Roll the dice and let this thrilling new endeavor transport you to grand new lands.
Words by Luis (@HeaviestOfArt):
On September 20th, worlds will collide upon the release of Maze Controller — Dungeon Crawl's second full-length album. Thrash, power, and symphonic metal will coalesce as one to narrate an adventurous tale told by the San Jose band. Inspired by tabletop RPGs and the massive realms, characters, and elements within them, Dungeon Crawl disconnects listeners from reality and immerses them into treacherous atmospheres crafted meticulously for a rich experience.
With lore, lyrics, and composition this outlandish, the accompanying visual identity has to match its spectacle, and artist extraordinaire James Bousema excelled. Putting a face to the album's core entity, The Maze Controller, James expands upon the album in enticing ways that will have you double taking upon passing it in a record store. It's reminiscent of a game manual, awe-inspiring like a boss battle, and inviting to look at.
Read through a Q&A with Dungeon Crawl's Codie Jones and James Bousema to learn about the joyous collaboration and the many wonders it brings to the tabletop:
Dungeon Crawl’s electrifying new chapter is here, and with a breadth of covers, merch illustrations, and other music and gaming related projects from James Bousema's catalog to choose from, what drove your interest in entrusting James for album cover duties?
Codie: The first time I saw James’ work was 2021’s "Electrified Brain" by Municipal Waste. The cover itself captivated me, since it’s extremely vibrant and the vibe itself has kind of a controlled chaos to it. It’s violent and aggressive, but you can still make out exactly what’s going on at first glance. Every brush stroke feels deliberate and nothing is out of place. That’s huge, since I feel like a listener’s first impression of an album is almost always based on the artwork itself.
Aside from that, his style is just so timeless. There’s something familiar and comforting about it, and I feel like he captured the old school D&D vibe so well.
I agree. Expanding on that further, what were you looking for upon approaching him for the cover? The D&D influence is of course strong and expands upon the band’s ongoing visual identity greatly.
Codie: I wouldn’t say that I was looking for anything super explicit, other than the base concept, which was the titular “Maze Controller” kind of looming over a labyrinth. When working with any artist, I feel like providing just a basic idea and letting them run with it usually ends up working out the best. James came back to me with 3 different ideas for the cover, one of which was the incredible cosmic wizard that we ended up with. He’s done some incredible work for a bunch of high profile artists in the metal scene, so I trusted him to come up with something kick ass, and he went above and beyond. His work for us has definitely helped solidify our identity, and given us something to build off of as we expand the lore of the band.
He expanded on your identity greatly! You coming together with him was meant to happen. James, upon being presented with the album’s parameters, or lack thereof, where did you look to take the creative direction from your standpoint?
James: Codie gave me a ton to work with! Whether it was old RPG artwork that he wanted me to be inspired by or his actual D&D group sessions/characters, he gave me plenty of material to pull from to make sure his goal with the artwork was clear from the get-go. The trick is to make it all feel like a cohesive package. Combining the speedy thrash vibe with the look of an old RPG fantasy game can be tricky if not tackled carefully. It could have easily come off as a goofy gimmick, but I think when you approach the subject matter with great reverence as Codie wanted to, you end up with a result that feels true to its inspirations and that will, hopefully, resonate with others.
For you as an artist, does the mindset change when you’re tasked with creating art for a project in line with your own personal interests? Is it more or less the same than when you have to get out of your comfort zone a bit?
James: Oh, absolutely. I'd like to think I can be completely objective with some projects, but this one required me to try to emulate my absolute favorite style, which is the 70s-80s era of colorful fantasy artwork done for movies, paperbacks, and game manuals. This was smack dab in my comfort zone. With this subject matter, it allows me to be way less concerned with any sort of realism. It's all cosmic magic, demons, and wizards, so I strived to reach the heightened nature of the more epic symphonic elements that DC has decided to incorporate into this record. In much of old fantasy artwork, the colors are super bold and simplified to make each element of the art stand out that much more. It's like the character designs of He Man characters. They may be simple, but they are super memorable because of the boldness of those designs.
