Pestilence has addressed the use of artificial intelligence in their artworks. The band shared a statement on Facebook about the matter.
They noted that large budgets for traditional paintings are now a thing of the past. “First, huge budgets for real paintings are a thing of the past. Secondly, the idea of having mutilated bodies, zombies and extreme gore are also a thing of the past for Pestilence. When you want to survive in the nowadays industry you have to adapt and Pestilence has always been known to look ahead and never fall back into the old habits not just music style wise but every other new release has had a new approach to our own musically, unlike most acts that rely on their older legacy.”
Pestilence believes that in order to survive in today’s music industry, people must adapt. “When we released “Levels of Perception” that was aimed to revisited the demo style recording, that was asked for by many fans, they didn’t like the production they asked for themselves. With “Portals” we will, again, follow our own path and you could really dig it. As an example this “drawing” was considered to be amazing on my personal FB site. This is also A.I., and is an amazing piece of art. Not the albumcover by the way!!!”
The band finished their statement with, “And now the real question: would you not buy and album with killer production and song just because a cover is A.I.? Then you are not listening to our compositions that are fully handmade. But rather are concerned with the 40× past you have been living in. Start embracing the future of music that is Pestilence.”
While the current situation of Pestilence is a clash between visual artists and musicians, many rockers also similarly used AI to get a new perspective for their new album covers. Bands like August Burns Red and Currents have also used AI for their album covers.
However, there has been strong opposition to AI-generated music. Over 200 rock artists have united to protest it. Pearl Jam, Jon Bon Jovi, T-Rex, Greta Van Fleet, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, R.E.M., Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Don Was, and the estate of Frank Sinatra teamed up under the Artist Rights Alliance to demand that A.I. developers, tech companies, platforms, and digital music services stop using artificial intelligence to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.
