HR Giger – the creator of the monster from the Alien movies – has died at the age of 74.
The Swiss-born artist failed to recover from injuries caused by a recent fall, SRF reports.
As well as his famous work on Ridley Scott's film Alien – for which he won the Visual Effects Oscar in 1990 – Giger's work was popular with a host of rock musicians.
Korn singer Jonathan Davis uses a microphone stand designed by Giger, while Giger's painting Landscape XX was included as an insert in the artwork for the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. The penis-laden poster was at the centre of an obscenity trial against Kennedys singer Jello Biafra.
More recently, Giger's work graced the cover of two albums by Swiss extreme metal band Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones _and _Melana Chasmata. The band's singer Tom G Warrior recently spoke exclusively to the Metal Hammer Magazine Show on TeamRock Radio, where he described Giger as a “genius”.