In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the Arik Roper artwork for the new High on Fire record, Snakes for the Divine. As if you needed me to tell you it rules:

Fucking killer. I want to get a poster of it, travel back in time and put it up on my 14-year-old self’s bedroom wall and say, “Listen up you little bastard! You don’t know what the hell this is yet, but you spend the next decade and a half staring at it and then maybe you’ll be worthy enough to find out.”

Snakes for the Divine is out Feb. 23 on E1 Music. I wanna be friends with it.

Acclaimed NYC visual artist and illustrator Arik Roper‘s work has become an essential part of the aesthetic to underground heavy (that’s not to say “stoner”) rock and doom. Posters, album covers, shirt designs for the likes of Sleep (both Jerusalem and Dopesmoker), Southern Lord Recordings, Rise Above Records, StonerRock.com, Buzzov*en, Eyehategod, High on Fire, Boris, Ancestors, Mammatus and countless others have made Roper‘s trademark epic and highly detailed style a visual staple every bit as important as Orange amps blasting out Sabbath riffs. There are many albums that just wouldn’t be the same without it.

With one book — Mushroom Magick: A Visionary Field Guide — already under his belt and ever-more praise and exposure being heaped upon his work, Roper‘s growing reputation has him high in the running for one of this generation’s most recognizable artists in or out of the metal underground. His pieces maintain signature elements, like common wavelengths running through them, while subject matter and inspiration vary widely. Adaptable and distinctive, he shows not only the technical development attained from his time at New York‘s School of the Visual Arts, but a natural talent which can come only with time, practice and innate ability.

Roper was kind enough recently to take some time out and discuss via email his artistic process and evolution, how he got started drawing and which piece of classic cover art he most wishes had been his own. Interview is after the jump. Enjoy.

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Taken from the DVD Such Hawks, Such Hounds and posted by the good hardworking folks at the Malleus Rock Art Lab comes this clip focusing on the visuals of modern psychedelia and stoner rock. In it we get to see Malleus, Arik Roper, Stephen O’Malley and more. Pretty killer. Enjoy, and when you’re done, head over to suchhawkssuchhounds.com and buy a copy of the movie. It’s all about education, man.