Irish, Scottish, Celtic Rock & Folk Punk

Cover Artwork - Album 'Agenbite of Inwit' - by Philhelm

The beast of the Apocalypse





„Female Celtic Charioteer“ by Philhelm


Chosing an album cover should not be something that takes five minutes; after all, the album is going to be part of a band’s discography ingrained for eternal history, so finding the right balance between the artwork and the sound, soul and general image the band wants to portray is a crucial part of how the band will be perceived by the public. 


What was truly amazing in this process is we found in Philhelm’s work not one, but two incredible images that immediately fitted what we were looking for.
How we came to choose the cover artwork of 'Agenbite Of Inwit':
 

Iain was searching the Internet looking for a fit for the album name “Agenbite of Inwit”, an old-English term meaning “Again, a bite of inner wit”, or in modern terms, a crisis of conscience or remorse. Googling the term arrived at a broad and unexpected interpretation with: “Beast of the Apocalypse”. Great, it must be easy to find an image along the lines of the Beast… but page after page of mostly biblical and gothic art depicting dragon-like beasts just wasn’t going to float the boat – after all, the band is driving and powerful, yet the music has hints of comedy and light-hearted excitement built into it – this was more suited to a world of dark fantasy computer games; none of this was going to match… just one more page turn and there it was… Encompassing humour, uniqueness, style, colour, modernity, everything the band stands for: “The Beast of the Apocalypse” - by Philhelm…Wow!

But it wasn’t to end there – linking through to Philhelm’s own web page yielded so many more fantastic images that the mind went into overload. Iain says: “Finding Philhelm was a real treat and the key to finding the solution to what had become a really tough search. On the one hand things had become much clearer, we had found a great artist, great artworks, but out of so many truly wonderful pictures, which one was the best fit and would Philhelm even allow us to use one? 

Once you have set your heart on an artist for a project, anything else would just become second best”. It was through studying all of Philhelm’s work available on the web that the band spotted the best fit for “Agenbite of Inwit”. It wasn’t the “Beast of the Apocalypse” that led them initially to the artist, but the work with many distinct flavours that not only clearly matched the title song but clearly depicted it well. “Celtic Feminine Charioteer” really encapsulates the song: Celtic for the musical genre, the charioteer who could so easily be Silvio Berlusconi himself, but turns out to be a woman – both the target of his desire and for the very reason Dominique Strauss-Kahn  and his misdemeanors are mentioned in the song too… 

This is a powerful image, a powerful icon, the horse and the running dog are both turning back and looking at the charioteer despite running forward, highlighting the power and influence of the driver. This image is truly capturing the imagination of the press in several reviews of the CD and receives many due plaudits.

 We thank Philhelm wholeheartedly for his immediate and very strong support; we hope that we can do justice to his work through our portrayal of his art on our joint platform and we publicly share our deep respect of a truly great artist and a very nice guy!


Female Celtic Charioteer