Hvis googly tar oss

February 2, 2014 1:44 PM

In the proud tradition of attaching googly eyes to things, I present for your consideration: Metal Albums with Googly Eyes. As noted on Invisible Oranges, "...it only takes tiny modifications to turn grim visions of suffering and evil into total goofiness." (One or two may be NSFW)

Some choice cuts:
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Burzum - Hvis lyset tar oss
Immortal - Sons of Northern Darkness

posted by Existential Dread (17 comments total)

Suitable for Smell the Glove, Metallica or the Black Album by Prince. (The last one is not Metal, but it does fit.)
posted by Hactar at 1:57 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

my daughter's a metalhead and she was quite amused by these
posted by pyramid termite at 2:21 PM on February 2, 2014

Funny, that is always how I imagine Immortal.
posted by munchingzombie at 2:44 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

I don't know. As an outsider, most of the imagery associated with metal looks 'goofy' without any need for googly eyes. Most of the metal fans I know have a firm appreciation of how fine the line is between metal and downright silliness.
posted by pipeski at 2:46 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

I submit that AC/DC - especially around the Dirty Deeds period were not Metal. Hard Rock yes, Metal?, no.
posted by mattoxic at 3:34 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

This is funny.

But adding googly eyes to the Dopethrone art is almost overkill. It's a picture of Satan smoking a bong. It's already at maximum ridiculousness.
posted by my favorite orange at 3:39 PM on February 2, 2014 [4 favorites]

God I love Immortal. They may be the only band where you can add googly eyes and they end up looking less ridiculous.
posted by monolith at 3:58 PM on February 2, 2014 [3 favorites]

As an old-school 80s metalhead, I gotta admit... a bunch of these are hella goofy even without googly eyes.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 4:21 PM on February 2, 2014

> But adding googly eyes to the Dopethrone art is almost overkill. It's a picture of Satan smoking a bong. It's already at maximum ridiculousness.

Kinda' agree, but... the googly eyes on the black cowled figures in the distance is what makes it work. Because it's now a whole bunch of googly-eyed guys staring at Satan smoking a bong.
posted by ardgedee at 6:20 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Hm, I don't seem my own Googly Eyes thread up there. It's okay. I don't mind. I still love you. Are you dressing warmly? You never call.
posted by JHarris at 6:32 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

There is nothing you can do to make Burzum more silly than he actually is. Even after the last album.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:33 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

And seeing the word goofy thrown around in regards to metal covers makes me feel vindicated when I actually told a beloved lit professor, who was teaching the Inferno, that I thought the image of a giant Satan stuck in the ice of Dis, his jaw endlessly gnashing the souls of Judas, Brutus and Cassius, was "kinda goofy."
posted by JHarris at 6:39 PM on February 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

To me, the very best of these is the Vital Remains cover in the Invisible Oranges link. Jesus being nailed horribly to a cross....with googly eyes. It's brilliant. The Ensiferum one is also genius.

As for the cover of Dopethrone (sans googly), the concept is totally ridiculous, and yet in execution it's absolutely killer. I love that record.
posted by Existential Dread at 8:11 PM on February 2, 2014

The thing is that huge googly eyeballs are already a horror/gore trope, in contexts that aren't overtly silly. So most of these covers don't actually come off as goofy to me.

Things I learned today: most image searches including the word "gore" will have at least some results I really regret seeing.
posted by lostburner at 10:56 PM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Heh, I'm actually more scared by Reign in Blood with the googly eyes than without.
posted by ignignokt at 7:47 AM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

I was sad that nobody had seen fit to apply googly eyes to Eddie... then I clicked through to the second page. Well done, intarwebs. Applying googly eyes to the _Screaming for Vengeance_ eagle? Soopah genius.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:39 AM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

Don't forget previously (NSFW or, apparently, the sensibilities of 2006-era Mefites). archive.org link to now-defunct site (warning: googly eyes on actual penises).
posted by deadbilly at 11:05 AM on February 3, 2014