Limp Bizkit + Creed Make Rolling Stone’s Worst Album Art List

Limp Bizkit, Creed and a handful of other rock artists made Rolling Stone‘s new 50 Worst Album Covers of All Time list.

While an album’s artwork isn’t necessarily as important as its musical content, the design can still have a pretty big effect on the record’s performance. The cover of an album is supposed to grab a prospective listener’s attention, and if it looks bad, they may not be as enticed to listen to it.

Rolling Stone had some specific criteria when compiling the list, and particularly targeted huge acts that had the ability to have a great cover designed for them, but still chose not to.

Queen, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Bon Jovi, Anthrax, Van Halen and Scorpions were some of the artists whose album covers wound up on the list, but Creed and Limp Bizkit managed to land in the Top 3.

Creed’s 2001 studio release, Weathered, was ranked No. 3. The album art was designed by Mark Tremonti‘s brother Daniel Tremonti, and Rolling Stone described it as having “semi-competent Photoshop fakery of the band’s faces being digitally carved into a digital tree.”

Creed, Weathered Album Artwork

Limp Bizkit, on the other hand, took the top spot of the entire list with Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, which came out in 2000. The design was created by the band’s guitarist Wes Borland.

READ MORE: Rock + Metal Album Covers That Had to Be Changed Due to Controversy

“This cover is both tacky and gross, but at least it works as a warning label: What you see is what you get,” the publication snarked.

It may have topped the Worst Album Covers list, but it also topped the album chart when it came out and sold over one million copies in its first week, earning them their second No. 1 record.

So maybe imagery doesn’t correlate with sales that much after all.

See Rolling Stone‘s full list here.

Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water Album Artwork