Dead Poetic-Vices d[-_-]b
I decided to do the album Vices by Dead Poetic.
The cover simply has the band name and the album title. The background is textured and has the appearance of something that has been worn and abused over time.
Vice is defined as a practice or habit that is considered immoral, depraved, and/or degrading in the associated society. Basically sin, habits, or addictions of an individual.
The first image shows a man in despair. A snake is draped across his shoulders and he is looking down at a bitten apple in his hand. This obviously alludes to the original sin.
The next image shows a young girl holding a stuffed animal and her expression shows that something is on her mind. I'm not sure what this vice is supposed to be but my guess is maybe she's a liar?
An image of a young boy with his hand on a telescope is shown after that. His expression tells me that he saw something he probably wasn't supposed to see. He was probably spying on someone and knows that what he is doing is wrong. Now the boy is confused as to what he should do.
The woman in the next image is holding a bible. Maybe she feels guilty for something she's done and turns to the bible for help.
For the last image the vice is probably lust. The man is looking at his wedding ring with the look of guilt. He has probably done something wrong, something that he regrets.
The other pages included are lyrics. The type for each of the song lyrics are different. Some of the lyrics look scribbled while others are typed. It reminds me of when a person writes down their thoughts or feelings when many things are racing through their head and they just need to get them out. The different ways the lyrics are written show broken and disconnected thoughts and ideas.
I also found it interesting that there is a red line throughout the lyrics, beginning with the dp at the beginning of the booklet, and is also on the spine of the album.
The CD design has a dp to represent Dead Poetic. Even though this is not an actual word the dp is used like an ambigram.
While reading through you blog, without seeing the cover, I thought that maybe these pictures represented the seven deadly sins, but that is obviously not the case since there are less pictures than that. I think it is interesting that all of the vices are not clear - so that you have to break them down and analyze them. They might even align with the song lyics! I was curious if you knew what type of music this was - is it Christian at all (since they show the bible)?
Submitted by physicschic on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 09:37.Yes the band is a Christian Rock band and most of the song lyrics have to do with vices of the band members.
Submitted by XxscxX on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 09:39.I wasn't expecting you to say that this is a Christian band for some reason, interesting booklet though. There isn't a big wikipedia entry on this album, and I've never heard the band before. I was as well immediately looking for the 7 deadly sins. I haven't seen the lyrics, but I was thinking that they may be reaching out to people who have suffered from some of these vices. Possibly asking them to repent to be forgiven, or some other way out of the hole into which they dug.
For the album cover itself, it seems very plain I'm sure with reason, but all of the "action" of the art is inside of the book. I don't know if the front cover would grab the attention of people who haven't heard of that band. It seems the only people that would look inside would be previous fans or people with enough time to look through every book at a store, but even then these are usually packaged.
Submitted by lcsnare on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 22:23.I think the album cover itself seems pretty uninteresting, but I do think the fact that the cover is worn could be symbolism for how old sin is itself. I believe that the band does a very good job at representing vices with its pictures; it really seems to get the effect of sin across. Also the back album cover shows pictures of the band so potential buyers that are intrigued a little bit by the album cover can turn the cd over and see what the artist look like. Overall the images in the booklet capture my attention and make me feel what they feel, that is regret for sin.
Submitted by matt33172 on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 22:26.So how hard of rock is this music, screaming?
I love the arrangement of the inside! As you mentioned for each song being hastily written down on paper...I love that visual appearance. I think the connection between the cover to the inside is that old worn filter on the cover in relation to the old events from the biblical references. I agree with more or less to your readings of those five images. Pretty serious personal issues in those pictures.
Submitted by colgrunt on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 02:44.