I'm glad you touched on color palette, which some might dismiss as a marketing or aesthetic element. For "Maze Controller", the vibrance was intentional and it's reflective of the energy you both invested within the project. How would you both describe the collaborative process throughout it all?
James: Oh, it was super easy to work with Codie. First of all, I already dug DC's last record "Roll For Your Life" (2021) and followed them to keep up with whatever they'd put out next. Me and Codie ended up bonding over the fact that we both played D&D and had an overall appreciation for fantasy games/novels. He ended up reaching out to me around 2 years ago about potentially doing the art for his next record and I was more than happy to take on the task. Honestly, from sketch to final, there was very few notes. We were pretty in sync! Helps to both be dorks for this kind of stuff.
Codie: As an additional note to James’ answer, it was a super easy process. He is very professional and was really involved in the whole thing. It was the first time anyone I’d reached out to was down to meet over a Zoom call to discuss the idea, which to me conveyed a high level of respect for the process, and that he took his work seriously. I had initially thought the art would be revealed way sooner (my bad James!), but I think it was well worth the wait now that we’re here.
These fruitful collaborations yield the best results, as we can see here. Where do you two feel that the music and art intersect? Both parts consist of distinct elements that coalesce into one multi-faceted being.
James: With this record having more epic song structures and with the addition of symphonic elements, it only felt natural to lean HARD into the high fantasy aesthetic. Big scary red wizard with a staff made of the literal D20 shape, pondering his Maze orb, and wielding rings of all the other die shapes felt like such a fun way to encapsulate many of the different elements that come along with playing D&D with your friends. Wrap it in a design framing that feels right out of the old dungeon manuals, then you've got something that feels like it more than matches subject matter and sound of the tunes within.
Codie: Since our first LP and the subsequent split ("The Side Quest", 2022) we did with Throne of Iron that was released through Wise Blood Records, we’ve introduced a whole new aspect to the music in the form of the orchestral instruments, throwing in a few dungeon synth tracks along the way. In that regard, I feel as though the cover conveys the evolution of the music to a degree, with the galaxies in the background representative of the scope that the project has grown to. We also all know that while underground, the metal genre is massive and encapsulates so many bands that can be defined by a specific subgenre. The Maze Controller, with his firm grip on his staff and dominion over the labyrinth can also be seen as us carving our own little niche out in a universe of other bands, with our very own unique sound/style.
I love that you connected the artwork's lore with that of the band's growth. Talk about branding! The release cycle is now underway and audiences are soon to bask in the strong audiovisual experience that is “Maze Controller”. As this new material begins to circulate, what do you take from this experience? And what do you hope translates to the many that will dive into “Maze Controller”?
James: I honestly think this might just be my favorite cover art I've worked on. That is not to discredit the work I've done for other bands I've worked with. I'm super proud of the covers I've done so far, but this one really felt, at the time, like a culmination of painting AND design skills I've developed these past few years, not to mention the subject matter being the exact kind of stuff I've been wanting to incorporate more into my client work. It's something I can show to any one who's a fan of the same stuff and I know they'll get a kick out of it. I very much was making this cover for myself, so it all worked out that me and Codie have very similar tastes, not to mention the tunes totally match the epic yet colorful nature of the artwork. It feels like an overall super cohesive package.
Codie: Personally, I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with James. Given the opportunity, I’d do it a thousand times over. Aside from the art, producing this record has been a tremendous learning experience. There were a lot of firsts for me while working on it, but there are also so many individuals that were critical to the creation process that helped make the album what it is. The music is the byproduct of my cumulative love for fast, aggressive thrash with tight rhythms and shredding solos, and epic, melodic power metal with big hooks and memorable choruses. For the listeners, I hope this can help scratch that itch for both genres, and maybe even serve to bridge the gap between the two. The record will be out September 20th through Carbonized Records, check it out today!
Maze Controller arrives September 20th via Carbonized Records (Order).
