3 album covers in our archive
Behind the Covers currently documents 3 Tool album covers from 1996 to 2006. Read together, the entries show how the artwork changed from release to release, with each story identifying the designers, photographers, source material, and design decisions behind the sleeve.
Cover evolution
Stare too long at Tool's 10,000 Days and the two halves of a single face pull apart, blue-black and swarming with eyes. Alex Grey built a portrait to be seen in 3D through glasses baked into the cover, and it topped the Billboard 200 with 564,000 copies in week one.
Visionary artist Alex Grey created Tool's most mystical cover using the Fibonacci sequence and sacred geometry. The translucent anatomical figure opens like layers of consciousness, with each panel revealing deeper spiritual and physical realms through Grey's distinctive psychedelic realism.
Tool guitarist Adam Jones created one of metal's most disturbing covers by combining stop-motion animation techniques with medical imagery and occult symbolism. The ribcage-like structure opening to reveal organs was inspired by his background in special effects for Hollywood horror films.
