The arcane alphabets of Black Sabbath

The arcane alphabets of Black Sabbath


The photography for the cover was prepared with the idea that the album would be titled War Pigs (after the song), however the title was changed to Paranoid at the last minute and the short turnaround meant there was no time to prepare new photography, resulting in an unintended mismatch of imagery and text. As with the previous albums, the name of the band and the name of the album are set in the same size and face. The Vol 4 design came full circle recently when the digital VolumeFour typeface inspired by the album cover was used for promotional materials and on-stage graphics for Black Sabbath’s final show, “Back to the Beginning”, on July 5, 2025 – less than three weeks before the passing of Ozzy Osbourne.

Author: Nick Sherman


Published at: 2025-07-26 21:05:55

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