Mark Riddick

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Mark Riddick is an American illustrator and graphic artist, specializing in posters and other graphics for death metal and black metal music. [1]

Contents

Riddick was born in Bossier City, Louisiana in 1976 and raised in Northern Virginia. He holds a BA degree in Studio Art from Greensboro College, North Carolina. His work has been published by underground bands and fanzines, and by recording acts on metal record labels.

He also contributed art to the heavy metal cartoon Metalocalypse. [1] In 2016, he worked on merchandise for Justin Bieber and designed a collection for The Hundreds. [1] [2] [3]

Bands and clients

Books

Cover art

Related Research Articles

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, featuring double kick and blast beat techniques; minor keys or atonality; abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes; and chromatic chord progressions. The lyrical themes of death metal may include slasher film-style violence, political conflict, religion, nature, philosophy, true crime and science fiction.

Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. Grindcore is considered a more noise-filled style of hardcore punk while using hardcore's trademark characteristics such as heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdriven bass, high-speed tempo, blast beats, and vocals which consist of growls, shouts and high-pitched shrieks. Early groups like Napalm Death are credited with laying the groundwork for the style. It is most prevalent today in North America and Europe, with popular contributors such as Brutal Truth and Nasum. Lyrical themes range from a primary focus on social and political concerns, to gory subject matter and black humor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtic Frost</span> Swiss metal band

Celtic Frost was a Swiss extreme metal band from Zürich. They are known for their strong influence on the development of extreme metal and avant-garde metal.

Swedish death metal is a death metal music scene developed in Sweden. Many Swedish death metal bands are associated with the melodic death metal movement, thus giving Swedish death metal a different sound from other variations of death metal. Unlike American death metal groups, the first Swedish bands were rooted in hardcore punk. Gothenburg has a large melodic death metal scene while Stockholm is known for its more raw death metal scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morbid Angel</span> American death metal band

Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida, formed in 1983 by guitarist, primary composer and sole remaining original member Trey Azagthoth, vocalist and bassist Dallas Ward, and drummer Mike Browning. Widely considered one of the most influential bands in the genre and important in the transition of death metal from its thrash metal roots, they were one of the first bands to incorporate guttural vocals, up-tempo blast beats, multiple tempo changes and a dark atmosphere. They have been described as one of "the most influential and emulated bands in death metal", alongside Obituary, Death, Cynic, Autopsy and Deicide, and have been cited as an influence by many later bands. They were also the first death metal band to experience mainstream success in connection with being signed to Giant Records in 1992, heavy rotation of their music videos on MTV, and having the music video for the song "God of Emptiness" shown on an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Their first three albums – Altars of Madness (1989), Blessed Are the Sick (1991), and Covenant (1993) – are considered classics in the genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borknagar</span> Norwegian metal band

Borknagar is a Norwegian heavy metal band from Bergen, founded in 1995 by Øystein Garnes Brun. The band's style combines black metal and folk metal with progressive and melodic elements. Borknagar's lyrics often deal with philosophy, paganism, nature and the cosmos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Black Dahlia Murder (band)</span> American melodic death metal band

The Black Dahlia Murder is an American melodic death metal band from Waterford, Michigan, formed in 2001. Their name is derived from the 1947 unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short, often referred to as Black Dahlia. Currently, the band consists of lead vocalist Brian Eschbach, bassist Max Lavelle, drummer Alan Cassidy, and guitarists Brandon Ellis and Ryan Knight. The Black Dahlia Murder has undergone various lineup changes, with Trevor Strnad and Eschbach remaining the only constant members, until the former's death in 2022, which then saw Eschbach take over lead vocals. Out of the nine studio albums they have released to date, the last eight have charted on the U.S. Billboard 200, with their fifth album Ritual peaking at No. 31 in 2011, marking them as one of the most popular contemporary American extreme metal bands. Their ninth and latest album Verminous was released on April 17, 2020.

Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by releasing early grindcore and death metal records between the late 1980s and mid-1990s. Its roster has since diversified into more mainstream guitar music, working with bands such as Rival Sons, the Temperance Movement, Blackberry Smoke, Scarlet Rebels and the White Buffalo. The company also hosted the 'Earache Express' stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2017 and 'The Earache Factory' at Boomtown 2018. The label's logo is a homage to Thrasher magazine, as Pearson was a skateboard culture enthusiast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metal Blade Records</span> American independent record label

Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distributed in the US by RED Distribution, and in Canada by Sony Music Entertainment. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Records in the United States from 1988 to 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arsis</span> American metal band

Arsis is an American heavy metal band from Virginia Beach, Virginia, formed in 2000. The band is currently signed to Nuclear Blast.

