we?) is the wonderful Dust And Grooves. What’s most excellent about this blog, subject matter aside, is the photography of people and their record collections. Eilon Paz has a great photographic eye and his subjects always look far more artistic than you’d imagine a collection of photographs of vinyl records to be. In short, amazing work.

One of the latest posts at Dust and Grooves features Emek Can Tulus, a record collector based in Istanbul, who had a lot to say about the tactile fun of record collecting in general and about Turkish vinyl in particular. This is some amazing stuff! His collection is nothing short of amazing…and his cat likes it, too. Highly recommended!

 

Daniel Johnston Live At Bill’s Records

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This Daniel Johnston clip was posted on an intriguing YouTube account called TheLastRecordStore. Apparently that is a documentary of Dallas-area vinyl scene (I’ve only seen a trailer there so far, looking for more information). This video footage, based on what I read on YouTube, didn’t seem to make it into the final film, but fans of Daniel Johnston will love it.



 

You can buy Daniel Johnston Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album from the Turntabling Collection. Every purchase goes directly to fuding Turntabling–your support is greatly appreciated!

WTF Album Covers: Tankard Disco Destroyer

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It might be time to redefine the WTF album covers to include stuff like this–album covers that do not suck, offend or insult, but are simply effing hilarious; beautifully illustrated by this German thrash metal group, Tankard, and their album cover for Disco Destroyer:

When you listen to the preview MP3s of this album at Amazon.com, the title track is by far the most fun–it’s clear this band doesn’t take itself too seriously–a major crime for metal acts, to be sure. In fact, this group would probably be at its most demented on a double bill with Stormtroopers of Death. Did this ever happen? Even once? The brain cell casualties from alcohol and headbanging at such a show would be legendary.

Metal is not a genre that gets much attention at Turntabling, but with album artwork like this how can you not give it a once-over listen? This is a WTF album for sure, but definitely not thanks to the usual causes–an axe destroying a disco ball is just plain funny.