Arkansas quartet Pallbearer may not exactly be one of the largest names in the doom metal genre, but they are certainly one of the best, and no way do they showcase their talents than in their 2012 full-length debut fittingly entitled "Sorrow and Extinction." The tunes are slowly cosmic and somber, generating one of the more psychedelic doom albums ever to hit the air. Along with this type of music is the awesome album artwork by Californian artist Sean Reynolds Williams, also known as Animetalphysical. The cover alone appears to have a very archaic appearance to it, seeming like something out of artwork from the 70's. This adds to the cosmic look of the artwork, with a white and purple ocean with a shipwreck, a large portal, and a monstrous white phantom in the midst of a galactic background. The fact that the action of the artwork is packed into the bottom half of the cover somehow makes the imagery more powerful and standing out, rendering it as even more eye-catching.
The meaning behind this artwork is certainly definable in accordance to the name of the record itself, "Sorrow and Extinction." The extinction of the artwork is represented through the shipwreck itself, obviously serving as a harbinger of the death of seafaring passengers. The sorrow comes from the white phantom and the portal being shown to a person in the midst of the destruction. As a whole, the picture could represent how one could be tempted by some supernatural force to cause the death of others to achieve self-salvation. However, in the end of this temptation, the person somehow will ironically wind up in some sorrowful conclusion, either brought up by his or her desires that come to life having some fatal downside or by severe guilt and disgrace from the excursion. With some provocatively dark meaning and a cosmically wondrous sight, "Sorrow and Extinction" is pleasant to the ears as well as to the eyes.
Sean Reynolds Williams/Animetalphysical's Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/animetalphysical
