Scorpions Blackout

A mental patient in white gauze with bent forks in his eye's screaming, on a light blue background.

The Scorpions, formed in 1965, is a German hard rock/heavy metal band. The most constant member of the band is Rudolf Schenker, guitarist. Klause Meine is also a fairly consistent member, as singer, he has appeared on all of the band’s studio albums. The band really started to come into its own in the late 70s and early 80s.

Blackout is the eighth studio album for Scorpion and was released in 1982 on both EMI Germany Records and Mercury Records in the United States. The vocalist Klaus Meine had lost his voice during the writing of the album. Meine underwent surgery on his vocal cords and was eventually able to record all of the songs on the album.

The album was so popular that is went Gold on June 24, 1982 and Platinum on March 8, 1984. All of the music on Blackout was composed by Rudolf Schenker, who also played the rhythm guitar, lead guitar, string acoustic guitar and sang backup vocal throughout the album.  Other performers were Klause Meine, lead vocals, Matthias Jabs, lead, rhythm and acoustic guitar, Frances Buchhoz, bass, and Herman Rarebell, drums, percussion and backup vocals.

The artwork on the cover of the album is a self-portrait of the artist Gottfried Helnwein. Helnwein’s work is concerned with political, social and psychological topics. He also works in various mediums including paint, photography, instillation, and performance. The self-portrait for Blackout was of himself as a screaming bandaged man blinded by forks created in 1982.