The following is a list of notable albums with controversial album art, especially where that controversy resulted in the album being banned, censored or sold in packaging other than the original one. They are listed by the type of controversy they were involved in.
Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1988, now based out of Tampa, Florida. The band has released sixteen studio albums, two box sets, four video albums, and two live albums. The band has had little radio or television exposure throughout its existence, although a cult following began to build with the releases of their early albums, including Butchered at Birth (1991) and Tomb of the Mutilated (1992). As of 2015, they achieved worldwide sales of two million units for combined sales of all their albums. In April 2021, Cannibal Corpse received their best "first week" sales of all-time and first Top 10 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart as Violence Unimagined entered at No. 6 with 14,000 copies sold.
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. These videos are typically shown on music television and on streaming video sites like YouTube, or more rarely shown theatrically. They can be commercially issued on home video, either as video albums or video singles. The format has been described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip", "film clip", "video clip", or simply "video".
The Electric Spanking of War Babies is the twelfth studio album by the American funk rock band Funkadelic, released in April 1981 on Warner Bros. Records. The title is an allusion to the Vietnam War and baby boomers. Sly Stone contributed to the recording sessions, singing lead vocals on "Funk Gets Stronger ".
Frankenchrist is the third album by the American hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys, released in 1985 on Alternative Tentacles.
The Offspring is the debut studio album by American rock band the Offspring, released on June 15, 1989, by Nemesis Records. After being out of print for years, the album was re-released by Nitro and Epitaph Records in 1995 with a different album cover. Both the re-releases on the two respective labels are nearly identical. The Offspring has rarely played any songs from this album live since the Ignition tour finished in 1994.
Undertow is the debut studio album by the American rock band Tool, released on April 6, 1993, by Zoo Entertainment. Produced by the band and Sylvia Massy, it was recorded from October to December 1992 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys and Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood. The album includes some tracks the band decided to not release on their debut EP Opiate. This is their only album to feature original bassist Paul D'Amour.
Dark Side of the Spoon is the seventh studio album by American industrial metal band Ministry, released on June 8, 1999, by Warner Bros. Records. "Bad Blood" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2000.
Eddie is the mascot for the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He is a perennial fixture of the group's artwork, appearing in all of their album covers and in their merchandise, which includes T-shirts, posters and action figures. On top of this, Eddie features in all of the band's concerts, as well as in the first-person shooter video game, Ed Hunter, the mobile game, Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast and a pinball game with the same name in 2018.
An album cover is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to:
In Trance is the third studio album by German rock band Scorpions, released by RCA Records in 1975. The music was a departure from the progressive rock of the two previous albums. Instead, the album has a hard rock sound of shorter and tighter arrangements with which the band would achieve their global success and fame. Extended suites in the vein of songs such as "Lonesome Crow" and "Fly to the Rainbow" are absent altogether. This was the first of two studio albums to feature drummer Rudy Lenners, and the first album by the band to contain the now-famous logo and controversial artwork.
Taken by Force is the fifth studio album by German band Scorpions, released by RCA Records in 1977. This was the first Scorpions album to feature drummer Herman Rarebell and the final studio album to feature guitarist Uli Jon Roth. Roth left the band in 1978 following the end of the album's tour, and was at first replaced by Michael Schenker and later by Matthias Jabs.
My Body, the Hand Grenade is the first and only compilation album by American alternative rock band Hole, released on October 28, 1997, through the band's European label, City Slang Records. It was also imported for sale in the United States, where it was released on December 10, 1997. The album was compiled with the intent of tracking the band's progression from their noise rock beginnings to the more melodic songwriting that appeared on their second album, Live Through This (1994).
Jean-Paul Goude is a French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, advertising film director and event designer. He worked as art director at Esquire magazine in New York City during the 1970s, and choreographed the 1989 Bicentennial Parade in Paris to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. In addition, over the last three decades, he has created campaigns and illustrations for brands including Perrier, Citroën, Kodak, Chanel, Kenzo, Shiseido, Cacharel, H&M, Galeries Lafayette and Desigual.
Wrath of the Tyrant is the first demo album by Norwegian black metal band Emperor. It was recorded in May 1992 and self-released by the band shortly after.
Humanure is the second studio album by American deathgrind band Cattle Decapitation. It was released on July 13, 2004 through Metal Blade Records and has been noted for its iconic cover art, depicting a cow defecating what appears to be human body parts in a wasteland environment — the image has been compared to the artwork for Pink Floyd’s album Atom Heart Mother. Humanure generated some minor controversy around the time of release for its obscene imagery.
Alice Practice is the debut EP from Crystal Castles, released on Merok Records on 9 July 2006. The release was limited to 500 copies on 7" vinyl and sold out in three days.
Virgin Killer is the fourth studio album by the German rock band Scorpions, released in 1976 by RCA Records. It was the band's first album to attract attention outside Europe. The title is described as being a reference to time as the killer of innocence. The original cover featured a nude prepubescent girl, which stirred controversy in the United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere. As a result, the album was re-issued with a different cover in some countries.
On 5 December 2008, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a British watchdog group, blacklisted content on the English Wikipedia related to Scorpions' 1976 studio album Virgin Killer, due to the presence of its controversial cover artwork, depicting a young girl posing nude, with a faux shattered-glass effect obscuring her genitalia. The image was deemed to be "potentially illegal content" under English law which forbids the possession or creation of indecent photographs of children. The IWF's blacklist are used in web filtering systems such as Cleanfeed.
Ryder Ripps is an American conceptual artist, programmer, and creative director.
Virgil Abloh was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He began his own line of luxury streetwear clothing, Pyrex Vision, in 2012, and became the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013. Abloh was also the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilities across the LVMH brand in early 2021.
It came as no surprise when Wal-Mart and Kmart refused to carry the album. Rather than miss out on a large audience, Tool decided to censor itself and released a plain white album cover that contained nothing more than a giant bar code, the band's name, and the album tracks.