Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Metal Art: The Eye

Morbus Chron: Sleepers in the Rift

Eyes. Nothing else so everyday is so enigmatic. They are said to be the windows to the soul. They are a major part of human attraction and interaction. But they can also be strange and alien to us. Just look at the eyes of someone like Charles Manson, and they will tell you how insane he is.

A single eye, in isolation, is a common motif in metal art. Divorced from the rest of a human face, it's eerie.


Meshuggah: I, Cenotaph: The Gloomy Reflection of Our Hidden Sorrows, Mushroomhead: XIII

The eye in Obituary's Cause of Death, unblinking and oppressive, with evil intent, recalls Sauron's eye in The Lord of the Rings.


Eyes are also imbued with a great deal of symbolism. Much of that symbolism is tied up with ancient gods and death. See the Egyptian sun god Ra and his eye symbol, or the ancient practice of placing coins on the eyes of the dead to pay Charon for passage.

Death: Symbolic, Middian: Age Eternal, Dream Theater: Train of Thought, Last Transgression: Cynic Verses, Moonspell: Irreligious, Therion: Gothic Kabbalah

3 comments:

  1. Cause of Death has some of my all-time favorite album cover art.

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  2. The impetus for writing this one was mostly a result of that cover art, which really struck a chord with me, but also the Morbus Chron and Cenotaph covers.

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  3. Pretty cool stuff. I can't think of any you missed off the top of my head.

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