Black Sabbath
Paranoid

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.