Finnish melodic death metal act NORTHER and Metal Hammer (Germany) have teamed up to give you the chance to create the artwork for the upcoming Norther album, Circle Regenerated, which is set for an early 2011 release

The band comments on the new album and contest:

“The Norther crew is about to enter Astia Studios in October to record our 6th full length album, with master-producer Anssi Kippo (CHILDREN OF BODOM). This time we wanted to do something different with our upcoming album artwork. We wanted to involve our fans in a creative way! Therefore we’ve decided to team up with Metal Hammer Germany to announce an open competition - to design our next album cover art!

If you have a steady hand and can draw or paint like Da Vinci, take part and submit your work to our label Century Media until October 15th. We and the Century Media guys will select the top 10 candidates, who will enter the next stage of the contest which will be a public voting on Century Media’s home page. There you’ll be able to vote for the best cover-artwork until October 31st. The artwork which got the most votes will be selected as our next album cover.

In addition to the first prize Metal Hammer offers some great prizes for the four runner-ups which will include next to an exclusive Meet & Greet tons of other goodies. You can check out a full list here!

Here’s also some more info on our upcoming album: It will be named Circle Regenerated, so the cover should somehow reflect that theme. To give you some more clues about our brand, Norther is an old English word and is a "strong wind blowing from the north". We've also heard that listening to our music helps getting in the right mood ;)

We are super excited and expect to see some killer stuff! Let the battle begin!!! Norther.”

Please make sure to read the following instructions carefully as otherwise we can’t guarantee to consider your submission:

Submit your cover artwork with your name, address and phone number to: competition@centurymedia.de (subject line: Norther Contest) until October 15th.

Furthermore the cover artwork must be delivered with the right specifications so please take your time and read the instructions here.