I’ve avoided this story for two days now due to my inability to verify the information in it, but now that it is starting to make it’s way around music news sites, I thought I should say something.
A couple of days ago, the image below first appeared on my site’s forums, posted there by a fan who found it on Flickr. Was apparently posted by a guy from Warner. Anyway, I immediately contacted management for Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and my contact at Rhino.
I was told that the image was merely “one of the candidates” for the cover art to the new Heaven & Hell album. They also told me that the final decision on what is the cover art has yet to be made. I was told “You’ll have an official cover art image as soon as it’s decided upon”.
So what is this image then? It very well may be the real cover art, it might not be. Assuming they’re telling the truth, and not blowing smoke to divert attention from a leak, then this is just one of an unknown number of possibilities.
Additionally, I was told late last week that the cover art was likely to be released on Tue March 3rd, which didn’t happen. We shall see soon enough.
My comments on the art.. If it is real, I’m not sure I like the usage of the band member names on the front like that. They’ve never been there before on a Black Sabbath record. Someone on my forums pointed out that the Live at Radio City release had their names on it too, but given that was cover art which did not have “traditional artwork” and also was the first release under the moniker “Heaven & Hell”, I didn’t much mind that. I consider compilations and live albums to be “second citizen” releases anyway. They’re not full albums, which is what this is, so I think it deserves more traditional cover art (in other words, lose the horizontal banner).
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