Babymetalized Iron Maiden Cover

The 17th Iron Maiden studio album ”Senjutsu” is on everybody´s lips and quite deservedly so. Even the artwork (by artist Mark Wilkinson) stands out a mile and really was classic the moment it appeared in my book. The cultural impact was immediate, and the Babymetalized tribute cover by artist Shawn ”futon” Fulford popped up real fast. The Japanese twist just begged for it to be Babymetalized and here it is, in all its glory. Here is Shawns take on it…

Iron Maiden – ”Senjutsu” Babymetalized

”Iron Maiden. I got into them around 1983 when my cousin played me ”The Number Of The Beast”, which had recently come out. I became a big fan, ”Killers” being my favorite album. I kept up with them a lot albumwise until the mid 1990s. Since then I still keep up but  find it hard to listen to entire albums anymore as life is busy, so I just get into tracks. Everything I have heard off ”Senjutsu” I have liked, enjoying ”Hell On Earth” right now actually. When I saw the album cover with its huge Japanese influence I immediately thought “I have to do something with this”. What though?  Babymetal’s Samurai Armor style outfits with the big helmets came to mind. I considered trying to alter the entire outfit with elements of Babymetal’s costume, but it would not work, so I went with using Su’s armored head, which I got from a live photo of her. I Eddie’d the eyes as a nod to Eddie himself. Her autograph is at the base of the blade. On the shoulder is the Dark Side Corona logo in blood, (the character on the cover has been doing some fighting) which has the Babymetal logo in the middle, plus the logo from one of their older Fox masks to the lower right of that. The hilt/ handle of the katana’s are Su’s ”Headbanger” mic stand. The title font was surprisingly easy to find. I almost called this ”Senjutsumetal” but opted for ”Senjutsu Su-Metal”,  as Senjutsu means tactics, so Tactics Su-Metal. In retrospect I wish I left out the vertical hyphen, as it looks like SuiMetal. It is what it is now though” (Shawn Fulford, aka ”futon”).

(Classic Rock Calendar: September 2021)

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Babymetalized Zeppelin Cover

The emergence of Led Zeppelin in 1969 (like Deep Purple they were formed in 1968, but the first album came out in 1969) was a watershed moment in rock history. Riff based rock was new (pioneered by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and The Who) and Zeppelin had found their formula right from the word go. Taking the States by storm, they would have huge success until the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980. My band was always Deep Purple but I also loved Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. As for many of these classic albums, Led Zeppelin ”II” had a pretty great cover. This tribute is pretty cool too and here is the artists take on it.

Led Zeppelin – ”II” Babymetalized

”I like Led Zeppelin. I am not a die hard fan, but I like them. I think Led Zeppelin “II” was the first album I got, and that was because of “Whole Lotta Love”. Then I found “Livin’ Lovin’ Maid”, “Heartbreaker” and “Ramble On” to be the other songs I liked best on the album. An early picture of Su, Yui and Moa around a chair made me think it would be a good basis to do the Led Zeppelin “II” cover. Then I just found pictures of the Kamis and Koba that would work, and this is the result. This was done very early on when I first started making these, so now I can think of easier ways to make this, lol.  But overall it is not too bad, and luckily Zeppelin fonts are easy to find, unlike some band logos which I wind up making from scratch. This is the first Zeppelin cover I made. Hopefully I will make some more” (Shawn Fulford, aka “futon”).

(Classic Rock Calendar: October 1969)

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Babymetalized Yngwie Malmsteen Cover

For me Yngwie Malmsteen reached a peak around 1990 and his ”Eclipse” album is certainly my all time favourite. I saw him live in Stockholm at a packed Johanneshovs Isstadion (a 10,000 capacity arena in which I had seen many other popular artist before his triumphant performance there) in early April 1990. Earlier that day he had signed 600 LPs and 200 CDs at a place called Åhlens in the City. I interviewed him backstage and that chat can be found on this blog (March 1 2015). Yngwie has always been kind to me, he even promoted my Deep Purple Forever! fanzine on camera once. I quite like this tribute to this album and artist Shawn Fulford ads his take on his work here.

Yngwie Malmsteen – ”Eclipse” Babymetalized

”I do not have much to say about it, it was done as a request. While I have a couple of Malmsteen albums from way back I did not really get into him. The cover was interesting though as it was obvious what changes I would make, and the photo of Moa was one I had not seen before. I had hoped to use Yui but could not find a photo I liked. Bad thing is I rushed posting it so there were a couple of mistakes only I would probably notice which I have since fixed” (Shawn Fulford, aka ”futon”).

