A weekly look down into the mortal coil of music industry design.

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Artist: Slayer
Release: Reign In Blood
Label: Def Jam
Designer: Larry Caroll (art), Steve Byram (design)
Release Date: October 1986

You can imagine this cover caused some official controversy, landing in the middle of the thriving Reagan-era conservative America. What’s unoffensive, even to loosely-held secular sensibilities, about severed floating in blood?

When the art was finalized, one band member was unhappy with the result. However, when another member showed it to his mother, and was given the description “disgusting”, they decided to retain it, and felt they were “onto something”.

Carroll produced other art for Slayer releases, including their most recent offering, Christ Illusion, which features similar imagery. The stark, dark, sanguinary visuals of Reign In Blood, however, remains as one of the more popularized exhibitions of the macabre in the industry.