On April 26, 1971, Black Sabbath celebrated an unexpected victory with a historic concert. The 1970 ban on their appearances at London's Royal Albert Hall was suddenly lifted a year later after the success of Paranoid. To mark the occasion, the band broke their two-month silence in Britain with a concert for their faithful fans.
The artwork by Massiveface is his interpretation of Black Sabbath's classic "Iron Man" from Paranoid. The meaning "Iron Man" is not about a superhero – it's a self-fulfilment prophecy. It’s about a man who goes into the future and witnesses the apocalypse. Going back to his own time, he encounters a rogue magnetic field, which turns him into a mute, steel creature. Unable to talk, he still tries to warn people about the impending end of the world, but is only mocked for his troubles. Angry and bitter, he eventually causes the devastation he’d warned everyone about. Ultimately the would-be hero becomes the villain.
The piece is based on my interpretation of Iron Man, the idea of a tortured, other worldly being sent to help humans but mocked and ridiculed when he turned to iron. I wanted to give him an ancient godlike appearance. I thought this paired well with the Colosseum like architecture of the Royal Albert Hall as a reference to Black Sabbath's 1971 London gig.- Massiveface
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