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Here is my first review, many of you have asked me to review masterpieces like The Who's Quadrophenia or Tommy, but I decided to choose Paranoid given its historical importance in the Heavy world.
After the first self-titled album, Black Sabbath with Uncle Ozzy and Tony Iommi released "Paranoid." Now, I remember that 1970 was the year of "In Rock" by Deep Purple; Hard Rock was born from the roots of Blues and Rock'n'Roll. The new sound was made up of hard riffs and songs drawn from the greats of Blues, made devastating by the hard and compact sound (see Led Zeppelin II or In Rock). Well, today we always talk about the famous quartet composed of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Uriah Heep, the four pivotal Hard Rock bands that influenced thousands and thousands of bands in the following years. However, Black Sabbath proposed a new sound in the years of the end of the Hippie culture, flower power, and the acids of San Francisco of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, that psychedelic blues we find in works like Happy Trails and Aoxomoxoa is a whole other universe compared to the new music proposed by Black Sabbath. Their first studio work contains songs like "Black Sabbath," "The Wizard," and "N.I.B." a new dark and very hard sound, with lyrics alluding to demons, ghosts, and monsters, all seasoned by Ozzy Osbourne's claustrophobic voice and Tony Iommi's riffs that give a very particular tone to the songs.
Let's talk about the album now, "Paranoid" as I said was released in 1970 and marked the beginning of the success that Black Sabbath would have in the following years. The album opens with a masterpiece like "War Pigs" which begins with powerful riffs and then progresses into solos. From this song alone, we understand that it was Sabbath who invented the Heavy and Doom sound. Hearing these songs today may seem trivial, but they were extremely hard and scandalous at the time, critics snubbed the band from the start and were obviously proven wrong by the astounding sales of the subsequent Masters Of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The second song is the title track "Paranoid," the hit single that begins with another famous riff by Iommi and speaks of the usual fears and claustrophobias of the characters interpreted by Osbourne in the lyrics, like the next "Planet Caravan" with a melancholic and dark voice, the piece that most deviates from the classic Sabbath sound but still has something "Dark." Then comes "Iron Man," Tony Iommi gives us other historic riffs; like "War Pigs," the chorus is repeated after Iommi's solos with an almost "Fantasy" text, another song that will give rise to many genres like Stoner.
"Electric Funeral" starts with distortions and follows more or less the line of "War Pigs" with Ozzy's singing alternating with Iommi's guitar strumming, the track evolves to then return to the starting point. The masterpiece of the album for me is "Hand Of Doom" which will give way to Doom, the song begins with Butler's bass and then explodes into the central riff, and like the other songs, it picks up the dark rhythm of the beginning. This song is a Sabbath classic and one of the most famous bass lines, with lyrics focused on a man's death by overdose. "Rat Salad" is an instrumental track with Ward giving us an excellent performance on the drums, concluding with "Fairies Wear Boots," another heavy track with Ward and Iommi as protagonists, closing this album essential for Heavy Metal music, which gave rise to many subgenres. The subsequent works of Sabbath would be platinum records in various countries, and masterpieces like "Masters Of Reality," "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," and "Sabotage" would launch Heavy into success and give rise to many bands at the end of the 70s that would bring Metal worldwide.
Have mercy if you find many errors, please point them out since I've never done a review before, and I apologize again for the lack of originality, but I couldn't resist given my passion for Sabbath and this masterpiece. Next, I'll do one on The Who as promised.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
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 kain3325
With 'Paranoid' Black Sabbath are at the peak of their creativity, pioneers of a genre that will see them on altars for many years.
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.
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!"
