High on Fire, ‘Snakes for the Divine’ — Album Art of the Week

High on Fire's fifth album, 'Snakes for the Divine,' on Koch Records, continues the band's raw forays into stoner metal that started with their 2000 debut, 'The Art of Self Defense.' New York City-based illustrator Arik Roper designed the cover, but not before filtering through idea after idea.

"I'll just say that several versions of this cover were done before we chose this final," Roper told Noisecreep. "I did different earlier versions based on other ideas, partly due to the fact that the album title wasn't determined in the early stages. I could fill a volume with the conceptual sketches from this project."

Roper used watercolors and gouache, which is a quick-drying, opaque paint. "In the end, the concept was was the band's, "Roper continued. "They wanted an image of a woman being dragged down by snakes, the snakes representing 'sin (and knowledge),' and the female figure representing both Eve and Lilith from the Old Testament."

High on Fire will tour the U.S. in April to support 'Snakes for the Divine'.