(Classic Rock Calendar: April 1990)

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Babymetalized Ted Nugent Cover

I always thought that Ted Nugent´s ”Weekend Warriors” album had one of the coolest covers of all time. It was done by artist Jeff Cummins, originally commissioned for a piece in the French publication Oui and when Nugent saw it he wanted to use it as his next cover. Jeff Cummins has also done covers like ”Live… In The Heart Of The City” (Whitesnake) and ”Straight Between The Eyes” (Rainbow). When I spotted Shawn Fulford´s Babymetalized version of this classic art I thought it was brilliant. Here is his take on this art.

Ted Nugent – ”Weekend Warriors” Babymetalized

”Hmm. First off, I think Ted Nugent is a pretty controversial character, I do not support him and his world view. I do like his hunting and using what you hunt, no waste (trophy hunting is garbage however in my opinion). I also think “Stranglehold” is one of the most badass tunes ever! Musically Ted is hit or miss for me, I like a number of his songs but he never reeled me totally in. Unique guitar player though, he loves the Gibson Byrdland. As for the album cover, the picture of Moa is a screen grab from a video, I had noticed watching it that in a split second Moa was in a similar pose as on “Weekend Warriors”. So I got the screen grab. I wish I had a better resolution photo, would have worked better. That is why I did it twice, hoping it looked better, but both are OK. I had to try and copy the painted look of the WW cover as well, so that helped a little. I do not think a lot of Babymetal fans know much about Ted Nugent. Probably for the best” (Shawn Fulford, aka “futon”).

(Classic Rock Calendar: September 1978)

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Babymetalized Purple Cover

Hot on the heels of Fox Day (April 1, huge day in Babymetal fandom as the band always share some cryptic message about the future on this day) we have yet another wonderful piece of art by Shawn Fulford (aka ”futon”), this time honoring the Deep Purple album ”Burn”, connecting the all time classic to the Babymetal Universe forever. As it was shared on the Babymetal reddit page, I could not help but notice the Deep Purple fans (that are obviously into Babymetal as well!) over there reacting to it with pride and joy in their hearts. I wonder if this blog has sent some of them on this journey? I really hope so. In any case, great work as usual and here is what Shawn has to say about this art.

Deep Purple – ”Burn” Babymetalized

”It is a cover I had in mind for a while but never got around to it, it was just on a list if covers I had in mind. I love drums and I had watched 11 year old drummer Yoyoka Soma’s cover of Deep Purple’s ”Burn”, which is amazing. Ian Paice of Deep Purple has a reaction video of him watching her cover as well and he loved it. Yoyoka is not just an amazing kid drummer, she is an awesome drummer period. So all that got me to work on the Deep Purple album cover. I already had an idea how to get a candle like appearance for the girls. The five people on the actual cover worked out well for using Su, Moa, Riho, Kano and Momoko. Su, Moa and Momoko’s placement on the cover reflect Momoko being the Avenger who has appeared onstage most often. The album title made ”Night Night Burn” an obvious reference. This is a cover I made from the ground up, the only thing I took from the actual cover were the flames and the word “Burn”. I was going to make the letters for ”Night Night” but found a font called eternal flame that worked very well and saved me the trouble. I recreated the lighting as best as I could. I am happy with how it came out”. (Shawn Fulford, aka ”futon”).

(Classic Rock Calendar: February 1974)

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Babymetalized Sabbath Cover

Fans of Black Sabbath will be aware of the new ”Volume 4” Super Deluxe Box, and here is the Babymetalized tribute from the maestro (Shawn Fulford). One can just feel the energy and the power. Moametal is taking the place of Ozzy on this one.

Black Sabbath – ”Volume 4” Babymetalized

”Black Sabbath “Volume 4”. This is one of my very early album Photoshops, so I also feel I would do this better now. The main reason I did this was I saw the picture of Moa and noticed right away it was similar to Ozzy on “Volume 4”, so I went ahead and made it using the best way I knew how back then. The simplicity of this cover, Sabbath and my version, is what makes it look good” (Shawn Fulford, aka “futon”).

(Classic Rock Calendar: September 1972)

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Babymetalized Rush Cover

I have seen some of Shawn Fulford´s Babymetalized Rush covers and they are awesome. I also noted a while back that the original cover artist (more on this in the comments below) had seen some of this stuff and given positive feedback. That is as good as it gets. But it is well deserved praise as any fan of Rush can see on this tribute cover. I had to showcase this, since it is brilliant on so many levels. First of all, Yuimetal (or Yui Mizuno, hence the “Power Mizunos” title) is not part of Babymetal anymore, but there she is like a Goddess with a remote control. That is just me being silly of course, but there you go.

