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A View from the Top of the World – Cover Art from Norway
Text Tor Kjolberg
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The American progressive metal pioneers Dream Theater promote Norway with a picture of the Kerag Bolt in Norway on the cover of their next album A View from the Top of the World. The album will be released on October 22, and the cover shows fascinating cover art from Norway. The artwork was created by long-time cover collaborator Hugh Syme (Rush, Iron Maiden, Stone Sour).
A View from the Top of the World is the upcoming fifteenth studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater. This is the band’s first album to be recorded at their own studio DTHQ (Dream Theater Headquarters), their first album since Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009).
The Canadian Juno Award-winning graphic artist Hugh Syme is a member of the Premier Artists Collection (PAC) who is best known for his artwork and cover concepts for rock and metal bands. He is also a musician and has appeared on some Rush albums as a keyboard player.
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The Starman logo Syme is notably responsible for all of Rush’s album cover art since 1975’s Caress of Steel as well as creating Rush’s famous Starman logo. In 1983 he told Jeffrey Morgan that he never imagined the band would use it as their main logo.
Additional musicians he has designed and created artwork for include: Iron Maiden, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Celine Dion, Scorpions, Meatloaf, Megadeth, and hundreds more.
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Hugh’s art education came from the Toronto New School of Art in Toronto
The Starman logo
and York University in York, England. In addition to the album covers for which
Cover art for “A View From The Top Of The World”
he is now internationally renowned, Syme has worked on advertisements for such companies as Accenture, Denon, Xerox, AT&T, The Washington Post, Virgin, Bausch & Lomb, Universal Studios and numerous others.
A View from the Top of the World – Cover Art from Norway, read on…
The motif Kjeragbolten (English: Kjerag Bolt) is a boulder on the mountain Kjerag in Sandnes municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The rock itself is a 5-cubic-metre (180 cu ft) glacial deposit wedged in the mountain’s crevasse. It is a popular tourist destination and is accessible without any climbing equipment. However, it is suspended above a 984-metre (3,228 ft) deep abyss. It is also a popular site for base jumping. The boulder is just southwest of the village of Lysebotn, just south of the Lysefjorden.
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Many photographers and visual artists have taken the Kjerag Bolt into their hearts. One of them, Ashley Cameron, has worked with an array of magazines and advertising agencies. Londonbased Cameron has over the past 20 years built a reputation as a studio with a flexible, problem- solving approach.
The image on the right is how he interpreted the Kjerag Bolt.
Model May Hem posing on the Kerag Bolt. Photo: Ashley Cameron
