Cynosure extensively talks about his origins and creative process, plus what it means to be an artist that puts his heart and soul into each of his one-of-a-kind instruments.

2014 was an interesting year for Berlin-based artist, Eliran Kantor. His reputation as one of the world’s to-go Metal cover artists continued to grow thanks to his work for heavyweights like Iced Earth, Incantation.

Frantic and epic in scope, Polyptych’s Illusorium is a successful melding of a wide variety of extreme sounds.

On this fifth and last episode of And Justice For Art’s guide to some of 2014’s best album covers, we continue to explore some of these fine graphics and how they were created. Let’s find out what the bands and visual artists involved had to say.

Dan Seagrave and Zbigniew M. Bielak are two well-known artists that have noticeable generational, cultural and stylistic differences. Despite this, there’s a common denominator between them: both have lent their talents to the world of Heavy Metal. As a result, they’ve created iconic graphics that have become the visual representation of recordings by some of the world’s most revered extreme bands. So… what brings together Seagrave and Bielak to the pages of And Justice For Art? The answer to that is rather simple. Coincidentally, two of their most recent projects have caught our attention, so we contacted them to find out more!

American prog metallers, While Heaven Wept, are back with a vengeance. Their epic new album Suspended At Aphelion is a towering achievement of unsuspected magnitude. The unique mix of many musical influences into a sole, 40-plus minute track definitely marks a new landmark in the band’s two-decade-long career. Given the comments of mainman, Tom Phillips, they’re barely warming up and are already preparing a long-awaited tour. Check out all the juicy details he reveled, exclusively for PureGrainAudio.

Visually, 2014 has been one of the most interesting years for Metal in recent history. We’ve had plenty of striking images fronting thousand of album covers. Surprisingly, most of them have showcased both technical finesse and conceptual relevance. In this article (the fourth installment of …And Justice For Art’s mini-series about the subject), we keep exploring some of these works of art. Discover what the people involved in their creation had to say….

For many years Nick Micho had two clear passions: heavy music and visual arts. Eventually, he decided to merge them. The result of that enterprise is, currently, one of the most enjoyable visual projects in the underground scene. The Canadian artist draws his own renditions of bands he likes, but in a very distinctive way.

It seems that despite the so-called, current ‘supremacy’ of the digital format, album covers still matter – at least in the world of Metal music. Both bands and graphic artists keep producing arresting imagery to accompany and enhance (visually and conceptually) the power of the recordings being released daily. Here’s the third chapter of this miniseries exploring some of those amazing album covers. Let’s discover what those involved with their creation had to say…

Singer/songwriter, Charles Lavaigne, is beyond any doubt, a global artist. He’s from the Dominican Republic, resides in Spain, and plays/sings Rock, mostly in English. Charles usually garnishes his material with sonic elements taken from diverse cultural sources. His latest full-length offering, Songs of Carlos Aguinaldo, is a good example of such approach. However, the main driving forces behind this new material are the retro-sounds of classic English Rock (especially Led Zeppelin), and a certain alternative vibe from the ’90s.

On July 29, 2014 the Summer Slaughter Tour came to the State Theatre located in St. Petersburg, Florida. Coincidentally, this year’s headliners were local boys, Morbid Angel. With 30 years on their resume, they’ve helped to create and redefine the foundations of death metal as we know it. That night, song after song, (including “Rapture,” “Where The Slime Lives” and “Existo Vulgoré”) they crushed the rest of the fest’s line up which included bands of the caliber of Dying Fetus and Origin, to name a few.

2014 continues to bring us outstanding cover imagery for many Metal albums worldwide. Using all kind of techniques, from traditional painting to digital design, artists have created exceptional visual marvels that amaze thanks in large to their level of detail, careful execution and, in some cases, profound conceptual ideas. In this second part of our “Best Album Covers of 2014,” we keep exploring some of these special pieces of art. Let’s see what the people involved in the making of these images had say.

Martin Popoff is beyond any doubt the most productive book writer in the Hard Rock/Metal scene. The best proof of this is his unique capacity of producing two or three books per year. His carefully crafted, glossy-looking volumes usually combine compelling storytelling with first-rate visual material. Some of the most superb examples of this are “Run for Cover” (about iconic illustrator, Derek Riggs) “Fade to Black: Hard Rock Cover Art of the Vinyl Age” and more recently his collaboration with Malcolm Dome and a selected group of writers, in the art book “The Art Of Metal.”

2014 is just beginning and there already are a lot of interesting artworks adorning the covers of many Metal albums. We’ve selected four of the most striking ones to-date and spoke with some of the people involved in their development who in turn revealed numerous interesting facts. We listened, learned and now, we’re sharing with you this info! Feel free to do the same…