Ashnikko– American singer, rapper, and songwriter– began a tradition of releasing a halloween-themed song every year in October starting in 2018, titling the series “Halloweenie.” Though she didn’t release a song in 2022, the series made a comeback this year with “Halloweenie V: The Moss King.”
I would recommend listening to any of them, though I will say it might be a bit jarring to enter Ashnikko’s weird world of music through her Halloween songs. She’s a very bold artist who doesn’t hold back when speaking her mind, and she does so in a very humorous and confident way. I thought I would take a look at the Halloweenie covers in comparison to some of the single, EP, and album covers that were being released around the same time. Just by looking at her covers, you can see how her style has evolved over the years.
(trigger warning for some gore/body horror on “Halloweenie II, III, and IV”)
“Halloweenie”
While this song isn’t my favorite in the series, I really enjoyed how the cover is like a Frankenstein’s monster’s amalgamation and distortion of previous song covers. Taking the exaggerated smile from “Nice Girl” and the left eye and T-shirt from “Blow,” songs from her first EP “Unlikeable,” the cover’s hue was shifted from pink to green, with a nice pumpkin placed on top. It’s apparent that this is before the Demidevil era, which we’ll get into shortly.
“Halloweenie II: Pumpkin Spice”
This cover to me is the most difficult to compare to others because it has such a unique art style. One thing I will say though is that you can start to see the transformation to Demidevil. With her iconic pigtails (though we can’t see the bright blue), you can start to see the influence from the “Demidevil” EP and singles that were released leading up to it. One cover that came to mind was the “Hi, It’s Me” EP, where a 3D avatar of Ashnikko/Demidevil is shown.
“Halloweenie III: Seven Days”
In the midst of the Demidevil emergence, with singles like “Tantrum,” “Cry,” and “Daisy” starting to show her iconic look, the cover of “Seven Days” matches the new, 3D digital art style of her character. With bright colors and a different version of the character on each cover, “Seven Days” blends right in, with a bit of extra blood. The cover particularly reminded me of “Cry,” with a similar composition and focus on a round-faced, almost clay-like avatar.
“Halloweenie IV: Innards”
This is where I think Ashnikko started shifting her discography from “Demidevil” to WEEDKILLER, with the cover returning to photography over digital art, though still maintaining the bright color schemes and often bizarre concepts. The only songs that were released at around this time that were reminiscent of a similar style were “Panic Attacks in Paradise”/”Maggots,” which were two singles released together.
“Halloweenie V: The Moss King”
Finally the fifth song in the “Halloweenie” series was released on October 27th, 2023. As a fan, it’s obvious to see the inspiration from her debut album WEEDKILLER.
The album had a lot of simultaneous references to nature and a barren world being consumed and destroyed by the story’s villain the weedkiller, a robotic monster depicted in other cover art for the album. The story of the album follows a fairy called Aster getting vengeance for their family and home’s destruction, eventually leading to a battle between them and the weedkiller.
Featured image by David Menidrey from Unsplash.
