Behind The Artworks: Matricide - RED (2025)

RED:

The design for the entire album features the band’s icon in red on a white background - drawing inspiration from Soilwork’s Stabbing the Drama cover.

The red symbolizes blood, while the white represents the pavement, aligning with the lyrics: "Leap off the edge, aim to paint the pavement red."

SMOKE & MIRRORS single

The design features ten people crucified onto a single wooden structure, forming the shape of an icosahedron - the largest of Plato’s five Platonic solids. These geometric forms have fascinated me for years, and you can find this shape in a few other designs we’ve created in the past.

The idea came from an old drawing I never finished - an endless cubic lattice with countless people crucified on it. I called it "Beehive Torture." Maybe one day I’ll finish it and revisit the themes of Smoke & Mirrors.*

WALK INTO THE FLAMES:

The design draws inspiration from the world of tattoos, particularly the classic skull and rose imagery.

In the design, a bed of flowers and skulls symbolizes the many versions of myself that have existed before today. The rose represents life, while the skull represents death - a visual metaphor for personal transformation.

TALKING TO THE WALLS:

The image features a moon over the ocean horizon, with light rays hitting the waves as proof of the light source.

Much like in the song, the design raises the question: Does God care for each individual wave, or is it all just the random workings of nature?

OBEY:

The design is a photograph of the mask we created for the music video.

We handcrafted 52 replicas of this mask, all made from papier-mâché, though they appear to be made of concrete. The mask was designed to be androgynous, representing an anonymous, universal face. It takes inspiration from V for Vendetta and Eyes Wide Shut.