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A few months after the release of their first album, Black Sabbath returned to the recording studio and produced, in the same year, their second album, "Paranoid". It is the album of fame, the one that definitively consolidated Sabbath's success thanks, curiously, to what is undoubtedly a good song, very overwhelming, but nothing exceptional, perhaps the least interesting track of an album that for the rest is a treasure trove of masterpieces: "Paranoid", precisely, which gives the album its title, a track written and recorded in haste as a filler.
The cover features a pig-warrior in battle gear on a black background, and indeed the album's title was supposed to be "War Pigs", but considering the controversies regarding the recently concluded Vietnam War, and the unexpected success of "Paranoid" as a single, the record company chose to change the album's name in favor of the latter. Overall, the album reopens the discussion started with its predecessor: still dark tones, still black hard rock, but the sound overall becomes even heavier, and, one might say, more static, with less room for improvisation and blues and jazz forays. It especially develops the line started from "Black Sabbath" (the track).
"War Pigs" is an immortal classic, with an unforgettable riff, a passage that very much recalls "Good Times Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin (perhaps a gesture of appreciation from Black Sabbath towards the great band of Jimmy Page), an incredible solo and a supersonic ender. The lyric is a desperate cry against war shouted in Sabbath's very particular style.
"Paranoid", though not being, as I already said, the best song of Black Sabbath, is perhaps the most known track by metal listeners around the world.
"Planet Caravan" is a slow, spacey, cosmic track, the first in a long series of Black Sabbath-inspired slow songs that, in their eclecticism, often ventured into multiform experiments.
Next comes the very classic "Iron Man", perhaps the hardest track ever. The intro with the bass drum, the distorted guitar, and the robotic voice ("I am iron man!") are now one of the most famous episodes in the genre, and the solid key riff is very famous. The track deals with science fiction (black, obviously), a theme dear to Butler, who could write with equal effectiveness on occult and current events.
The fifth track, "Electric Funeral", has a dark and unsettling charm, in the repetition of its riff "vomited" with a terrifying wah-wah from Iommi's guitar, despite being an extremely simple piece. Here our Geezer paints in gloomy tones an apocalyptic picture depicting the end of the world, mixing biblical elements (Judgment Day) with other traits once again taken from science fiction. It's also worth noting that the theme of super-technology taking over man will often recur in the future Black Sabbath (see "Computer God", "Dehumanizer", 1992), and will be tackled by many other bands, first among them Blue Oyster Cult.
"Hand Of Doom" resumes the discourse on drug use and abuse, but also contains new references to Vietnam, and an unspoken (but not too much) criticism of the devastating effects of the war experience on the human mind. Instrumentally, the piece is well-structured and articulated, with mountainous riffs alternating with sinuous and muffled bass lines, with continual tempo changes, first slow then fast, and so on.
"Rat Salad" is an instrumental featuring a jam session by Bill Ward, who gives us a fine example of his instrumental mastery (a lot), without overdoing it like Iommi in "The Warning", making the song very enjoyable.
The album closes with "Fairies Wear Boots", a very lively and rocking track, which again talks about drugs and hallucinations of reality. However, it seems that the "fairies" mentioned in the song cryptically refer to the skinheads, with whom the band often had reasons to clash.
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!"
