Why I decided to keep my original final front cover

I thought that the end final front cover was boring and lack color and I wanted it to be more unique and different so I experimented with other photos that I had already taken,  so I asked people of my peer group suitable for the audience what they thought. I went through each individual photo and asked them which one they thought had a better image and looked more realistic, I was surprised to find that everyone preferred the images with our the blood and preferred them my original finished cover. I've came to the conclusion that because of what my target audience agreed it's important that I pick that cover, although I think the others are more interesting the audience thought the blood was weird and unusual.

Final front cover

One of the attempts

As you can see from these two (2nd image is an example of one other attempt) there is an obvious differences, I wasn't sure which one I preferred until my target audiences decided for me. 

These are the reasons why they may have suggested they preferred the image, they highlighted that they liked the use of photography in the original front cover because it made the magazine look shuttle instead of gothic and it suited better with music style and the house style. 

Also as you can see the text suits and fits a lot better with the first photo because the colour from the image is matched appropriately and it looks less gory. The photos with the blood may offend someone people because they dislike blood or because they find the image disturbing, however others might think its interesting.