How We’re Creating the Visual World of the New Alterium Album 🎬
- Jul 30
- 7 min read
In the first part of this series, I took you through the musical journey behind our new Alterium album: from songwriting and pre-production to recording, mixing and mastering.
But what happens once the music is finally finished? Well... a lot more than you might think.
You might think the album is now ready to be released. In reality, it has only found its voice. It still needs a face, a visual identity and an entire world around it. All of this allows people to recognise the atmosphere of the album before they have even heard the first note.
This next phase involves artists, photographers, costumes, locations, sets, lighting, video production and, of course, another significant financial investment.
So, in this second part, I’d like to take you behind the scenes of everything that gives an album its visual identity.
1. Artwork: Giving the Album Its Face 🎨
Long before you press play, the very first thing you’ll experience is the album cover.
Finding the right artist is never easy. We spend a lot of time looking through portfolios, discussing different visual directions and trying to find someone whose artistic style truly matches the atmosphere of the music.
Once we’ve chosen the artist, we prepare a detailed creative brief. We discuss the overall concept behind the album and its title, the characters and environments we want to portray, and the general colour palette.
After that, I like to leave plenty of creative freedom to the artist. After all, that’s their profession, and they can usually come up with ideas that are even better than the ones we originally imagined.
Once the cover artwork is finished, however, the job is far from over.
The illustration becomes the foundation for almost everything else connected to the album: the booklet pages, social media graphics, promotional posters and flyers, merchandise visuals, our new concert backdrop and any additional stage visuals we might create during the album cycle.
A great album cover isn’t simply a beautiful image. It becomes part of the album’s identity and, in many cases, remains connected to the music for decades.
For this record, we decided to work once again with Aleh Zielankievič, who also created the stunning artwork for our Stormrage EP. We absolutely loved what he did for that release, and we really hope you’ll love the new artwork just as much as we do.
Commissioning the cover artwork together with all the related graphic design usually costs somewhere between €1,000 and €2,000.
2. Photoshoots: Building the Visual Identity 📸
Alongside the artwork, the new band photos will also define the entire era of the album.
Whenever I think about my favourite bands, I can instantly picture a specific promotional photo and immediately know which album cycle it belongs to.
That’s because a band’s visual identity usually reflects the mood of the album artwork, the music videos and the overall aesthetic of that particular era.
A professional photoshoot is therefore much more than simply putting on nice clothes and standing in front of a camera.
Every detail has to be carefully planned and organised. The outfits, makeup, hairstyles and location all need to work together and tell the same story.
Those photos will become our calling card for the next few years. They’ll appear in magazines, on festival posters, promotional flyers, websites, streaming platforms and countless social media posts, so it’s incredibly important that they represent the album in the best possible way.
The costs of a professional photoshoot can vary enormously.
Renting a photography studio usually costs between €300 and €500. Shooting outdoors can be free, although that depends on many factors, including the location, permits and, of course, the weather.
Then there are the outfits.
They’re difficult to budget because sometimes I’m lucky enough to find amazing secondhand pieces, while at other times I need to order from specialised alternative fashion brands, where a complete outfit rarely costs less than €300.
Professional makeup and hairstyling generally add another €300. And, of course, there’s the photographer, whose fee usually ranges between €500 and €1,000, depending on the project and the amount of postproduction involved.
When everything is added together, a professional photoshoot can easily become another significant investment. However, it is an investment that helps define the visual identity of an album for years to come.
3. Music Videos: Bringing the Songs to Life 🎬
Music videos are another key element in defining the identity of an album.
Just like the artwork and the photos, they help create the visual world surrounding the music. They’re also often what people remember most clearly from a particular album cycle.
A music video may last only a few minutes, but preparing those few minutes involves an incredible number of decisions, people and expenses.
Choosing the Right Location
The first question is usually whether we should shoot in a studio or in a real location.
Both options have their advantages and disadvantages.
