The document analyzes the album artwork and typography of Avenged Sevenfold's album "Nightmare". Key points analyzed include the broken font used for the band name to create familiarity and domination, the use of red for the album title "Nightmare" to reference blood and horror, and the central image of a demonic figure surrounded by smoke and stars in a graveyard to imply death, remembrance, and nightmares. The analysis concludes with lessons for designing rock album artwork.

1. CD ANALYSIS-AVENGED By Shannon
Horton
SEVENFOLD, NIGHTMARE

2. NIGHTMARE
 The album is called “Nightmare”.
 It was made by Avenged Sevenfold with Hopeless records
(a subsidiary of Warner Brothers).
 The album focuses on fine tuning their diverse rock
sound and creating a new, vivid imagery with their work.
 This should mean that the album should use a lot of rich
colours and detailed imagery.
 The digipack/album artwork should also reflect typical
codes and conventions of rock music and should involve
some adapted images from other rock albums.

3. MOODBOARD FOR ROCK ALBUM COVER

4. MOODBOARD FOR DIVERSE ROCK ALBUM
COVERS

5. T YPOGRAPHY
The font is broken and crooked, which is typical with the band name. Some bands carry a font in
their name to create a motif or to affirm a sense of typicality. This add a familiarisation with the
artist, but also creates a sense of domination as the text is written in white to stand out against the
album image. This domination could be linked to the overriding sense of evil within everyone
whether it be within the music industry or in normal life. This is shown through the image being
ever present behind the grave stone with the word “forever” imprinted upon it. This creates the
imagery of horror, and promotes/confirms the title of the album, that the ideas of evil present
within everyone are a “Nightmare”. The writing of the album title “Nightmare” is written in red. The
red could be the clichéd association in the rock genre (when regarding horror) with blood. This
creates an image of death which adheres with the theme of the image of the album artwork, as
the image takes place in a graveyard. The band name is actually larger than the name of the
album, which could send the message that the band are the cause of our nightmares. The
audience then should feel a sense of nervousness. This type of selling is called: “Sale via Cruelty”.

6. T YPOGRAPHY 2- “FOREVER”
The word “forever” implies a sense that the repercussions of the band will be ever
present within society. However, one of the more common associations with the
word “forever” is a sign of remembrance for the lately deceased band member
James Owen “The Rev” Sullivan, Avenged Sevenfolds’ former drummer. If you look
closely, you will see that the “rev” sub-section of “forever” is slightly larger than
the rest of the word. This could also imply that though members of the band may
die, their presence will be there forever, represented by the demon type creature
displayed on the front of the album.

7. THE ALBUM IMAGE
The image of the album is very dark, however, the blue of
the album does create a sense of illumination/rebirth. This
is made by the smoke surrounding the demon. This is
affirmed by the stars, giving the demon a sense of
omnipresence. However, this could also be interpreted as
Sulphur from the demons’ encounters with other hellish
beings. The demon has associations with the mythical
bringer of death, “The Grim Reaper”. This could show that in
a way, this demon is “home” in the graveyard. However, on
close inspect in the bottom right corner of the image, there
is a corner of a bed post. This could either imply that this
demon is at his final resting place (and will therefore
sleep, and no longer kill). It could also imply that there is
yet another victim awaiting their death, or having a hellish
“nightmare”.

8. WHAT HAVE I LEARNED THROUGH MY
ANALYSIS
 The font of the band name is actually larger than the album
name, I should probably adopt this for my album artwork.
 Generally, rock albums use vibrant colours (yet they are not
generally bright colours). For example, bright blue as opposed
to dark pink.
 There should be subtle references to other works (like a
motif, for example).
 The focus does not have to be entirely on the artist.
 It should convey the message relating to the title of my CD
album.
 There should be multiple colours on my album