A strong, fresh contender from 2026.

A man in a KKK hood is standing inside frames that make up a box-like shape in a desert. He's not getting out of the box, despite that there's nothing stopping him, he's just standing there and reflecting. What's he thinking about? What's does the box symbolize: society, ideology, mortality, about something being a downer, big thoughts as indicated by the overlay of insects, goats and galactic shapes kind of like the big science brain POV shots from Oppenheimer.

Abysmal and tacky cover. They've had some shit before but this is just beyond the pale for me personally

I don't always love cali≠gari's covers (the photos of Shuuji with the cake for the 15 digital singles, I think the album art for 16/17 is much weaker than the singles and supplementary material), but Ao ALWAYS turns it out in packaging design and materials.

I love those colored jewel cases, not many bands have that. Right off the top of my head, the only other vkei act I can think of is Eliphas Levi who had a light-blue tinted one for one of their minis (冷たいアトリエの魔術師). Oh, and almost forgot to mention, it has a neat "layered" booklet with semi-transparent pages that project layers of images on top of each other (it's a bit hard to explain and I don't have my copy with me here to show orz).

Now for album covers I love... I just can't help myself from talking about kein. I love the covers for mourou no mi and hakai to souzou SO much...

Something super cool about these that you don't get from just looking at pics... the actual covers are in black-and-white, and the color comes from the cases. For mourou no mi, the jewel case itself is bright red, & for Hakai to Souzou, the limited edition just comes with a green slip-cover, so not exactly done the same, but still...

I think it's so cool that they share this quirk, with mourou no mi being their last release before they broke up and hakai to souzou being their first album after getting back together. I feel like it really ties them together... plus, it means you get to do fun stuff like this.

yahahahaaa!!

**edit, not to mention... red/green combo, my two fav colors & evidently a lot of nagoya bands' favs as well.... even those GULLET singles have that going for them.... LOOVE it....

I just checked my Desert scans and ryo is credited for "art works" on that release as well... no photographer named. With that in mind it does honestly draw the other covers into question, but hey, they still look awesome

I'm generally so-so about most vkei album covers. The only ones that stand out to me from memory are the Suehire Maruou covers they did for Merry and the ones that Yamato Takato has done for Kyo and Dir en grey. Also early Kagerou releases I like the covers.

Also shout out to my homies sleeping in a big circle or in a pile of flowers

ah wow the rescaling really failed here