The cover art for the Danish band Grava‘s debut album Weight of A God is the kind of thing that immediately seizes attention and is not soon forgotten. Bathed in a deep apocalyptic red, but also dark as night, the image of an enormous bull elephant about to crush a prone form as cloaked figures dispassionately gaze upon the scene is striking. It’s also a visual match for the crushing music and the album’s utterly bleak conception. To quote from the press materials:

Lyrically, the band portrays scenes of death through the eyes of the dying, unearthed from the great tomes of history. Here you’ll encounter the final moments of shipwrecked men as
the icy waves fill their lungs and drag them to the deep (“WAVES”) and the howls of the 6000 crucified slaves that stood up to the power of the Roman Empire and lost (“APPIAN WAY”) or the unfortunate prisoner who was trampled to death by a work elephant in the East Asia of yore (“CRUSHER“).

While the cover image may correlate most directly to the song “Crusher”, it’s also a representation of the album’s themes as a whole, and connects even to the album’s title. Continue reading »