Does Conquest's album "Frozen Sky" reference the "Forgotten Realms" books?

Question

A while back, I shared a song to a friend, who upon seeing the video's thumbnail, immediately asked me whether the band had ripped off the cover of Jean Rabe's Red Magic (1991), the third novel in the Forgotten Realms: The Harpers books.

The song was taken from the album "Frozen Sky" (2005) by Conquest, now know as W. Angel's Conquest, a relatively unknown power metal band from Ukraine. Here's a link to the album playlist on YouTube.

When putting the two covers side-by-side, there's no denying that the wizard is the exact same one.

I have not read the book (nor do I know much about Forgotten Realms, for that matter), but I'm curious as to whether the use of that book cover was plain plagiarism or an homage.

Did the band ever comment on that, or could it be that the songs themselves refer to the book's events? Or is that wizard illustration maybe taken from somewhere else, thus being somehow right-free or something?

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Research done:

• The lyrics don't strike me as matching much of what I can gather of the book, from various reviews. Although I can't figure out what the guy is saying in the intro (timestamp);
• The band's Facebook page didn't yield much for me, but it could have been commented on in Ukrainian. I haven't contacted the band;
• The Forgotten Realms wiki page for the book doesn't mention the album, as far as I know;
• Googling "red magic" "frozen sky" yields 95 results, this one being the only one seemingly relevant, with someone asking "Red Magic album art. Did they get permission to use it?", without a reply.

Answer 1

The image in question contains two cropped and heavily re-coloured pictures composited together; 'Red Wizard' by Fred Fields and 'Tower' by Ciruelo Cabral

I've found a copy of the exterior of the CD cover which contains no credit to either artist nor a copyright tag that identifies the current licence-holders Wizards of the Coast, both of which are typically, but not always, required when you licence a picture from WotC. In addition the artist's signatures have also been obscured.

I've now spoken with both artists (via email) and I am advised that neither is aware that the pictures were correctly licensed. Both artists are making their own inquiries but I strongly suspect that the simplest explanation is that these images were used without appropriate permission.