About The Artworks: COVE – We Were Once Lost (2016)

Recorded with producer Oz Craggs at Hidden Track Studios, ‘We Were Once Lost’ sees Kent COVE mob succeed in their aims of writing “heavy, riffy music, with big choruses that make you grab your friends in the middle of a mosh pit and sing along”. Featuring thudding, muscular grooves and stomp paired with ferocious roars aplenty, COVE’s debut is a post-metalcore powerhouse, evoking Ruin/Hollow Crown era-Architects, whilst also drawing from the gene pools of Defeater and While She Sleeps. Bruising riffs and urgent, desperate screams give way to moments of melodic, textured respite, before plunging back into the abyss again – COVE already leaps and bounds ahead of their would-be peers. As the band release their debut this week, they give you an insight into the creation of the artwork…

“We looked around at several photographers work for inspiration for the artwork of We Were Once Lost (WWOL) but couldn't find something we felt strongly enough about and so decided to do the artwork ourselves.

We've always maintained a DIY work ethic, and we feel like us creating the artwork ourselves gives us more creative freedom, as well as it being something we also enjoy doing. The photograph for the artwork was taken by guitarist Pete Woolven, which is something he went to university to study and has always had a keen eye for.

We knew we wanted something taken outdoors to fit with the theme of the EP title, so we all went for a walk in an area of woods near where we live to find some inspiration for the artwork or just anything that caught our eye. We took a couple of photos but nothing that really inspired us, apart from one of a reflection in a small lake (which is now being used as the back print on our physical CD copies).

It wasn't until we headed back to the car that we found the log cabin. It was lit up that and after taking several photos, it eventually became the artwork. We felt like the cabin fit our theme for the EP so well by pure coincidence, it being lit up in a forest a dusk time seemed like a place of refuge, which not only looked visually stunning, but also fit so well with the title "We Were Once Lost".

We want to make sure the imagery of the band is never too strongly that of a heavy band, as we've always like the image of lighter bands, so we wanted to replicate this with our artwork as well. The creative freedom that comes with producing your own artwork is something that we feel is invaluable and something we'd like to carry on with for future releases.”