After teasing Opeth fans with a Facebook status telling them they had something show in half an hour (winky face and all), Opeth has now released the cover art for their upcoming album Heritage. According to the Opeth website, the art was done by “long time friend” Travis Smith.

Smith did an interesting job, clearly. It’s quite pretty artistically, and I pick up a bit of religious symbolism. Humanity picking forbidden fruit from the tree, resulting in the city burning and them dying. Or something like that. Also of interest is the fact that each band member’s head is on the tree, and what makes that especially amusing is that it appears the head on the far right that is falling out of the tree appears to be keyboardist Per Wiberg. What makes this noteworthy is that this is Per’s last album with Opeth, as he was basically let go from the band after recording the album. Now, his dismissal will forever be represented in the Heritage artwork by him literally falling out of the Opeth tree.

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