Pestilence Backs Down on AI Art for New Album
Controversy can be a blessing for a rock band; but sometimes there is such a thing as bad publicity. And, when Dutch death metal band Pestilence starts digging a hole for themselves, they never stop until they hit magma.
Recently, the band came under fire from fans and news outlets because their career retrospective album Levels of Perception that they recently announced used AI images for the cover. Here’s the cover with the AI images.
The AI debate is a big complicated one that Pestilence pretended to not fully understand. Maybe there was a better way for them to defend themselves than what they said on Facebook, which was this caption on a side-by-side comparison of the Levels of Perception cover and the cover of their 1989 album Consuming Impulse:
“How is the second cover way better than the first one. Please explain. The A.I. is everywhere. Are we so caught up in the past that that we do not embrace technology? Is recording with tape better than digital daws. Is taking a polaroid picture better than the newest tech phone? It’s still about the music and lyrics and that’s REAL!!!”
Whatever your opinions on AI art, I feel like we can all agree that that was not a good defense of AI art.
Well, the band backed down from their defense of their own album cover and are just changing the cover to avoid controversy. Here’s the new cover.
But even after they unveiled the new artwork, they still refused to put away the shovel. Vocalist and guitarist Patrick Memeli had this to say about the change in cover art on Instagram:
“First off, let me be absolutely clear about the fact that both band and record company still love this cover. Also, the artist that created this art, did not let the computer generate this picture. He used multiple methods to come to this result. So it’s not just A.I. in the real sense.
“But the point I’m getting at, is this: I will not risk all the work we have put into this release, just to push the cover. We care a lot about our fans and we do not want this product not to be a success just because we want to push our ideas regarding A.I. We have always stood at the forefront of game changing events within the d.m. scene, whether it’s music or in this case, a cover.
“Maybe the timing is not right just now, so we chose the middle way. This should make people more open to this monster of a release we have planned for y’all.”
Personally, I think that telling people they’re wrong about the very thing you’re apologizing for makes the apology sound more sincere, don’t you? In no way do I want to reignite the beef that once existed between Pestilence and this website’s former management which I was not here for (please, don’t make me responsible for restarting that), but this band just have a knack for making a bad situation worse.
