In May 2017 Metal Hammer began work on a Stone Sour cover to celebrate the release of their new album 'Hydrograd'.
Corey Taylor has been particularly outspoken and this was inspired by his thoughts on President Trump. So for this cover we planned to create a world where Corey was President with Josh Rand as his Vice President. So I worked out how this should look in rough sketches before working closely with photographer John McMurtrie who was to take the pictures of both Corey and Josh in a London studio and help bring the idea together.
Once John had taken images, Magictorch recreated the Oval office using a 3D model. They adjusted all aspects of positioning and lighting with a solid film like finish to make it look how I’d hoped it would be. Even adding in some hidden, and not so hidden, details for the fans of the band. For example one particular detail was that due to timing Metal Hammer couldn't get the whole band involved in the photoshoot so to solve this we place pictures of them on the desk and in the background.
