Nightmare is Avenged Sevenfold's fourth album which was dedicated to James 'The Rev' Sullivan, Avenged Sevenfold's drummer, who died on December 28 2009.
This particular album cover is an illustration. The illustration is surrealist as it's not trying to depict reality. The image looks fairtalesque as the small bright white full moon, stars in the night sky and demonic figure lurking over the small girl gives the audience that impression.
The album art works main focus is on a young girl in bed being tormented by what appears to be her nightmares. The colours used in the artwork helps depict a nightmare. Dark blues and black are a convention of a nightmarish image and these colours have been used on the album art work of this particular album cover in order to keep these conventions in tact. The use of dark colours help create an atmosphere of fear and eeriness.
The girl is the central image of the album cover. Her huddled up pose and dilated eyes indicate to the audience that she is afraid. We see her holding a toy teddy bear close to her face which is a stereotypical image of when a small child is scared. The stereotypical view is that a child will hold a treasured item, usually a cuddly toy, close to them when they are afraid which is what the girl is doing in this particular image.
The gravestone and cross featured behind the girl in the image could be sign of respect for 'The Rev', Avenged Sevenfold's drummer, who passed away before the release of the album thus the album was dedicated to his memory.
The headboard of the bed which the girl is laid in is made from bones which relates to the theme of death in the album artwork and also refers to the Grim Reaper type character included in the artwork. The demonic Grim Reaper character also links back to the theme of death as the Grim Reaper is a personification of death. This links back to images of the gravestone and cross along with the fact that the album is dedicated to the death of 'The Rev'.
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