Rockers Evans Blue recently debuted the artwork for their new album, ‘Graveyard of Empires,’ which drops April 17. Upon first look, the ghoulish cover appears to be a cityscape covered by a film of grunge, overcome by darkness and evil. Nestled within the city, a lone coffin emits a delicate puff of smoke that at first glance might seem like just that. But if you look closer, it’s actually the silhouette of a dancer, rising out of the darkness. The artwork packs a punch of not just visual stimulation but also offers food for thought and implied social commentary.

We figured no one could give us better insight into the artwork than the band itself, so we caught up with Evans Blue frontman Dan Chandler to talk about the artwork and the symbolism behind the album title. On a larger level, the album title, ‘Graveyard of Empires,’ pulls a lot from what we’re seeing around us. “It has a lot to do with the music business, it has to do with the whole Wall Street thing,” Chandler told Loudwire.“To me it was more like being independent or just being an individual and being able to overcome a lot of these things.”

He continued to explain it, saying, “When I see these companies collapsing, it kind of makes me feel like you can do this on your own. People are going to fall so you can fall on your own or you can fall with a bunch of people, it’s just one of those things.”

Regarding the album art, Chandler originally had a different vision. He said, “The original idea was to have a real dancer. I wanted a really dark, gothic tattooed girl coming out of the coffin, and that was the idea.” After taking photos with a model and putting it all together, “it just didn’t seem to fit right,” admits Chandler.

After hitting that roadblock, the band’s artist came to the rescue. “So then Jake, who did the artwork, threw out the idea of a smoky dancer and I thought it was awesome,” Chandler said. “At first you don’t know if it’s just smoke or a dancer, but then you see what it is. I wanted it to be coming out of a music box, that was my first idea, and as soon as you backed up, you’d realize the music box was a coffin, just try to make it as twisted as I could. I turned out to be what it is and I’m happy with it, it looks really awesome – it’s dark and I love that s—.”

Tune in next week for our full interview with Dan and listen to the latest single off of ‘Graveyard of Empires’ below.

Listen to ‘Halo’ by Evans Blue

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