Idolator

I take it Metallica wanted to send a collective "up yours" to all their fans with this cover?

When did Edward Gorey start drawing vaginas?

@amandacobra: That was my other thought. The, err, "beauty" of it is that you can really see it as one or the other - and absolutely nothing else.

9 months tryin to get out, the rest of your life tryin to get back in.

Like it or not, It IS metal.

I kind of like it. It is a little too literal in many ways, but could be worse.

The Load album cover I really like too. "The cover of the Load album is original artwork entitled "Semen and Blood III." It is one of three photographic studies by Andres Serrano created in 1990 by mingling the artist's own semen and bovine blood between two sheets of Plexiglas."

@bnb614: yeah, and now he's working in shit. what will he think of next?

@amandacobra: Dammit, now that's ALL I can see!

@Halfwit: I saw the vajayjay before I realized it was a coffin. Though I suppose that's not something to be proud of.

This is actually more awesome than the bowtie thing that was posted before.

Also, yes. Very vaginal.

@GhostOfDuane:

"I saw the vajayjay before I realized it was a coffin."

I'm using this in my made-for-tv teleplay "Oedipus '08"

@NickEddy:

"made-for-tv teleplay"

The one after that will be called "Teh [sic] Redundancy."

With the [sic], yes.

@Maura Johnston: Don't we all work with shit in one way or the other?

I understand, and I am not a fan of all Serrano's stuff but I thought the Load cover was cool.

When I compare Metallica's covers to the over the top literal titles that a metal band could come up with, the Death Magnetic one could be much worse.

Their first album cover for the demo "Metal Up Your Ass" had a knife/dagger coming out of a toilet. So it is all about context!

@bnb614: Name one Metallica that isn't too literal! Every single one beats you over the head if you don't understand the words that are written over the artwork.

Um, isn't that just a rip-off of PiL's That What is Not album cover from the 90s?

@GhostOfDuane: maybe it's because my part time job is in a porn store, but i saw coffin immediately. at this point i see vajayjays in my sleep so i try to not make it my go-to visual.

The album's name is pretty dumb, but if that's the name, this is actually a pretty decent cover.

Really, though, when the music itself is released, I think the internet rage will completely overshadow any disappointment in the relative eh-ness of the name and cover.

I dunno, kids. I like it. I like all of it.

Here's the best thing about the cover. They return to the old Metallica logo. The real Metallica logo, not the neutered version of late. The M and A should jut out. This is subtle, but good news.

There are plenty of reasons to hate on Metallica, but this is not one of them. It might just be their best cover since MASTER OF PUPPETS.

looks like a gaping hairy asshole. perhaps, the album is shit?

@amandacobra: The thing looks like a lady flower. I've been trying to ignore it, but I just happened to jump the page just now. Damn them all!

Maude Lebowski: My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal which bothers some men. The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina.

The Dude: Oh yeah?

Maude Lebowski: Yes, they don't like hearing it and find it difficult to say whereas without batting an eye a man will refer to his dick or his rod or his Johnson.

The Dude: Johnson?

@Reidicus:

Don't be fatuous, Jeffrey.

First thing I saw wasn't the coffin or the vagina; I thought it was a fingerprint.

So it's not great, but I don't think it's awful. I kind of like it. Then again, I like vaginas (vaginae?).