SNAKES And METAL = Some Very Intense And Memorable Album Covers!
Snakes And Metal – What makes snakes so attractive to Metal? It must be the biblical reference/story of Satan taking the form of a serpent in the Garden Of Eden. No? Maybe it’s the snake being profiled throughout history as simply… evil? No? What about many, many snakes being downright intimidating and venomous? Yes? Regardless the reasoning, snakes are undoubtedly badass; and Metal is badass.
I chose to pick some of my favorite Metal album covers that depict, in various grand forms, the almighty, evil and often times misunderstood snake. I surely hope y’all like the album covers I’ve chosen. For certain, there are probably one million other album covers out there with a snake or two on them, I just cannot list them all! However, feel free to share which snake themed album cover you dig and which did not show up here, via comment.
The Whitesnake Lovehunter album cover (at top of post) is my all-time favorite snake themed album cover. No, no, no… it’s not because of the gal’s naked butt either; although I’ve never complained about it. I first fell in love with this album cover as a graphic design student, many light years ago, back in college. I absolutely cherish the artwork of Lovehunter and countless other works of world-renowned painter/illustrator Chris Achilleos.
WARNING: If you suffer from Ophidiophobia or ophiophobia, which is the abnormal fear of snakes, feel free to leave and visit an ABBA or U2 website.
SATYRICON – VOLCANO
Released back in 2002, this fifth album from the powerful Satyricon depicts a snake that looks 100% evil. Pure evil. A perfect Satyricon album cover! It’s as if this snake will leap from the cover and bite my face off. I love that! Plus, I love this album and band.
PANTERA – THE GREAT SOUTHERN TRENDKILL
Released back in 1996, The Great Southern Trendkill is another album I infinitely love. PANTERA is personified to perfection with this snake, cause it looks extremely pissed-off and ready to strike! This snake doesn’t seem like it wants to f*$K around; it looks like it wants to kill and eat anything in its path. Neat.
FIGHT OR FLIGHT – A LIFE BY DESIGN?
Released in 2013, A Life By Design by the Metal/Hard Rock supergroup Fight Or Flight is a tremendous album! I wish I had room to put it on my best of list, from last year. The album cover depicts a creepy, creepy snake that has syringes for fangs! Ouch!! Plus, that melancholy driven corn field as a back-drop, only worsens the nightmare for me. Excellent!
ALICE COOPER – CONSTRICTOR
Compare this snake on Alice Cooper’s Constrictor cover and it doesn’t look to be as mean-spirited as the others on this list. However, this snake is wrapping itself around Alice Cooper’s neck and face rather well. A very commercial Alice Cooper album from 1986, I do enjoy listening to it for its over-the-top mid-80’s MTV and Arena charm.
ESCAPE THE FATE – THIS WAR IS OURS
This sophomore album from Escape The Fate I don’t own. I do own their last two releases. With that out-of-the-way, This War Is Ours, from 2008, has snakes bookending their band logo in a subtle, yet very cool way. Sometimes, less snake is more. The overall artwork is solid as hell too.
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That concludes this Snakes and Metal list! Thanks for taking part! Perhaps y’all dug it? If not, please feel free to pull out your Barbara Streisand CD’s and crank ’em up to the point of constipation. Metal be thy name.
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LONG LIVE SNAKES.
LONG LIVE METAL.
REST IN PEACE, DIMEBAG DARRELL.
Stone.
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
March 29, 2014 at 6:27 am
I bought Lovehunter when I was touring Scandinavia in 1980, always thought it was a kick-ass cover Stone! I see you have an Alice one in there – but it was the ‘Killer’ album for me with the snake on that made me sit up and take notice! -and it’s not only metal that used the snake to great effect..Prog rock had a go too, with one of my favourite artists, Roger Dean, who cooked up not one, but TWO snakes for the cover of ‘Relayer’ by Yes. :
March 29, 2014 at 12:27 pm
I was lucky enough to find the vinyl version of ‘Lovehunter’… only it’s not an original pressing. Man, I would love to take a time machine back to 1980 and scour Scandinavia with you for some vintage Metal hunting!! And a few pints. 🙂
Yup, Prog art is a special mind trip all it’s own! That Yes cover is superb! I’ll agree on your ‘Killer’ Alice Cooper cover too, LOL! Another snake (album) cover that you most likely own, Kev, is Blackfoot’s ‘Strikes’ with its menacing cobra! You ROCK \m/\m/
March 29, 2014 at 12:44 pm
Ah yeah! forgot that one! Time machine to Scandinavia 1980..how cool would that be? \m/\m/
March 29, 2014 at 3:22 pm
Oh, man, Kev, it would be super whiz-bang cool to be hanging with (you) the ‘Rock And Roll Jedi Master’ in any era! LOL!! Whoa. 🙂 \m/\m/
April 3, 2014 at 6:24 am
Great post – Cooper’s cover was always tops for me. Always dug that CD.