Rush – ”Power Windows” Babymetalized

”While I like Rush, it is more in a Greatest Hits way and starting in the early 1980s when I bought ”Signals”. I did like ”Closer To The Heart” however prior to that. I was always fascinated by their album art, there was always something underlying in the picture, a visual pun. ”Signals” with a dog sniffing a hydrant. ”Roll The Bones” with the dice and a kid kicking a skull. ”Power Windows” is different, old TVs, the kid pointing a remote at a window, and power windows being in cars. I do not know if there is a deeper meaning or if Hugh Syme, who designs Rush’s album covers, is being silly. Either way, I love the cover and wanted to do it. Finding a good picture of one of the girls was hard, and even with the one I found I removed the legs and pretty much recreated another set with a boot from another picture. Any meaning in the picture is open for interpretation, I did not really have a concept, although I did talk about one on Reddit. Hugh Syme is an amazing artist, I love his Rush covers and other work, I highly recommend looking at his work, it always has some surreal vibe to it. I was thrilled when, on Instagram, he liked a bunch of my Rush covers I had Babymetalized. That was very awesome!”. (Shawn Fulford, aka ”futon”)

(Classic Rock Calendar: October 1985)

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Babymetalized Van Halen Cover

The last few days, after hearing about the death of Eddie Van Halen, has been pretty interesting on social media. The reaction within the rock community has been amazing. When Ritchie Blackmore and Michael Schenker calls him the best, that really means something. As for the first Van Halen album, I used to have it but it was sold when CDs took over (still kicking myself for selling off a good chunk of the old Vinyl collection). I have it on CD but I have ordered the Vinyl again now. I need it, it is such an iconic album. It is only fitting to pay respect, and one way to do it is to honor the cover. And that takes us to our Babymetalized Album Covers series by artist Shawn Fulford (aka ”futon”). I love this tribute and I think many of you will too.

Van Halen debut album Babymetalized

”I, like many music fans my age, remember hearing Van Halen’s debut album for the first time. I was a teenager and the album was about four-five years old at the time. I recall, like many, ”Eruption”, and just being absolutely blown away! ”This sounds unreal, how is he doing that?” Then it kicks into ”You Really Got Me”, a Kinks cover they redefined. It is still something I listen to regularly. The entire album is awesome, not a bad song on it! Eddie Van Halen dying was unexpected to me, not because I was unaware he fought cancer and posts from various people suggested he had resumed fighting it a year or two ago. It was just a surprise as he kept so quiet about it, which is his right of course. He is a huge loss though, an innovator, a pioneer, a visionary, and an influence of pretty much every guitarist who came after him, while being admired by guitarists who came before him. He was the best. The BABYMETAL version of their debut album cover was something I did about three years ago, one I wanted to do for a while. Recreating the logo was fun, and I have a variant without the ribbon with BABYMETAL on it. Getting photos to compliment the photos on the original cover was a search. I particularly like the one of Su. I was very happy how this cover came out, and apparently a lot of people like it as well. I wouldn’t mind it on a T shirt!”. (Shawn Fulford: aka ”futon”)

(Classic Rock Calendar: February 1978)

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Babymetalized UFO Cover

It was the last great live album of the 1970s, and it is revered to this day. The cover is iconic so I can see why Shawn Fulford (aka ”futon”) has had a go at it. This art is brand new, and it is beautiful. Art teachers should take notes. Let the students pay homage to classic album covers, it really is an interesting idea.

UFO – ”Strangers In The Night” Babymetalized

”Oddly enough, UFO isn’t a band I followed a lot, though I know some songs, and I have albums Michael Schenker and Pete Way released outside of UFO. My main interest in creating this cover was to learn more about creating a half tone, which is what this cover is comprised of. I was successful to a degree, but I need to learn some more about it. Having said that, some BABYMETAL and UFO fans loved it, so that makes me happy! Now I’m going to dig into some UFO music!” (Shawn Fulford: aka ”futon”)

(Classic Rock Calendar: January 1979)

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Babymetalized Sabbath Cover

Black Sabbath´s ”Tyr” album turned 30 the other day and I have good memories from them days. Today we pay homage to ”Sabotage” though, one of the epic releases from the original lineup in the 1970s. I always loved the original cover and I think this Babymetalized art is just spot on. I would love to hear what the Sabbath guys has to say about it. Maybe in another dimension, this was the original album. And the Sabbath cover the tribute. Then again, maybe not. There is a brilliant film script in there somewhere though.

Black Sabbath – ”Sabotage” Babymetalized

”Black Sabbath’s ”Sabotage”. First off, I love the song off that album that everyone loves, ”Symptom Of The Universe”. As for the album cover, I liked the weird reflection, where you should see their backs but you see their fronts, so I thought I would do the same with the girls. This is a cover I totally recreated as opposed to adding and removing parts of an actual cover. I like making the covers either way, but recreating everything is more satisfying. If there was a picture of the girls backs from the same photo I would recreate the back cover”. (Shawn Fulford, aka ”futon”).

(Classic Rock Calendar: July 1975)

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