To illustrate its fourth album, France’s craziest metal group delved into pulp culture and sci-fi films of the 1950s. An anus moon as a bonus, as Flockos, guitarist of the quartet, explains.
The idea
“The first idea for the album name was UV ultra-glass, with a visual pastiching that of ET the extra-terrestrial. But the title didn’t mean anything. It still set us on the path. The title became Ultra-terrestrial attack, and we immediately had posters for disaster or science fiction films from the 50s in mind. Fetus, the singer and guitarist, made a draft on his velleda board and we knew it was going to be huge. The name of the album has changed, but the idea of a cover style Invasion Planet Earth remained. We wanted a painting effect like the poster of the Day the Earth Stood Still or Hammer films… even if the main inspiration comes from that of Tarantula, particularly for the arrangement of the title.”
Execution
“Manard, the drummer, is an extremely passionate collector of horror films. Thanks to him, we came into contact with Grégory Lê (GengisKahn Artwork), who works in particular on the covers of reissues of genre films for the publisher Le Chat qui fume. Given his CV, we were confident, and when we received the first black and white draft, we knew we had hit the jackpot. The process must have taken a month, we struggled to put as many details as possible, because we wanted a reference for each title on the record to get a side Where is Charlie? But each time he was right and granted our wishes. The biggest achievement is the way we are drawn, with our very white teeth, as well as the feeling of movement typical of old posters. He plunged us into the fifties.”
The anus
“Fetus and I are big babies. Manard tries as best he can to temper the pee/poo side of the group, but we can’t help it. This gave birth to the title Go easy on the poop. The performance of the piece A.N.U.S in the form of a “moon anus” is an idea from Fetus, and as I was responsible for the visual myself, I couldn’t help but add more. The opportunity to put a “puck” image for the B side of the vinyl was too good. I knew I would have Fetus on my side and the others capitulated. It’s clearly a bratty thing, I’m proud of what I did! If I hadn’t done that, there would have been the same visual on both sides. How sad!”
