In the beautiful work of New York City-based illustrator, designer and typographer, Mario Hugo, finely rendered faces and figures intermingle with various abstract patterns and shapes to create some seriously refined, surreal, and mysterious work that’s all that, and then some.

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I’ve always been a fan of the grotesque style of Crumb, Ratfink, and the like. No small wonder then that I really dig the work of Canadian illustrator Josh Holinaty in all it’s lumpy splendor. Be sure not to miss the fantastic black and white section when you visit his site.

Prog rock had Roger Dean, ’80s death metal had Dan Seagrave, and now, the new wave of American heavy metal has Tom Denney, who creates some of the most intense and intricate album covers since the psychedelic ’70s. Full of writhing monsters, skulls, tentacles, and voluptuous women, Denney’s work harkens back to rock and roll iconography of old, but the California-based artist manages to create work that perfectly encapsulates the dirty crunch and smoke-blurred atmosphere of bands such as Lair of the Minotaur, Kylesa, Sourvein, Soilent Green, and other such bands.

One thing we’ve lost in this MP3 culture is awesome album art. A few people on Flickr have started a group where people pose with their favorite record sleeves and the results are pretty amusing.