Audioslave, Audioslave Album Cover, 2002

The front cover of the eponymous debut album by Audioslave, released on November 19, 2002.

"The brooding nature [of Chris Cornell's voice] was so overwhelming and spoke so clearly of volcanoes - so the overriding question for us was "Where is the nearest volcano? And what should we add to the image to make it more interesting?" Lanzarote in the Canary Islands was selected, as being entirely volcanic..." -- Storm Thorgerson

As is typical for Storm, this image was "done for real" and they created a massive sculptural piece to set into an actual landscape to be photographed. In this case they didn't take it with them to the Canary Islands, instead they shot it at a nearby coal mine in the UK and merged the two pictures. Storm once described the giant piece is "an eternal flame symbolizing how two deceased bands, Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine, lived on in the reincarnation called Audioslave. This shape was turned into a large sculpture made of beaten bronze, like a sounding brass. The little figure is paying homage to the sculpture and acting as both a size and a reference point." 

That is Storm Thorgerson himself standing by the flame! 

Image courtesy of Audioslave. Photography by StormStudios.