Visual art and music are two sides of the same coin. While immensely powerful and totally capable of having a life changing impact on a human being on their own, they become infinitely more powerful when paired together. And nowhere is this concept is more evident than in heavy metal, where album art serves as a direct companion to the music within. Metal merch like shirts and posters celebrate visual art, displaying album covers in glorious detail or providing opportunities for new designs that expand on the band’s vision and become part of their brand.

No young person who dedicates their life to playing heavy metal or creating art does it for the riches, because there are hardly any to be had. Both avenues are laid with blood, sweat, doubt from within and without. They do it because they have a need deep within to create, to express themselves through sound and sight. And when a band and artist whose vision and passion align find each other, they make magic. Take Iron Maiden and Derek Riggs, or Metallica and Pushead. A metalhead worth their salt couldn’t imagine a world where meticulously painted scenes of Eddie (Maiden’s mascot) didn’t grace Iron Maiden’s album covers, or the detailed line and dot work of Pushead’s skulls didn’t accompany the Metallica logo on t shirts.

This partnership existed for decades, built on mutual benefit and respect between artist and musician. THEN TECH BILLIONAIRES SHOWED UP. After quietly collecting millions of visual works from unsuspecting artist’s portfolios and social media pages with no regard for copyright and zero intention to seek permission or compensate a single artist, AI companies unleashed their tech into the world with zero guardrails and regulations. They have yet to be held accountable in any way for copyright infringement or the damaging output their technology creates, like non-consensual deep fakes and political propaganda. That’s understandable, they are backed by some of the richest people on earth and we know in politics and courts money talks. What’s inexplicable and inexcusable is the willingness of some metal musicians to embrace this tech built on millions of artist’s life’s work and use it for its only intended purpose: take job opportunities from skilled working class people and transfer the income they would have earned to the richest 10%.

Metal as a music genre has always been about genuine integrity and honesty. It is pro-human, pro-creative. Generative AI is literally anti all of those things. From what I’ve seen online and in real [life], the majority of metal fans don’t want to see AI art in their music and that gives me hope. However it is ultimately up to the band to decide whether they truly value the principles metal is built on: honesty, integrity, creativity and a healthy dose of anti-establishment.

AI art is not honest, it is not creative, and it is as pro-establishment as it gets since it’s literally made by wealthy elites off the backs of working class people.

Keep AI art out of metal, support human artists who will pour their life’s passions and experiences into the work they create for you. Not a bunch of code that’s memorizing pixel arrangements from work they have no right to use and then regurgitating it into an overly shiny image that falls apart to basic scrutiny when viewed in detail. Artists from all disciplines: music, visual art, literature, photography, need to stand together against the unfathomably rich predators seeking to wipe away our livelihoods in exchange for profit and shareholder value.

“When Metallica cut their hair and made Load I never considered them sellouts. It was just a bunch of dudes who were in the game for a long time growing up and doing different things. But this, this is selling out. Y’all really going to abandon the entire philosophy of the music you play to save a couple hundred bucks on an artist to instead pay a subscription fee to thieving billionaires? Come on guys, looking real goofy out there. Stay metal, support human beings (billionaires aren’t human).”