Behind The Artworks: Sterbhaus - Next Akin To Chaos (2025)

Regarding the artwork for ”Next Akin to Chaos”: I stumbled upon it some 10-15 years ago, as I follow quite a few artists and pages dedicated to art. This image, and quite a few others by the same artist (Ryohei Hase) that were part of the same series, struck me because it was so much chaos portrayed, and it looked fierce and vivid. I have always had a weakness for imagery with animal heads on human bodies – for some weird, unknown reason. During the production of the album, I struggled to find some sort of visual representation. Usually, I have a lot of ideas and visions, but this time I had none. All I knew was that I didn’t want art featuring anything Satanic or anything referring to the Chaos arrows. When I finally remembered this artist and his work, it appeared he had exited social media and the internet several years ago, so I couldn’t get hold of either him or his publishers. So it looked pretty grim there for a while! By chance, he then posted something unrelated on Instagram about six months into the search, and that was his first post in… wow, like 5 or 6 years? I don’t quite recall. Anyway! The image I wanted wasn’t available, but this one was, and the funny thing is – this one fitted better! It represents the chaos of our music but also the fact that being next akin to chaos as a creative person provides a better outlet than being subdued and too complacent.