"Biomechanical mismatch"

An album cover should have a close link to the music. In short, what you see is what you get. Sometimes the cover mismatch is overwhelming. Maybe the best example is "Brain Salad Surgery" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer from 1973. The album cover was created by Swiss artist H.R. Giger (1940-2014). Giger is known for his biomechanical art, a surrealistic style of art that combines elements of machines with organics. H.R. Giger was a sought-after artist and was part of the special effects team for the visual design of the 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and for the creating of the xenomorph itself. How ELP got in touch and persuaded H.R. Giger to create the album cover, and the controversies around it, are covered elsewhere. ELP was much loved and hated. Grandiose, pretentious and overweening are epithets that comes to mind. ELP captured the zeitgeist. Nothing was too big in the 1970s. On tour, about 65 people were involved. Nearly 40 tons of equipment were carried around in three TIR articulated trucks. On the truck roofs, their last names in enormous fonts, only visible from above. Keith Emerson used a total of ten (10) keyboards on stage. Greg Lake had an equally impressive bass rig. Carl Palmer’s hand-made, custom-built, revolving drum set-up complete with drum synthesisers alone weighed two and half tons. Despite the heavy load, ELP sounded quite lame. Personally, I don't dislike them. Actually, I have their first five albums. I was young and influencable (which doesn't explain why I later rebought them on cd). People who bought "Brain Salad Surgery" for the album cover must have been baffled when William Blake's delicate psalm Jerusalem faded in "And did those feet in ancient time / Walk upon England's mountain green? / And was the holy Lamb of God / On England's pleasant pastures seen?". This was a mismatch if there ever was one. One thing is clear. Biomechanical art and progressive rock doesn't go well together.