In a recent conversation with The Brutally Delicious Podcast, Deicide‘s frontman Glen Benton took on the controversy swirling around the cover art of their forthcoming album, “Banished By Sin”. Set to drop on April 26 via Reigning Phoenix Music, the album’s artwork has stirred a storm of speculation. Some fans and critics have speculated that the design might have been created using artificial intelligence (A.I.), sparking a mix of backlash and humorous memes on social media.
Benton clarified the creation process, stating: “Well, people don’t understand that the album cover that we did, it was done with Photoshop and with some A.I., but it’s a more modern version. It’s like ‘Legion’ — when I did the ‘Legion’ album cover, computers were still fucking new. Nobody knew anything about three-dimensional artwork or any shit like that. And I was the first person to even fucking fuck with that when I designed the ‘Legion’ album cover. Now I’ve been in the computers and all that shit since they all came about. So I may be ahead of a lot of people when it comes to computers. I have two iMacs and MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. So I’m a little versed with the whole computer age and in Photoshop and all that stuff and that.
Elaborating on his artistic intent, Benton added, “I aim to be different and provocative. And I know the whole A.I. thing, everybody’s up in arms about it… But it was meant to stir. People don’t understand. It’s a modernization of… It’s a sign of the time that we’re in. People just can’t — their first reaction is, like, ‘Oh, he’s trying to put all of us artists out of work. And I’ll be stuck drawing penises in men’s bathrooms for the rest of my life.’ So everybody’s up in arms and thinking that this is the end of the fucking world. And it’s really ridiculous, man. It’s just a form of art and expression. So I think people should just really stop being ridiculous and accept it for what it is, man. It’s a sign of the times.”
Benton further expressed his disinterest in repetitive album art styles, criticizing artists who churn out indistinct logos and designs: ” I design artwork around the whole thing, man. And I don’t take other people’s feelings or their ideas or I don’t sit here and think, ‘Well, what’s this blue-haired kid in Nebraska gonna think about the album cover?’ I do what I do because I like it, and I don’t give a shit what anybody else thinks.”
Touching on the issue of art theft, Benton reflected on past experiences, saying: “My art was stolen and exploited in the ’90s. But all these wannabe mercenaries for artists and all these idiots out there, they were the same people right there stealing my art back then. So where were all you guys at to defend my art being stolen and taken advantage of? So, all I did was just did an album cover, really, that just focused on the whole modernization of the modern time and, really, it’s just a reflection of the age that we’re in right now. I can’t spend my days trying to explain this. I have a saying: I don’t try to convince stupid is dumb and I don’t try to convince dumb is stupid. So I just let it do its thing and piss people off. I have a great time with it. It’s hilarious. Yeah, it is what it is, man. It’s meant to stir the shit paddle, and that’s what I do.”
In February, Deicide dropped the second single from “Banished By Sin”, a track titled “Sever The Tongue”, recorded at Smoke & Mirrors with engineer Jeramie Kling and mixed and mastered by Josh Wilbur.
