Ramon Martos
“And Justice For Art”: Tales of Artwork Creation

17.06.2015

Books devoted to heavy metal and all things related to it have been in abundance lately, and more and more such volumes are being announced. Nevertheless, a seasoned rock journalist driven by enthusiasm only has recently published a book that has had no analogues so far. Going through the pages of “And Justice For Art”, the reader is taking a journey back in time that covers more than four decades. The musicians quoted in the book pay their dues to album covers and those who created them. The name of the book speaks for itself – justice has finally been given to art in the world of heavy music. It’s not surprising that a circulation of 300 copies sold out quite quickly, and while a second volume is being prepared, we have approached Ramon Martos, the man who put this unique work together, with a few questions.  

To begin with, could you say a few words about yourself?

I’m a Cuban/American Metal fan and have been very active in the metal scene for more than 20 years. I’ve played or recorded with  underground bands like Necro RD, Divis Invocat and currently write for many publications around the world, including MetalUnderground.com, This is Metal Magazine, PureGrainAudio.com, and many others.

How did you come up with the idea of publishing such a book? Why did you decide to use such an ambitious title?

Album cover artworks and heavy metal music have been my obsession for decades. Back in the late 80s, early 90s, in Cuba we didn’t have access to record stores and only listened to music via cassette tapes of very bad quality. Those tapes usually didn’t come with graphics so we didn’t know how the artworks looked like.
I always wanted to know more about the visuals, the artists, etc… So, when I emigrated to the U.S., I started to write for magazines and started to investigate more about album covers, etc. I interviewed many bands and artists, and created the Facebook community “And Justice For Art” (http://www.facebook.com/pages/And-Justice-For-Art/123376774515018). After that, the next logical step was to gather all my investigation, the interviews, and images in a book, so people could have access to it any time they wanted. It’s not the same to have a book at hand than going to the internet every time you want to look for information about album covers. A book will always be a more reliable source of information.
About the book’s title, I wasn’t looking to relate it to Metallica’s “And Justice For All” album. The title “And Justice For Art: Stories About Heavy Metal Album Covers,” alludes to the fact that this is a book to pay homage to all those fantastic artworks and tell the stories about their creation. That hasn’t been done before with this level of detail and it was about time to let people know about it.

You collected the funds for publishing the book by means of a crowdfunding campaign. What was the reason? A lot of books on heavy music get published these days. Weren’t there any publishers interested in your project?

There were some publishers interested but a) they were afraid of the amount of work needed to secure images rights and the cost of printing a full color book like this and keeping high quality standards; and b) some of the publishers that were interested wanted to eliminate some of the stories/chapters because there weren’t heavy enough or because they didn’t like the bands or the albums. That didn’t make sense to me because it was going to affect the concept of the book and it was going to negatively affect the journey I wanted to present from the beginning of metal music in the 70s to nowadays.
Since I’ve been involved in other projects in the past it was logical to take the independent route and release the book myself. I received the help of many fans, artists and bands that recognized the importance of what I was trying to do. I cannot be more grateful to all those that help me to make this project a reality.  

It took you more than three years to complete the book. What was the most difficult aspect of it? Are you satisfied with the final outcome?

I’m very satisfied with the final product. I know it’s not perfect and I would like to include more bands/artworks and correct some things that I didn’t notice until the book was out, but there’s nothing like this book out there and so far, everybody loves the book, the bands and the fans. That’s very rewarding.
Researching, writing, editing and designing this book was the most challenging task I have faced in my life. I think every aspect of making this book a reality was really difficult, especially because it was basically just me taking care of everything.

How did you select the material for the final version? What were your criteria?

I chose artworks from the early days of hard rock/metal up to 2014. The idea was to create a well-balanced journey that included visuals from most of metal’s sub-genres and ages, as well as images that have become ingrained in people’s minds for decades.
For me it was also important that most of these artworks were visually and stylistically different from each other, to give variety and explore different kinds of creativity and styles. That’s why in the book you can find artworks that look so different from each other like Death’s “Symbolic,” Enslaved’s “Riitiir,” Yngwie Malmsteen’s “Trilogy”, Eyehategod’s “Take As Needed For Pain,” etc. It was really fascinating to discover how the artworks were created and why the bands collaborated with the artists.

"And Justice For Art" is your first book. Will there be a follow-up? Do you have any plans for further creative projects of this kind?

I’m already working on a second part that hopefully will come out next year. “And Justice For Art 2” will feature all the details behind iconic album covers for albums by bands like Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Bloodbath, Orpheus Blade and many more bands. It’s going to be a killer book!

Can you say a few words about your Facebook community devoted to album covers, also called "And Justice For Art". What goals do you aim at by running it?

The Facebook community is a space to promote everything related with album covers and artists in the metal scene. It’s a platform for bands, artists and underground art enthusiasts. It does not matter what kind of visual style or what kind of metal you’re into, on this community you will find a lot of information about what it’s happening in the world of metal, visually-wise. In addition, artists can promote their artworks and bands can promote their imagery, albums and more. It’s a place for everyone!

You have a record label called Dark Canvas. What are your priorities? Do you intend to keep running it?

Right now, Dark Canvas Records is not as active as it used to be years ago. I used to specialize in promoting third world bands that wanted to reach worldwide audiences and have a better distro for their albums. We also financed a couple of amazing recordings that were very well-reviewed at the time they came out, like for example the album “The Distant” by Dominican Republic’s metallers, Archaios.  At moment I’m using the label to promote the “And Justice For Art” book. That’s my main objective right now. Maybe in the future I could go back to promote bands or for my own musical projects.  Let’s see.

You have a degree in arts. Which great artists of the past do you find most interesting personally? And which artists designing metal covers would you regard as the most outstanding ones?

I’ve been always fascinated by Renaissance art and also the works of Edvard Munch, which is my favorite painter. The power of his brushing, and the technical/psychological aspects of his works have no rival. His vision of the human condition is very profound, disturbing and brutally honest. Definitely Munch is my all-time favorite.
About current album cover designers, I believe there are artists working today that are real masters of their craft. Some of my favorites are Eliran Kantor, Travis Smith, Dan Seagrave, Truls Espedal, John Baizley among many others.

Thank you for this interview, Ramon! Could you say a few final words to round it up?

Sure. I hope metal fans give the “And Justice For Art” book a chance. There’s nothing like this out there. It’s not a perfect book but never before in metal history a book with this much information has been released. Almost 100% of all readers, artists and musicians love it and you’ll love it too. Keep it metal!
Officially the book can be bought here http://andjusticeforart.bigcartel.com/product/and-justice-for-art-stories-about-heavy-metal-album-covers
The review of the book on the YouTube channel is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjHdQGDkunQ
and here https://www.youtube.com/embed/VNmCmI_PEfA
The Facebook community And Justice For Art is at this address: https://www.facebook.com/pages/And-Justice-For-Art/123376774515018?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJFA10/with_replies

Magomed Gadzhiev
May 25, 2015
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