Behind The Artworks: Urban Spine - Cruelty By Design (2026)

The artwork for Cruelty by Design was created by Rama of CivilAction Art, whose portfolio includes work for established metal bands such as Havok. We already knew his work and felt that his detailed, dark, and confrontational visual style was ideally suited to the themes of the album. We presented him with our underlying concept, which he then transformed into the final artwork.

The cover portrays society as a chessboard controlled by an elite. Ordinary people are reduced to pieces in a game they never chose to play, while those in power accumulate wealth upon the suffering of the population beneath them. The chessboard represents political and economic power games, but also the confrontation between oppression, protest and possible revolution.

Several details reinforce this idea. The police represent the immediate enforcement of the established order, while the military aircraft and bombs show how power can ultimately be maintained through violence and fear. Oil, fuel and pharmaceuticals symbolise essential systems and resources upon which modern society has become dependent, but which remain largely controlled by powerful political and economic interests. The people may appear to stand on opposing sides of the board, yet the game itself is still defined and controlled from above.

The artwork therefore does not illustrate one individual song. It represents the central theme connecting the entire album: cruelty is not always spontaneous or accidental. It can be systematic, calculated, and deliberately built into political, economic, and social structures. That is the meaning behind the title Cruelty by Design.

Rama also designed the Urban Spine lettering and logo. I later added the blood-red spinal symbol to connect the visual identity more directly to the band’s name. Its organic shape and colour introduce something human and physical into the otherwise cold machinery of control depicted by the artwork.

The cover is therefore not merely packaging for the music. It is the visual counterpart of the album itself: detailed, aggressive, socially critical and intended to reveal more the longer you look at it.

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