Mezzanine 1998 Massive Attack

Massive Attack’s Mezzanine album was released in 1998 by the label Circa Records. This album cover was a creative collaboration between Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, art director Tom Hingston, and photographer Nick Knight. Robert Del Naja found inspiration in images of arachnids and insects, Interested in the patterns and textures they used these close up images of spider skin as references.  The expanded image of a stag beetle as seen on the album cover was photographed by Nick Knight at the Natural History Museum of London. The album art helped establish the band’s identity, and reflect the tone of the album. The minimalist, B&W, bolded text, high contrast photo composite create a very memorable image for the successful album. Today, the album cover is held in a collection at the MOMA, with other works by the relevant artist and band member Robert Del Naja. His work prior to the band was as a graffiti artist, involved in the stencil street art scene of Bristol during the 80’s. He has often been compared to, or theorized to be Banksy because of similarities in art style.  He continued to make several other cover art pieces of Massive Attack, and other bands. 

Potter, Jordan. “How Massive Attack Created the Album Artwork for ‘Mezzanine.’” Far Out Magazine, April 20, 2022. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/massive-attack-album-artwork-mezzanine/.

rockdoc999. “Robert Del Naja–Musician and Artist.” recordart, January 29, 2020. https://recordart.net/2019/03/27/robert-del-naja-musician-and-artist/.

Chemam, Melissa. “Bristol’s Original Graffiti Artists - Reader’s Digest.” Medium, July 19, 2021. https://melissachemam.medium.com/bristols-original-graffiti-artists-reader-s-digest-17f6b895ae33.