Behind The Artworks: Bear Mace - Charred Field Of Slaughter (2020)

Once we had decided on the title of our upcoming record, the idea for the cover came together extremely fast. "Charred Field Of Slaughter" (the song) was inspired by documentaries about the Vietnam War, and is essentially about the extreme violence and futility of war, so we expanded on that idea. Our initial plan was to team up again with Putrid Gore, who illustrated the cover of our first album. When that fell through, we put in an emergency call to Matt Altieri, another incredible artist as well as a top-notch guitar shredder in his own right.

Based on the concept Chris and I talked about, I put together a very quick sketch to send Matt. The "big ugly guy in the foreground" idea is clearly inspired by Death's "Leprosy" cover, while the remainder of the layout was more Marvel Comics-based initially. Matt very quickly improved on the sketch's layout, and added the loud colors and detailed gore that gives the cover its charm.