On heavy metal music, art and record covers – Konrad Ludwicki’s interview with a painter and graphic designer, Arkadiusz Zając

Abstract

The reason to talk with the painter and graphic designer, Arkadiusz Zając, are the record covers of heavy metal bands. Conversation with the artist is preceded by a long introduction. In this text I focus on the essence of record covers. I discuss the peculiarities by carrying out general characteristics. The starting point are artistic and exceptional record covers of metal bands. The interview took place in 2019 and concerned mainly creative contexts confronted with widely understood art, music and painting. In the text, I put forward some hypotheses related to the issue of ethics and aesthetics of some selected niche covers. Besides, I also deal with the question of mass culture and its fringes.