Behind The Artworks: Tooms - Karst (2026)

We had a few different ideas for the artwork that we tried, but didn't really work. Kieran and I have a lot of time together in the car on drives to and from rehearsals, so we'd shoot the shit on ideas. We decided we wanted something iconic, graphic. Something you'd recognize right away. Not a big busy detailed story image, but rather a "thing". Imagine flicking through a stack of records and seeing something and know RIGHT AWAY what it was. Think Melvins Bullhead. We also didn't want anything "metal". No skulls, no dark figures, none of that. But it also had to fit, it did have to be metal somehow. I guess after the lyrical themes began to present themselves, and the title KARST came around, an idea presented itself. How could we convey the rugged West, the life, death and rebirth that we're all surrounded by, and how do we do that without being too on the nose? Maybe a flower blooming from the rocks of the Burren, life thriving in a barren place. There are so many sketches in notebooks and mock up photos saved to my phone of different ideas, going as far back as early 2024. That developed into an arrangement of flowers sprouting from rocks on the coast. We eventually ditched the coastal idea completely, and used a stone vase to represent the land, with bouquet of native wildflowers some living some dying, some dead. The Gorse/Furze laid on either side of the stone plinth, and the Mayflower of the Whitethorn tree sticking out on top of the arrangement, represent the Spring, the new life, the change of season, new beginnings. Surrounded by dying Buttercups, Bluebells & Ferns to represent the shedding of the old life. Its a visual for life and death and rebirth. Everything come and goes, nothing is permanent, we're all just here for a short, relatively insignificant time, so make the most of it. We got the expertise and help bring the arrangement to life from Mel of Danu Bouquets.

We set the plinth, vase and bouquet up in front of a velvet backdrop, and shot from several cameras and angles. We later went in and painstakingly edited the photo, got a flat shadow-less black background, to give the feeling that the flower arrangement exists in a void. Colin, otherwise know as Dabulga Designs blessed us with a Celtic golden border and typeface that ties the whole piece together.

The back cover is a stark contrast. Our three bodies, dressed in black jeans, white Ts and no shoes, floating face down in a body of water, shot from above. Presented in sharp contrast black and white, the exact opposite of the cover. The soul might live again, the body wont.

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