Frank Frazetta Album Covers

I took out the albums pictured above for a last minute photo to include in the first issue of the Critical Hit Parader zine. All feature classic paintings by the master artist, Frank Frazetta. I enjoy all of these records, however, none particularly invoke an Appendix LP vibe, and they do not feature swords and sorcery lyrics as you might expect if judging by the covers. But these album covers provide a lifetime of TTRPG inspiration.

Below are some tidbits about each album and painting:

• Hard Attack by Dust - Released in 1972, this is the second album from the power trio Dust, one of the earlier American hard rock bands. The band included future Ramones drummer Marc Bell (Marky Ramone) and future bassist for everyone Kenny Aaronson. The painting is called Snow Giants and was first used as the cover of the paperback Conan of Cimmeria in 1969.

• Expect No Mercy by Nazareth - The painting on this 1977 album cover from Scottish hard rock band Nazareth is called The Brain. It was painted in 1966 and was slightly cropped for the album to remove the warrior’s nude bottom.

• Molly Hatchet by Molly Hatchet - Molly Hatchet’s 1978 debut is the first of three albums by the southern rock band that had Frank Frazetta covers. Depicting one of Frazetta’s most iconic characters, the painting is called The Death Dealer. It first appeared in the Flashing Swords! #2 anthology in 1973.

• Flirtin’ with Disaster by Molly Hatchet - This 1979 follow-up album features the Frazetta painting Dark Kingdom. It first appeared on the paperback cover of the Kane novel Dark Crusade by Karl Edward Wagner.

When researching these covers, I referred to Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta by J. David Spurlock and the Frazetta Girls website.

Additional Molly Hatchet Thoughts

Molly Hatchet’s final album with a Frazetta cover was Beatin’ the Odds, which had his painting Berserker. They would continue with fantasy art covers for most of their career, including a Boris Vallejo cover for Take no Prisoners. I always found it to be a bit of a mismatch between their “metal” album cover image and southern boogie music. I discuss this in the Contrarians episode called “Albums That Lied!” To me, the closest they came to Appendix LP material is with the song “Fall of the Peacemakers.” It starts with the lyric “A king without a sword/ A land without a king” and has an epic arrangement. I saw the original lineup at an outdoor festival in the ‘80s and they were terrific.

More Moorcock

The Frazetta book by Spurlock had this quote from Michael Moorcock:

“I was attracted to Fantasy originally because it wasn’t a defined genre. Like rock and roll, you could make something of your own out of it.”

What a perfect summation of the Critical Hit Parader ethos!

Critical Hit Parader Zine Successfully Funded!

Thank you for all the support for the Critical Hit Parader zine kickstarter. Because of the generosity of the 101 backers, issue #1 of Critical Hit Parader will be going to print shortly.