The most lamentable byproduct of the digital era isn't the decline of record sales -- although that sucks, too -- but the fact that we're missing out on so much sweet cover art. It was bad enough when albums gave way to cassettes back in the '70s and the canvas shrunk to a fraction of its previous size. While things got slightly better in the '80s with the emergence of CDs, that medium is now increasingly going the way of cassettes, and we're left without an appreciable way to enjoy the kick-ass art. That's a shame. As you'll see below in our rundown of the 25 best local metal album covers -- many of which you'll notice were illustrated by Vale of Pnath frontman Ken Sarafin, who not only fronts one of the area's most brutal metal bands, but is also one hell of an artist -- we're completely missing out on some great artwork.
See also: - The 25 coolest Iron Maiden T-shirts we saw last night at Comfort Dental - The 20 most gnarly metal T-shirts we saw at the Mastodon/Opeth/Ghost show - Now that's what you call a metal shirt. Nice work, Havok - A dozen of the best looking members of the KISS Army - Hair today, gone tomorrow: A headbanger's guide to remaining relevant
