Third album, third masterpiece, third sower of sounds that will give so much to future musical currents; indeed, this one perhaps more than the others has been "revealing" for future sounds. Only 6 songs, of which 5 are milestones of the heaviness of an Hard-Blues now evolved into something else. Monolithic and pachydermic as always. But not just that. After the stroke of genius "Planet Caravan" on "Paranoid," they drop "Solitude," a beautiful song that travels between a sixties ballad and a certain melodic imprint of traditional British balladry, complete with a flute performance by Tony Iommi! Iommi also gifts himself an interlude with acoustic guitar in "Orchid," very much in vogue with certain contemporary progressive bands (King Crimson, Genesis). In the end, certain expansions of sound in the next two albums aren't that surprising. Oh, by the way: part of the riff of "Children of the Grave" (the intro) has always seemed to me to resemble that of "The Knife" by Genesis. My favorite, however, remains the anthem to getting stoned and the "what the hell are we doing" of "Sweat Leaf."
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