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THE REVIEW
The album I reviewed is one of the masterpieces of hard rock from the seventies, namely "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. Alongside bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Grand Funk, and Uriah Heep, they have written fundamental pages in the history of music.
Black Sabbath can be defined as the founders of doom, dark, and evil sounds which were later adopted in the metal of the eighties by bands like Mercyful Fate, Candlemass, Anvil, Angelwitch. Their songs talked about occultism, rituals, and witchcraft, causing a major scandal but also generating greater interest from young people. After the imminent success of the self-titled debut album, which already featured rather slow and heavy rhythms, dark atmospheres, and slight blues influences, they further perfected their sound on this second album by slightly changing the content of the lyrics, for example by criticizing war and exploring science fiction.
The beginning is entrusted to the famous and lengthy "War Pigs" where you can immediately feel the powerful attack of Tony Iommi's guitar, which then gives way to Ozzy's voice and a series of rhythm variations. Following this, we arrive at the immortal title track, namely "Paranoid". This song is a true flagship of the band in concerts. We move to calmer territories with "Planet Caravan", a track that was also covered by Pantera on "Far Beyond Driven". It catapults us into a martial atmosphere thanks to a fantastic guitar arpeggio and with Ozzy's voice taking on a rather strange, almost surreal effect. After this moment of calm, we return to the more traditional canons of the quartet with the famous "Iron Man", where we can appreciate Iommi's immortal riff, another great performance by Ozzy, and a rather unusual and sci-fi-themed lyric.
The fifth track is the sinister "Electric Funeral". "Hand of Doom" remains steadfast in slow and cadenced rhythms. "Rat Salad" is an instrumental song where we can notice a rather interesting solo by the talented Bill Ward, while the last track is the magnificent "Fairies Wear Boots" which begins with guitar parts almost reminiscent of Santana while the rest of the song is historical and a classic hard rock piece. This masterpiece closes in a grand manner. A beautiful lesson of true hard rock, still today!
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Summary by Bot
Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' stands as a foundational hard rock album from the 1970s, influencing doom metal's rise. The review highlights iconic tracks like 'War Pigs' and 'Iron Man,' noting the band's evolution from occult themes to war and sci-fi lyrics. Musical performances by Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bill Ward are praised, underscoring the album's lasting significance and classic status in rock history.Tracklist Lyrics Videos
Black Sabbath
English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1968, widely credited as pioneers of heavy metal and led musically by guitarist Tony Iommi.91 Reviews
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 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."
