Description
Described as “arguably the heaviest Queen album”, Queen II marked the end of the first phase of the band’s career. The album combines a heavy rock sound with art rock and progressive rock elements.
The brief he received from the band conceived a black and white theme for the album. The cover features a photograph described by VH1 as “Queen standing in diamond formation, heads tilted back like Easter Island statues” against a black background. The iconic chiaroscuro image of Queen was inspired by a similar photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express.