Diabolique

He sits like a king in his own country by the table where he paints, dressed in a black Dismember T-shirt, black trousers and the black hair put together in a ponytail. Behind him a painting is taking form: the Metal Man is sitting behind several ancient tools of science, sad because he's artificial, neither man nor machine. The landscape is sorrowful and dark, with sharp mountains and black waters. The colors used are dark purple, green and blue.

    

Diabolique

The painting is for the Swedish power-metal band Hollow's new album, and it's as much Kristian Wåhlin as it could be. Or as Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity and Jensen of The Haunted and Witchery say: "Kristian is metal. Nobody knows and can create the feeling better than he can."
    Kristian gets embarrassed when I tell him what they've said and looks down at the floor. But then he smiles.
    "I love doing real metal covers, as they were in the 80's when I was a young heavy-metal fan and stood drooling, looking at the coolest covers of Iron Maiden and other bands. That is the kind of music I grew up with, so to paint monsters and dragons and skeletons with a lot of colors is something like a childhood dream come true."

Painted covers of the 80´s

Do you think that the thing with painted covers is going to grow now when there is some kind of a 80´s revival in hard rock and heavy metal? For example, you've painted the covers for both Merciful Faith's and King Diamond's new albums.
    "Well, I don't know. I've been doing this for a few years, and I've had plenty to do all the time. But I've noticed that the type of bands that would like a painted cover has changed throughout the years.

Diabolique

At first there were the death-metal bands, then the black-metal bands, and now most of my clients are bands that play power metal of the 80's. A typical power cover is breathing vanity and destruction, there's a lot of the struggle between good and evil. I guess it probably has to do with the millennium shift."

Porn and motorcycles

Extol

    Although Kristian is the master painter of metal, he's not only doing metal covers. Other things he also is guilty of are business logotypes and restaurant menus. He has air-brushed motorcycle tanks and helped decorate restaurants
    "When I picture myself as an artist, it's not just metal covers I see. I do a lot of other things too, but it usually is the covers that everyone talks about."


And don't forget your entrance into the world of porn! Mikael Stanne told me all about it...
    "He did, did he?" Kristian laughs. "Well, it was a funny thing. A girl called me up and said she was a freelance journalist, and she wondered if she and a photographer could come and ask me some questions. 'Sure,' I said. As soon as they stepped through the door, I felt that there was something odd about the situation. The girl asked me a lot of strange questions about money and girls and all that, and the photographer looked just like a German porn star, you know...

Impious

    "Two weeks later an adult magazine arrived in the mail. And I was on the cover!! The damn girl never told me she was going to sell the story to a porn mag! But very well, it's a good laugh among me and my friends now. It was pretty cool, actually, but it's not something I've told my mom about, if you know what I mean."

The first of Tiamat

Kristian is an almost self-taught artist. He attended the esthetic program in high school, and after that he studied artistic painting at an art school—but he quit after six months, because he already had too many customers.
    "My first cover was for Swedish Tiamat's first album. We used to celebrate New Year's Eve together, and one day Johan [Edlund] asked me if I could do the cover for their record. Then people who'd seen Tiamat's album started to call, and things got moving.

Sepultura

    "I usually get a picture in my mind as soon as I talk with the band in the beginning of working on a painting. The title, the lyrics, the band's image and, of course, the style of music are what I think about and get some kind of feeling from. Then I try to create something out of that feeling, but I don't always know what will come out of it. Once I start painting, the picture has a life of its own."

Is there anyone who hasn't liked the painting?
    "No, actually, I don't think there is. But sometimes it's hard to satisfy everyone. Sometimes the band and the record company have different opinions about the motive of the painting. Then you have to compromise and do something they both would like. But mostly I follow the band's request— I mean, after all, it's their music and their record!
    "Actually, it doesn't matter too much to me what kind of motive there will be. The only thing I really care about is creating some kind of feeling and passing it on through the painting. That's my mission, everything else is up to the viewer."