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Rating: The four members of Sabbath began their musical career in the early 60s in an attempt to avoid humble jobs without prospects, spurred on by the success of another four heroes, the Beatles, who also came from the working class. Despite attending the same school, Ozzy and Tony harbor a mutual dislike. Gezeer at that time studies against his will to become an accountant and knows Tony because they hang around the same neighborhood: he is impressed by his tough-guy aggression. Ironically, Tony's first impression is that Gezeer is completely crazy.
The four, after having served in various local groups, end up in the two most important bands: the Rare Breed, a pseudo-experimental group where Ozzy and Gezeer converge, and the Mythology, a blues band with Tony and Bill. Shortly after, the two groups merge, giving rise to the embryo of the future Sabbath. Our heroes change first to The Heart Blues and then more simply to Heart. When the group seems to have found the right balance, Lommy is offered the opportunity to play with Jethro Tull. We are at the beginning of 1969. Fortunately for Black Sabbath, Tony's collaboration with the Tull is short-lived. He then decides to reunite with his old companions. The drafting of the first album coincides with the group's approach to black magic and the esoteric world: all the members begin reading the poems of H.P. Lovecraft and an Anglo-Saxon book of the twelfth century entitled Beowulf. Meanwhile, the group's popularity grows. It is released in England on February 13, 1970. The English success pushes the record label to release the album overseas as well. The group's image risks exceeding the bounds of what is lawful: satanists are fine, criminals are not.
At the beginning of 1970, the musicians enter the recording studio. Legend has it that after almost all the songs are finished and the title (War Pigs) is decided, the band finds themselves with a couple of free hours during which by chance 'Paranoid' is born with its simple riff and a hastily written text. For Sabbath, it's just an exercise in style, but the producer and technician, seeing a potential hit in the track, release it as a single and, upon realizing its success, decide to give the album the same title, which is published on September 18, 1970. The opening track is War Pigs, an incandescent riff by Iommy that turns into a pounding song punctuated by Ward's snare drum and Osborne's increasingly hypnotic voice, eight minutes of distortion guided by Gezeer's bass. It is followed by Paranoid an actual anthem manifesto. Fast and hard riff, drum and bass travel arm in arm supporting a flawlessly perfect Ozzy. The next Planet Caravan is the first surprise, the rhythm calms suddenly, an almost hypnotic percussion backdrop takes the listener by the hand, the guitar is clean, with a gently fading solo. With Iron Man, however, we return to square one with Ward's bass drum setting a tempo before the guitar, again distorted, does its work. The voice is filtered through a small megaphone when Ozzy proclaims the title, the pace grows, then stops, and again the riff stitches together night visions.
With Electric Funeral the discourse does not change: hefty rock blues, guitar and voice alternate, the verses are still apocalyptic and tell of an atomic disaster. The next Hand of Doom is unsettling and mysterious, all played on Ozzy's voice: it is he who sets the tempo for everyone; then Gezeer's bass introduces the usual tempo change and suddenly you feel like you're entering another song. Rat Salad opens with a nervous guitar feedback stopped suddenly: the piece is in fact a pretext to send the drummer into a short solo.
With 'Paranoid' Black Sabbath are at the peak of their creativity, pioneers of a genre that will see them on altars for many years. Their live shows will be increasingly enriched with satanic symbols until they are imprisoned within a label they can no longer detach from, prisoners of themselves and their music.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Paranoid (02:49)
Finished with my woman
'Cause she couldn't help me with my mind
People think I'm insane
Because I am frowning all the time
All day long I think of things
But nothing seems to satisfy
Think I'll lose my mind
If I don't find something to pacify
Can you help me
Occupy my brain?
Oh yeah
I need someone to show me
The things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true happiness
I must be blind
Make a joke and I will sigh
And you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel
And love to me is so unreal
And so as you hear these words
Telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life
I wish I could but it's too late
03 Planet Caravan (04:25)
We sail through endless skies
Stars shine like eyes
The black night sighs
The moon in silver dreams
Falls down in beams
Light of the night
The Earth a purple blaze
Of sapphire haze
In orbit always
While down below the trees
Bathed in cool breeze
Silver starlight
Breaks dawn from night
And so we pass on by
The crimson eye
Of great god Mars
As we travel the universe
04 Iron Man (05:55)
Has he lost his mind
Can he see or is he blind
Can he walk at all
Or if he moves will he fall
Is he alive or dead
Has he thoughts within his head
We'll just pass him there
Why should we even care
He was turned to steel
In the great magnetic field
When he traveled time
For the future of mankind
Nobody wants him
He just stares at the world
Planning his vengeance
That he will soon unfurl
Now the time is here
For Iron Man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved
Nobody wants him
They just turn their heads
Nobody helps him
Now he has his revenge
Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron Man lives again!
05 Electric Funeral (04:49)
Reflex in the sky
Warn you you're gonna die
Storm coming, you'd better hide
From the atomic tide
Flashes in the sky
Turns houses into sty
Turns people into clay
Radiation minds decay
Robot minds of robot slaves
Lead them to atomic graves
Plastic flowers, melting sun
Fading moon falls apart
Dying world of radiation,
Victims of mad frustration
Burning globe of obscene fire
Like electric funeral pyre
Buildings crashing down
To Earth's cracking ground
Rivers turn to wood
Ice melts into blood
Earth lies in debris
Clouds cry for the dead
Terrifying rain
Ease the burning pain
Electric Funeral
Electric Funeral
Electric Funeral
Electric Funeral
And so in the sky
Shines the electric eye
Supernatural king
Takes Earth under his wing
Heaven's golden chorus sings
Hell's angels flap their wings
Evil souls fall to Hell
Ever trapped in burning cells!
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Other reviews
By 2+2=5
Every seed of what the Heavy scene would become from 1970 to today is here.
War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man: an encyclopedia from which no artist belonging to any fringe of the Heavy-Rock scene can deny having drawn.
By luca reed
Black Sabbath infused their music with a probably unconscious revolution that would alter the roots of the hard sound and reflect in all future heavy metal.
The lyrics actually combined the baroque-decadent fascination for English and non-English dark literature with the threatening sense of 'malevolent' everyday life of the present.
By Axlspark
"To highlight the greatness of this band among many successes and masterpieces, there is an album, certainly the greatest of Black Sabbath: 'Paranoid'."
"Giving 5 stars to this album seemed like an insult because the actual score it deserves is 10 with honors."
By Battlegods
"Black Sabbath can be defined as the founders of doom, dark, and evil sounds which were later adopted in the metal of the eighties."
"The album is a beautiful lesson of true hard rock, still today!"
By Nesci
"'Paranoid' is the album of fame, the one that definitively consolidated Sabbath’s success."
"'War Pigs' is an immortal classic, with an unforgettable riff and a desperate cry against war shouted in Sabbath’s very particular style."
