Artwork
The album cover features a monochrome photograph of Ozzy Osbourne with hands raised, taken during a Black Sabbath concert. The album's original release (on Vertigo in the UK, on Warner Bros. in the US and on Nippon Phonogram in Japan) features a gatefold sleeve with a page glued into the middle. Each band member is given their own photo page, with the band on-stage (and photographed from behind) at the very centre. The reissues on WWA and NEMS duplicated both the gatefold sleeve and, unusually, the pages.
A subsequent version of Vol. 4 was released with different cover art under the name "Children of the Grave". This alternate version of the album contained the same tracks as the original along with a live version of "Children of the Grave" as a final bonus track.
The album's original cover art has proved iconic, and is parodied on the 1992 Peaceville Volume 4, the 1992 Volume Two EP by the band Sleep, the 1994 Planet Caravan EP by Pantera and the 2007 album Vol. 1 by the band Church of Misery. In the liner notes of Vol. 4, Black Sabbath thank "the great COKE-Cola Company", another blatant drug reference. Also during the Vol. 4 era, bassist Geezer Butler sported a sticker on his white bass that stated "Enjoy CoCaine", a parody of the slogan "Enjoy Coca-Cola."
Read more about this topic: Black Sabbath Vol. 4