<i>A Celebration of Guilt</i> 2004 studio album by Arsis

A Celebration of Guilt is the debut studio album released by death metal band Arsis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snowy Shaw</span> Swedish heavy metal musician

Snowy Shaw is a Swedish heavy metal musician based in the port city of Gothenburg in the west coast of Sweden. He has played with many heavy metal bands, like King Diamond, Dream Evil, Mercyful Fate, IllWill, Notre Dame and Memento Mori. Snowy is adept at playing guitar as well as drums. He is a primary songwriter in Dream Evil. In October 2006, Snowy joined the symphonic metal band Therion, singing on the Gothic Kabbalah album and participated in the 2007 tour together with already established singer Mats Levén. In August 2010, he was announced as the new bassist and clean vocalist of symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir, although he was only officially a member for one day then quit and rejoined Therion.

<i>Terrorizer</i> (magazine) Extreme music magazine

Terrorizer was an extreme music magazine published by Dark Arts Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It was released every four weeks with thirteen issues a year and featured a "Fear Candy" covermount CD, a twice yearly "Fear Candy Unsigned" CD, and a double-sided poster.

The Summer Slaughter Tour is an annual heavy metal music tour held every year since 2007. It originated in North America in 2007 and has toured in Canada in 2008, Europe in 2008, and Australia and New Zealand in 2009. Billed as "The Most Extreme Tour of the Year", Summer Slaughter has earned a reputation as being one of the few summer tours to cater exclusively to fans of extreme forms of metal music. Starting in 2012, Summer Slaughter began to add more progressive metal bands to their lineups, seeing Between the Buried and Me co-headline with Cannibal Corpse. Periphery also played Summer Slaughter 2012, and came back during Summer Slaughter 2013, along with progressive metal bands Animals as Leaders and The Ocean. The focus on progressive metal that year was controversial and many people were "into" heavy metal music, and death metal focused lineups returned in 2014, seeing Morbid Angel headline.

<i>We Are the Nightmare</i> 2008 studio album by Arsis

We Are the Nightmare is the third studio album by melodic death metal band Arsis. It was released April 15, 2008 via Nuclear Blast Records.

<i>Starve for the Devil</i> 2010 studio album by Arsis

Starve for the Devil is the fourth studio album by the melodic death metal band Arsis. It was released on February 9, 2010, by Nuclear Blast Records.

Unwelcome is the fifth studio album by the Death Metal band Arsis. It was released on April 30, 2013 through Nuclear Blast Records. This is the first full-length album to feature Shawn Priest on drums and Brandon Ellis on guitar. The second track is taken from their 2012 EP, Lepers Caress. This album was produced by Mark Lewis.

Florida death metal is a regional scene and stylistic subdivision of death metal. Some of the most significantly pioneering and best-selling death metal acts emerged in Florida, especially in the Tampa Bay area. As a result, Tampa is unofficially known by many death metal fans as the "capital of death metal." The scene coalesced in the mid-1980s through early 1990s around the output of bands such as Death, Nasty Savage, Deicide, Monstrosity, Morbid Angel, Atheist, Obituary, and others. The producer Scott Burns and the studio Morrisound Recording were also instrumental in developing and popularizing the Florida scene. Some bands which originated outside of Florida, such as Malevolent Creation and Cannibal Corpse, relocated to the state in order to participate in this burgeoning scene. The Florida bands featured a more technical approach to the evolving death metal sound, a style which spread beyond the confines of the state, and some were instrumental in creating the progressive death metal subgenre. The death metal genre as a whole, including the Florida scene, declined in popularity in the second half of the 1990s, but many bands within the Florida scene persisted and the scene resurged in popularity in subsequent decades.

<i>Visitant</i> 2018 studio album by Arsis

Visitant is the sixth studio album by American extreme metal band Arsis, released on November 2, 2018 via Nuclear Blast and Agonia. It was the last to feature lead guitarist Brandon Ellis before his resignation to join The Black Dahlia Murder.

Christophe Szpajdel is a Belgian-born international calligraphist and illustrator, principally known for designing band logos.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Grow, Kory (2016) "How Justin Bieber Got a Heavy-Metal Makeover", Rolling Stone , March 24, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2016
  2. Daly, Rhian (2016) "First Look! Justin Bieber's Metal-Style Tour Merch Range At Urban Outfitters", NME , August 1, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2016
  3. Krastz, Roger (2016) "The Hundreds Team Up With Mark Riddick for New Collection", XXL , June 10, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2016
  4. 1 2 3 "'Rotten Renderings': The Art Of MARK RIDDICK", Blabbermouth.net, September 19, 2008. Retrieved August 6, 2016