Bullet For My Valentine - "The Poison" - Album Cover Analysis

This album cover is very effective in putting across the concept of the band name for the release of their debut album. The background of the cover is black, with the only other colour (besides the band name/logo in white) in it being the colour red (which usually represents anger/violence/blood). The red is used to show the light on the girl lying dead with the splatters of blood on the floor. This makes the body the most visible thing to us on the cover. It arises the immediate question of how did she die? Murder or suicide? We can see the shadow of her assumed lover over her corpse. We suspect that somehow he is the cause of her death, whether he was the one who actually killed her or he did something that pushed her to kill herself. His right arm is being used to lean against the wall as if it has pained him to witness this sight of his dead loved one. Personally I feel pulled towards the possibility the girl committed suicide as the way the gun in the band’s logo has been positioned next to the out stretched hand of the girl. Coincidental or well planned co ordination of the album cover makes it look as if she’s been the one to use and drop the gun.
Another aspect of the cover to think about is the position of the man’s shadow on her body. It looks like the girl is lying naked on the floor aside from her shoes. This gives the idea that the man was a part of her, was what kept her safe maybe, warm, comfortable. Now she is dead and likely to be because of him. All of this gives us the strong impression that all this emotion and violence is reflected in the band’s music.