Commemorating over two decades of delivering exceptional, chilling, extreme metal artwork to the metal underground, Heavy Music Artwork will release Visual Darkness: The Art Of Mike Hrubovcak on June 21st.
The Heavy Music Artwork edition of the book showcases artwork from 1996 to the present day, offering a rare glimpse into Hrubovcak’s extensive portfolio. This exclusive book boasts a compilation of illustrations crafted for death metal luminaries such as Six Feet Under, Grave, Sinister, Mortician, Hate Eternal, Cattle Decapitation, Avulsed, Mortal Decay, Guttural Secrete, Pathology, and more. The book features 176 pages of blood-drenched, full-color artwork showcasing hundreds of art pieces and designs.
Find Visual Darkness: The Art Of Mike Hrubovcak preorders at THIS LOCATION. (The first 100 copies will be signed by Hrubovcak)
About Mike Hrubovcak:
Mike Hrubovcak is an American illustrator who lives and breathes metal. Although highly versatile in creating a broad array of fantasy and horror-themed visuals, he has become best known for his extremely graphic and gore-laden death metal album covers.
Introduced to metal at a young age, Hrubovcak began his album cover ventures in 1993, drawing the demo covers for his high school death metal band Disillusion. This was also the jump-start of his extensive vocal career, which was later spring boarded by the formation of the band Divine Rapture with his brother J.J. Hrubovcak (now in Hate Eternal). While creating artwork for his band, Hrubovcak also did pen and ink, airbrush, and oil paintings for other bands and fanzines.
Hrubovcak’s vocal and musical career also flourished over the years, featuring on many records and touring for the bands Divine Rapture, Azure Emote, I.C.E, Vile, Hypoxia, and the early ‘90s Tampa death metal legends, Monstrosity.
Hrubovcak has created art for Relapse Records, Century Media Records, Revolver Magazine, Headbangers Ball, The Party.San, Maryland Death Fests, Hate Eternal, Sinister, Grave, Mortician, Decrepit Birth, Cattle Decapitation, InHume, Pathology, Guttural Secrete, Avulsed, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Cephalotripsy, and many others. He also had a monthly feature called Nightmare Visions on MTV’s Headbangers Ball Blog (taking over for the discontinuation of Paul Booth’s weekly art posts).
Hrubovcak’s artwork even branched into illustrating B-movie DVD covers and being used as background set dressing for a Universal Pictures feature film and has been displayed in many art galleries and featured in collective art books worldwide.
Book specifications: Square 8.27inch x 8.27inch Hardback 175gm silk paper 176 pages
Features brand new interviews with Necromantia, Arcturus, Immortal, Agalloch, Destruction, Mystifier, and Winterfylleth plus extended interviews with Rotting Christ, Behemoth, Sigh, Mayhem and many more
The Restored, Expanded & Definitive Edition” to consist of 130,000 words of new content, 25 new chapters with over 70 new interviews and improved cover art and design
The book release marks 10 years of Cult Never Dies
UK-based publishing house Cult Never Dies will mark its 10th anniversary this November with the release of Dayal Patterson’s “Black Metal:Evolution of the Cult – The Restored, Expanded &Definitive Edition”. Pre-orders are available now via Cult Never Dies (UK & ROW store / EU store). North American orders can be placed via Decibel Books.
With the original version of the book no longer available in print, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult is hailed as the most acclaimed book on the history of black metal, and the only one endorsed by those involved in creating the genre.
The book will be approximately 340,000 words long, including 130,000 words of new content, 25 new chapters and 48 extended and updated chapters. This will include over 150 exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in the genre, including: Venom, Mercyful Fate, Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Blasphemy, Darkthrone, Behemoth, Rotting Christ, Mayhem and many more. The author also included over 70 brand new or previously unpublished interviews with the likes of Necromantia, Arcturus, Immortal, Agalloch, Destruction, Mystifier, and Winterfylleth.
Evolution of the Cult will also have hugely improved cover art and layout by longtime Cult Never Dies artist David Thiérrée (Behemoth, Gorgoroth, Mortiis), and will include almost 600 photos, many previously unseen, including an 80-page colour/gloss section.
Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir commended the book: “You don’t have to read between the lines anymore ‘cause it’s all there, straight from the source,” while Sakis Tolis of Rotting Christ called it “a valuable educational piece of dark writing.”
Vorph of Samael added: “This is a very insightful work: Without doubt the ultimate book on the subject, a testimony of black metal and a good introduction for neophytes.”
Hvall of Windir and Vreid said: “A brilliantly written book – mandatory if you have any interest in the genre, or want to explore a new world.”
Photo credit: Ester Segarra
Dayal Patterson, book author, Cult Never Dies owner and longtime music journalist, said: “I cannot express how good it feels now that Cult Never Dies finally owns the rights to this book and are able to release it – along with Decibel in the US – in this massively improved form. The limitations placed on the original in terms of word count meant that so many chapters and parts I originally envisioned simply couldn’t be included or were not even worth completing due to a lack of space. What turned into a fairly straightforward restoration job led to about a year of 14-hour days, not only overhauling the existing chapters and layout (something we had always been unhappy with) of the book, but doing a huge number of new interviews and working with a wealth of new bands and artists. Finally, there are proper chapters celebrating bands such as Vinterland, Satyricon, Immortal, Arcturus, Mystifier and Profanatica, as well as greater explorations of black metal in Brazil, the US, the UK, Sweden, Greece, and, of course, Norway.”
For a full list of the 150 interviewees, visit Cult Never Dies.
If you’re a band or musician and would like your music reviewed or be interviewed by Stone, please click the link under the “ALBUM REVIEWS ARCHIVES” section below!
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