Heavy, produced by Battleaxe Records, is Swollen Members' fourth album since 1999. Heavy was released in Canada -- where the band is already a huge success, winning many awards -- on Oct. 21. It's set to drop in the U.S. on Nov. 18. The band has a lot to be excited about: In addition to the new album they have recently linked up with Virgin Records signing a deal for future albums.

There are 14 tracks and a bonus DVD with six of the band's videos including Breath , the video Todd McFarlane and TME President Terry Fitzgerald directed and produced last year. This video was nominated for four 2003 MuchMusic Video Music Awards and won Best Rap Video.

The cover project started with a request for Todd to do caricatures of the faces of band members Mad Child, Rob the Viking, Moka Only and Prevail. Todd and Spawn artist Greg Capullo nailed their likenesses; once the group saw the drawings, they asked for more. They wanted characters created for each member capturing their names and personalities. The characters went over so well they decided to create two covers, one for Canada and one for the U.S./worldwide release. Since they already have a great following in Canada, the band chose the character drawing for that. The head shot drawing will be used for the U.S. market as a way of introducing the band.

For more information about Swollen Members, check out their Web site at www.swollenmembers.com . To see how the drawings evolved, check out the sketches that were done to get to the final product.