Finding the perfect real location is often one of the biggest challenges. First, you need to find the right contacts. Then you have to obtain all the necessary permits, which unfortunately aren’t always granted. Finally, you have to hope that the rental fee fits within your budget.
Location rentals, whether they’re professional film studios, historical buildings, castles, abbeys or other venues, usually range anywhere between €300 and €1,500 per day.
In many cases, the same rates used for weddings or private events also apply to film productions.
Even filming somewhere that looks like a “free” location isn’t necessarily free.
Technically, if you want to film in a protected forest or natural park, you should obtain permission first. And don’t get me started on the paperwork we had to go through to film the Of War and Flames video at Lago di Tovel!
The same often applies if you want to use drones.
For the new album, we’re currently planning one video in a professional studio and another in a real location.
Sets and Props
A beautiful location alone is often not enough.
Think about the Drag Me to Hell video. We used six large antique style candle holders, and to create an even stronger atmosphere, I placed more than 150 candles along the staircase.
And that’s not even mentioning the flames, which came from a rented professional system for fire effects.
Props and set dressing like these usually cost somewhere between €500 and €1,000 per video, depending on how ambitious the production is.
Lighting and Special Equipment
Unless you’re filming in a fully equipped studio, and fortunately many studios are, you’ll probably need to rent additional lighting, smoke machines, wind machines and sometimes even generators to power everything on location.
For a relatively straightforward production, these additional technical requirements usually cost another €300 to €800.
The price can increase significantly if you’re aiming for something more elaborate.
Costumes, Makeup and Hairstyling
The same considerations I mentioned in the photoshoot section apply to music videos as well.
The costumes, makeup and hairstyles all need to match the visual identity of the album. They also have to remain consistent across the artwork, photos and videos throughout the entire promotional cycle.
In other words, none of these elements exists in isolation. Everything has to feel as though it belongs to the same world.
Video Production
For this new album, we’ll once again be working with our good friend Matteo Ermeti, who has directed every Alterium music video released so far.
Production costs vary enormously depending on the complexity of the project. Important factors include the number of shooting days, travel, accommodation, equipment, postproduction and whether visual effects are required.
As a general rule, a relatively simple professional music video starts at around €2,000, but the final budget can easily grow depending on the production.
For example, Stormrage required extensive VFX work, which naturally increased both the production time and the overall cost.
Travel, Accommodation and Food
Finally, there are all the practical expenses that people rarely think about.
The band has to travel, sleep somewhere and eat during the shoot. Since we all live in different parts of Italy, these costs add up surprisingly quickly.
Even when we keep the budget as low as possible, it’s difficult to spend less than €800.
And that’s without considering actors or extras, which, fortunately for these upcoming videos, we’re not planning to use!
When you add everything together, it becomes easy to understand how even a relatively “simple” music video can become one of the biggest investments in an album campaign.
But when it’s done right, it also becomes one of the most powerful ways to bring a song to life.
More Than Music
Artwork, photos and music videos are not simply decorative additions surrounding an album.
Together, they create its visual language. They help transform a collection of songs into a complete world with its own atmosphere, characters and identity.
When all these elements work together, they can make the listener feel connected to the album before the music has even started. Hopefully, they make that connection even stronger once it does.
But even after the music and visual world are complete, the work is far from over.
Coming Next: Promotion, Festivals and the Reality of Touring 🚐
In the third and final part of this series, coming next month, I’ll take you behind the scenes of the part that almost nobody sees: promoting the album and bringing the music to the stage.
How much work goes into a promotional campaign? What does it really cost a young band to perform at a festival? Where does the money from a concert ticket actually go?
And why can joining a European tour, even alongside an established band, sometimes cost the opening act tens of thousands of euros and leave them deeply in debt?
I’ll also share some real figures from tour offers Alterium has received and explain why opportunities that look incredible from the outside aren’t always financially sustainable.
Some of those numbers may surprise you.
The music may be finished, but the real battle to bring it into the world is only beginning. ⚔️
