Review Summary: Can you help me. Occupy my brain?
Paranoid:
Released on September of 1970, Vertigo Records
#130 on Rolling Stone's 500 Best Albums of All Time
#6 on Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Albums
#293 on Virgin's Top 1000 Albums of All Time
Black Sabbath has had, broadly speaking, a highly dominant career, their albums becoming a substantial significance in the face of metal, but have also had a rocky career. Going through drugs and alcohol, an almost never ending state of mediocrity after the advantageous Heaven and Hell, and arguments amongst the band. Paranoid was their second album, recorded and released in 1970. And them, BAM, just like that, Paranoid completely hit the ball out of the park, it wrote the book of heavy metal, and would later influence several metal bands. Without Black Sabbath, it's possible that several metal bands nowadays wouldn't be as amazing as they are (Axel Rudi Pell, Iron Maiden, the list goes on)
But the album was cataclysmic at the time of release. Black Sabbath was a solid debut, a very accomplished album with gothic, grim melodies. But Paranoid works as a brilliant album all-around, and their best to date.
The Tracks:
1.
War Pigs is an epic, an astronomic, prodigious hit song. Many songs have been described as modern day metal masterpieces (try saying that 10 times fast), but War Pigs comes extremely close. Mortally close. Clocking in at 7 minutes, this haunting anti-war statement follows cataclysmic guitar work, exceptional drum work, and an eerie bass riff. All these instruments are set under Ozzy's bitterly angry voice. "Generals gathered in their masses / Just like witches at black masses" It features two utterly sublime guitar solos, and it leaves you completely stunned by the end. It's thought-provoking and instrumentally frightening, but is gloriously superb and moving. Nothing less than a
5/5.
2. One of the band's most popular songs to date,
Paranoid is a mockingly amusing 3-minute classic. Over the now-famous crushing guitar riff, the lyrics deal with going insane, being completely shut away from sanity. It's short and fast, a huge punch of adrenaline. The band had already become creative after Black Sabbath was released, and this title track is the most clear manifestation of this. From a glacial approach, Paranoid could of been longer, but is nonetheless an extraordinary song, and, for solely existing as a song, gets a very well-deserved
5/5.
3.
Planet Caravan is the calm before the storm, as some might call it. A captivating, lyrically wonderful song. Over a beautifully relaxing guitar melody, placatory drum loops, almost like bongos, and a fading-in-and-out bass melody, with various sound effects. Ozzy's voice is also incredibly different, adding in an underwater pitch to his voice (according to facts, that's his real inflection), with some of the greatest lyrics on the album (Silver starlight breaks dawn from night / And so we pass on by / The crimson eye of great god Mars / As we travel the universe), and a particularly excellent fade-out instrumental at the end, almost acoustic. It's far different from the heavier songs from before, but it really displays the imagination of the band at this point.
4.5/5.
4. Easily the most recognizable song on here,
Iron Man is the song you can identify this band by. This is all about a former superhero, in an intergalatical blast, coming back to warn the people of a post-apocalyptic future, but he is ignored, and feels enraged by this. Over the famous "dun dun, dun dun dun" riff, and crushing drum loops, and constantly-changing bass pitches. A V7-inspired solo pops up midtempo, before leading up to another verse and transitioning into one of the most extraordinary outro instrumentals on the album. Overplayed? Maybe so. But it's an undeniably notorious metal song, and it gets a
4.5/5.
Side Two:
5.
Electric Funeral is one of the single most scariest songs I've ever heard. With lyrics dealing with post-nuclear fallout, it's one of the heaviest songs on here. It's consistently cataclysmic (pun intended), and haunting. Over a rather exceptional tempo (wah wah, wah wah wah) of the guitar, and Ozzy delivering troubling lyrical fire ("Storm coming, youd better hide from the atomic tide / Flashes in the sky turns houses into sties / Turns people into clay, radiation minds decay"), and is a massively likable subliminal message: nuclear warfare is wrong. At first mesmerizingly suspenseful and slow, it instantly goes into a quicker, more frenzied midtempo section, where the bass and drums instantly explode onto the scene, but transitions back once more. It's a superbly crafted masterpiece, pure modern day poetry. (Ironic, because this is next to never played live) Despite the lack of a guitar solo, this song stands out for me, because of how absolutely scary it is, and moving.
5/5.
6. One of the slower, more trademark brilliant songs on the album,
Hand of Doom is a generally favorable depiction of drug addiction. References to morphine during war (First it was the bomb / Vietnam napalm / Disillusioning / You push the needle in), over far more darker riffs, and brilliant drumming efforts in here. Probably one of the most straightforward songs on here, it's still an incredibly likable composition. It may extend the length a little too far (7 minutes 7 seconds), but it's inevitable: it's a superbly crafted song.
5/5.
7.
Rat Salad is the instrumental on Paranoid, and maybe one of the most weakest, due to the conspicuous resemblance of Moby Dick from Led Zeppelin. It's a drum-led song, for the most part, with a few guitar licks in between the beginning, and popping up in the end. The middle section is an example of the outstanding drumming power. It's fast and mindblowing. Although not too different, and an absolutely frenzied song, not to mention short (2 and a half minutes), it earns itself a
4/5/
8.
Fairies Wear Boots is the most dumbfounding, weirdest song on the album, and to this day, more than forty years later, it still boggles me how odd it is. It's a clear reference to drugs, but in a more funny, amusing way than the dark
Hand of Doom. Although generic at times, it drains the life out of every song before it, because of how incredibly bluesy it sounds: Ozzy's inflection and the tempos. If there was a song other than War Pigs that really got me into Black Sabbath, this is it. Because of how freaking funny it is (Goin home, late last night / Suddenly I got a fright / Yeah I looked through the window and surprised what I saw / Fairy boots were dancing with a dwarf), and the different, but nonetheless world class instrument work, this gets a
5/5, no matter how different it is. (Technically, the song has three different parts)
More than 40 years later, Paranoid still remains an awesome album. It completely drained the life out of me the minute I listened to it. It's haunting, exceptional, thought-provoking, epic, cataclysmic, amusing, and instrumentally proficient. Giving an album a "Classic" rating means this is an album for the ages, and album that everybody needs to listen to, for sure. And Paranoid, in the eyes of many, deserves this. And I'm one of those, so how can I give it anything less?
Recommended Tracks
Electric Funeral
War Pigs
Fairies Wear Boots
Paranoid
