Shameless Self-Promotion: Oculus Rot

 Shameless Self-Promotion
"Oculus Rot" by Buried

It's another bit of Shameless Self-Promotion!  As I obliquely mentioned in my MF Doom Memoriam posting, this is a shout out to my friend, Joel, and his bandmates for their new album which dropped on Valentine's Day (yeah, I know, I'm a little slow, sometimes): "Oculus Rot" by Buried.  

When it comes to my taste in music, I'm pretty omnivorous: I listen to everything from Abba to Zappa, if you will, and everything in between.  And while I will admit that Death Metal isn't my go to when I'm chillin' at home, it does find its way into rotation when the mood strikes.  As does Classical Music, Opera, Alternative, Thrash, Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Pop, Metal, Ska, Punk, Rap... Oh, you get the idea.  A little bit of everything.  Stuff that would alternately bore you to death and scare the life outta you.

Anyhoo, it started many years ago when Joel contacted me to see if they could use my Facehugger Valentine drawing for their T-Shirt.  Sure!  As a follow up, he was kind enough to ask me to do the cover for their new Album, Oculus Rot.  It just so happens, doing a cover to a Heavy Metal/Death Metal album/T-Shirts was high up on my Bucket List.  So, that's kinda cool!

I also did a pastiche of a "Tales From the Crypt" cover, which included the caricatures of Joel, Steve, Robbert, and Marc, and it is used on the Mutoid Maniac shirts.  (I did the caricature of Joel as an alien in "They Live" during my first "31 Days of HELL-O-Ween" which he got it as a tattoo on his leg--so he has a history of questionable decisions.)  

BTW, the stereotype of Death Metal band members being among the nicest, kindest people out there seems to be true in my experience (all the stories about nihilistic hooliganism are usually associated with Black Metal, which is a different genre altogether).  Many times when I was writing to Joel, he'd mention it was a sunny day and he was out with his family, hiking, rescuing cute woodland critters injured by other careless hikers, picking wildflowers, and reenacting the opening scene to "The Sound of Music" with him in the role of Julie Andrews, to which I'd think "Hmm, that's not very metal..."  (While I am engaged in mild hyperbole to give Joel a bit of a comedic roast, it is shocking how close to reality it is!  Shocking, I tell you!)

So, my best to Joel and his bandmates!  Here's to hoping my meager Blog helps even a little bit.  Thanks for the opportunity letting me do the cover art, gents--much appreciated!

Here's a link to their FACEBOOK Page and a link to a REVIEW from RocknLoadMag, which gave them 8 out of 10 stars!

If you like what you hear, buy 10 copies so they can become world-famous and I can maybe trick them into letting me do another cover or bit of promotional art!  If you hate it, buy 20 copies to remove it from the market and make sure no one else can get a copy!  Oh, and maybe just get a bunch of T-Shirts, too, while your at it for the same reasons listed above. 😁

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