BEHIND THE ART: FORESEEN AND CHAD KEITH
Helsinki Crossover Hardcore masters Foreseen have collaborated with Chad Keith for three releases now: 'Helsinki Savagery' LP, 'Power Intoxication b/c Dying Spirit' EP, and 2017's 'Grave Danger' LP. Here we asked the band and Chad to dive deeper into the ideas behind the latter.
Foreseen: What was the vision for the artwork and how did you found out about the artist?
The overall theme on 'Grave Danger' is extremism of different kinds. To put it short, the title track itself is about this Northern European neo-nazi organization, NRM and also Daesh, and their similarities. So we wanted a cover that had the themes of death and war, and Chad Keith had proved himself to be a perfect man for the job.
The band had been talking of how we wanted something more simple for the next record cover for a change, as contrast to the collage-type of artworks Chad had previously done for us. Funny thing was that our original idea was super similiar to the Arms Race LP artwork that we quickly ditched for obvious reasons after the Arms Race album dropped.
I've had been playing with the 'Grave Danger' title pretty much right after the our first LP and maybe because of subconscious Dog Town-influence I came up with and sketched the cross-part pretty fast. It worked out well with the combination of the original idea to represent the lyrical and musical content of the record.
I was introduced to and instantly impressed by Chad's work when I saw the painting he had done that my friends' band, Kill The Curse used for their album cover. I heard through a mutual friend that he was living in Helsinki, loved his horror movies and was no stranger to the metal and hardcore-scenes. So of course I had to hit him up about doing a shirt design for us. Shortly after 'Helsinki Savagery' followed etc.
Chad: What was the inspiration for this piece?
The Band came to me after painting their previous two releases. After a little back and forth we came to an agreed image. Mirko did a sketch of how it was going to look and a basic idea of a colour palate. I'm personally really happy how the Grave Danger painting came out. For me it's a favourite.
Chad: How would you describe your style? Who are your favourite artists? I've been trying to go for that illustration style from the 40s-80s. I was inspired by growing up collecting comic books and magazines like Creepy, Eerie and Heavy Metal! My parents didn't censor me so I grew up watching horror movies. So those VHS covers/posters were a huge influence. They also got me subscriptions to Fangoria, Gorezone and Toxic Horror as a kid to help rot my brain!!