Album Covers Analysis

Cover for 'The Last Stand' by Sabaton. Released in 2016.

This cover matches standard codes and conventions for album/CD covers as it features the name of the band, the name of the album and an image.

Sabaton are a power metal band (a sub-genre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context). The cover doesn't represent this well as one wouldn't understand the genre from the cover alone.

The cover is memorable as it features images of soldiers from throughout history which is unusual for a album cover.
The image on the cover matches the album as it is called 'The Last Stand' and all songs on it focus on historical last stands involving the people on the cover.

Peak performance in the charts:
Sweden; 1
Austria; 2
Finland; 1
Germany; 2
Norway; 11
Switzerland; 1
Poland; 2
UK; 17
US; 63

Songs of Album: 
Sparta; Battle of Thermopylae

Last Dying Breath; Dragutin Gavrilović

Blood of Bannockburn; Battle of Bannockburn

Diary of an Unknown Soldier; Meuse-Argonne Offensive

The Lost Battalion; Lost Battalion (World War I)

Rorke's Drift; Battle of Rorke's Drift

The Last Stand; Stand of the Swiss Guard

Hill 3234; Battle for Hill 3234

Shiroyama; Battle of Shiroyama

Winged Hussars; Polish hussars/Battle of Vienna

The Last Battle; Battle for Castle Itter

Camouflage (Stan Ridgway Cover) (Bonus Track); Vietnam War


All Guns Blazing (Judas Priest Cover) (Bonus Track)

Cover for 'Heroes' by Sabaton. Released in 2014.

Similar to their album above, 'Heroes' features images of soldiers to match the name of the album. It also works because the image is eye-catching to someone browsing through album covers.
The images on both covers are not real people. It is obviously fake and comes across as an image from a video game.

Peak performance in the charts:
Sweden; 1. Gold
Austria; 11
Finland; 2. Gold
Germany; 3
Norway; 13
Switzerland; 7
Poland; 6
UK; 59
US; 99

Songs of Album: 
Night Witches; The all female Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment called "Night Witches".

No Bullets Fly; The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident, in which German pilot Stigler accompanied a disabled American bomber back to the English Channel.

Smoking Snakes; Arlindo Lúcio da Silva, Geraldo Baeta da Cruz and Geraldo Rodrigues de Souza – 3 Brazilian Expeditionary Force soldiers who became separated from their unit and fought a large contingent of Germans in Italy on 14 April 1944. Refusing surrender, they fought to their deaths and were buried by the Germans, who placed a cross over their graves with the inscription 'Drei brasilianische Helden' (Three Brazilian Heroes).

Inmate 4859; Witold Pilecki, soldier of Polish Armia Krajowa and leader of resistance movement in the Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was interned voluntarily with inmate number 4859. Produced the Witold's Report.

To Hell and Back; Audie Murphy, one of the most decorated American veterans of World War II. Specifically his post war battle with; and victory over PTSD. Based off his own poem 'The Crosses Grow on Anzio' from his book 'To Hell and Back'

The Ballad of Bull; Corporal Leslie "Bull" Allen, an Australian Army soldier awarded the US Silver Star for rescuing 12 wounded American soldiers during the Papua New Guinea campaign of World War II.

Resist and Bite; Chasseurs Ardennais, an infantry formation of the Belgian Armed Forces that fought in the Battle of Belgium in World War II

Soldier of 3 Armies; Lauri Törni known as Larry Thorne, soldier of the Finnish Army, the German Waffen-SS, and the United States Army Green Berets in Vietnam

Far from the Fame; Hero of Czechoslovakia – Air Marshal Karel Janoušek, founder of Czechoslovakian forces in Royal Air Force. Later imprisoned by communist regime in Czechoslovakia.


Hearts of Iron; The German forces of the 12th and 9th Armies, who, facing defeat at the hands of the Soviets, created a corridor across the Elbe to protect fleeing refugees and soldiers to escape and surrender to the West.




Cover for 'In the Court of the Crimson King' by King Crimson. Released in 1969.

This is a very unusual album cover, as it doesn't feature the album's name or the band who made it. A person wouldn't know what this was just based on the image alone. This is what makes it appealing to the eye.

King Crimson is a progressive rock band and is known for the strange and dream-like songs that they produce so, in a way, this cover fits the band well.

Peak performance in the charts:
UK; 5. Gold
Canada; 27. Platinum
US; 28. Gold

Songs on Album:
21st Century Schizoid Man
        Mirrors

I Talk to the Wind

Epitaph
    March for No Reason
    Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Moonchild
   The Dream
   The Illusion

The Court of the Crimson King
  The Return of the Fire Witch

  The Dance of the Puppets




Cover for 'In the Wake of Poseidon' by King Crimson. Released in 1970.

Similar to their previous album cover 'In the Wake of Poseidon' features neither the name of the band or album, leaving only the image to draw in the audience.

The two albums are also similar in the naming of the albums. Both names evoke feelings of fantasy, matching the bizarre images.

Peak performance in the charts:
UK; 4
Canada; 28
US; 31

Songs on Album:
Peace – A Beginning

Pictures of a City
    including 42nd at Treadmill

Cadence and Cascade

In the Wake of Poseidon
    including Libra's Theme

Peace – A Theme

Cat Food

The Devil's Triangle
          I. "Merday Morn
          II. "Hand of Sceiron
          III. "Garden of Worm


Peace – An End