High On Fire & Sleep’s Matt Pike announces illustrated lyric book

High On Fire frontman and Sleep guitarist Matt Pike has a new illustrated lyric book coming out, Head On A Pike: The Illustrated Lyrics of Matt Pike, on November 9 via Rare Bird (pre-order). The announcement reads:

Head On A Pike is a retrospective of musical poetry that spans twenty years of Pike's career, beginning in 1998 with the album The Art of Self Defense up to the latest 2019 release, the Grammy Award–winning record Electric Messiah. Every chapter features brand-new artistic interpretations from the minds and hearts of an incredible cast of illustrators, tattooers, printmakers and painters. Artists Arik Roper, David V. D'Andrea, Santos, Brian Mercer, Skinner, Jondix, Stash, Tim Lehi, Jordan Barlow and Derrick Snodgrass created brand new, never-before-seen works specifically inspired by each album, including one large illustration to define the chapter ahead and two additional vignettes that are directly inspired by the songs.
“Matt Pike’s lyrics are just as important and powerful as his riffs, and his words deserve to be celebrated alongside the fantastic imagery that the artists have put together in this book,” says Tyson Cornell, Publisher, Rare Bird. “Head On A Pike is a natural for any Sleep, High on Fire or Matt Pike fan, but the work is also relevant to greater conversations around lyrical poetry, formal and free verse and tattoo inspirations for years to come.”
These prolific artists transport the reader further into a far-away landscape of ominous Lovecraftian entities, shrouded in wondrous and esoteric darkness. Together, they have redefined the way we perceive underground doom metal these past twenty years, and it is our honor to showcase them together along with the incredible written word of Pike, who has influenced and inspired an entire genre of music.