Review Summary: One of the most important Black Sabbath albums, and one of their finest works period. There isn't a single bad track to be found on this outstanding record.
Just seven months after their debut, Black Sabbath released their landmark second LP, Paranoid, in 1970. Paranoid is often cited as the band's best album, or at least their most important, saying that it defined the sound of heavy metal. I would classify it as their second best, and their second or third most important album.
Only seven or eight (depending on the source) months since they'd recorded their debut, they went into the studio to record this album. In that short time, however, they'd evolved exponentially. Everything about this album has improved over their last. First and foremost, they're a lot more focused. On their debut, there were brief songs like A Bit Of Finger/Sleeping VIllage and Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep. Here, every song is fully developed and realized, just as much as they need to be. Paranoid is an effectively quick, short rocker, while Rat Salad has just enough ideas to justify being two and a half minutes, nothing more or less. Meanwhile, epics like War Pigs, Hand of Doom, and Fairies Wear Boots feel fleshed out to their full potential, not drawn-out and extended for the sake of being long or stiflingly abridged. There are still long sections of the songs dedicated to Tony noodling away, but it doesn't sound like loose jamming anymore. Instead, every instrument fits together like a glove.
Their sound has been quite refined. They now sound straight up like classic metal, dropping some of their blues influences in favor of a more precise attack. Geezer's basslines are less loud and bluesy, but still fantastic and holding their own under Tony's excellent guitar playing. This is the final album before Tony would downtune his guitar to C#, by the way. Bill Ward's drumming is complex and exceptionally performed, and he really shines in Rat Salad. Ozzy's voice is still different than on their subsequent work, but now he sounds a bit more polished. Not that it's a bad thing, nor does it diminish the still-raw appeal of his vocal work. Sonically, this album still sounds great today, with better production than their debut.
War Pigs opens with a slow, ominous drone, with the air raid sirens giving it that "Oh ***, time for apocalyptic war" atmosphere. Then the actual song itself starts. Ozzy's vocals are so awesome, you don't even care that he just rhymed "masses" with "masses". His singing is particularly powerful over the eerie full stops. Then into some riffage from Tony (along with cool fills from Bill), and then they go into a little funk-inspired part featuring some biting political ranting from Ozzy, which kicks so much ass. (Check for a tambourine throughout the whole song, by the way!) See, this song's fairly topical, since it was released in 1970, during the Vietnam War. They were speaking out against war in general, but Geezer has mentioned the Vietnam War in general, and the lyrics carry the theme of rich politicians sending their poorer populations to die, all to line their pockets. "Politicians hide themselves away/They only started the war! Why should they go out to fight?/They leave that duty to the poor" This showed that Black Sabbath weren't just writing about the occult and such. Their lyrical outlook in this era was just straight up dreary. Oh, but back to the music. There are some great bluesy jam moments (something that is otherwise deprecated on this album compared to the first), featuring some awesome riffwork from Tony. Then back to the full stops as Ozzy describes the politicians being judged and sent to hell. "Satan laughing spreads his wings!" Wicked stuff for 1970. Then into the song's amazing outro, named Luke's Wall. Tony's guitar playing here is quite atmospheric and emotional, to my ears at least. The song concludes quite suddenly as a reprisal of the beginning of the outro is sped up. Neither the sirens nor the sped up conclusion were the band's ideas, but they were all pleased with the results. War Pigs, the longest song on the album, is quite the opener, and sets the stage for their epic heavy metal sound. The album was supposed to be called War Pigs, but the label changed it because they didn't want controversy from supporters of the Vietnam War and/or they wanted to (and did, I believe) market Paranoid as a single. Thus, the album's cover features what's supposed to be a "war pig"; a pink dude with a sword, pink because "that was the color of the war pigs", sayeth Ozzy in his book. When the album was retitled Paranoid, Ozzy remarked that it just looked like a "gay fencer", leading Bill to reply "They're
paranoid gay fencers!" That's from his book, by the way.
Paranoid is the next song on here. It's about twice as fast as the previous song, and at just under three minutes, less than half the length of the mammoth that is War Pigs. It's mainly built off of one riff. It was composed in under half an hour after all. It's the closest they get to a weak track on here, but the unique guitar solo and raw energy redeem it. Despite not having the ominous vibe of much of the rest of the album, its lyrics are far from bright, dealing with paranoia. They mellow out with Planet Caravan, which is generally chill, quiet, slow, and quite psychedelic, with distorted vocals and cool guitar noises. It's carried by bongos, a pretty clean guitar riff, and matching bass underneath. The lyrics here are quiet pretty and trippy, matching the more somber tone of the music. Tony's two minute guitar solo here is really something, especially with the assistance of the quiet piano in the background. After Planet Caravan fades out, in comes that classic thumping bass drum, followed by the iconic descending guitar. "I AM IRON MAN!" Iron Man is probably Black Sabbath's most well known song, and the popularity of it, Paranoid, and arguably War Pigs (The only nearly eight minute heavy metal track I'd ever heard on classic rock radio years ago) are probably what lead to this being regarded as their best album. The riffs in this song range from ominous to pretty fun and rockin'. The vocal lines and lyrics themselves are super infectious. "Has he lost his mind/Can he see or is he blind?" The lyrics to this song are cool, and have a far from happy ending, about a man who travels back in time to prevent the apocalypse from being set in motion by an iron man. The guy gets turned into the titular iron man in the process, no one listens to him, and he ends up bringing about the apocalypse he originally set out to prevent! "Vengeance from the grave/Kills the people he once saved!" Only Black Sabbath could write a hugely popular song about an apocalyptic time loop! Oh, by the way, there's a really awesome part a bit past the three minutes mark, where the band really get into momentum and Iommi pulls out some awesome solos. They slow back down into the previous droning pace before an uptempo reprisal of the intro riff that leads into yet more stellar guitar work from Iommi as the song closes.
Electric Funeral features even more apocalyptic and disturbing lyrics, and is built around a mega-foreboding riff and a truly vile (in a cool and evil way, mind you) performance from Ozzy. God, that riff is so metal! If there's any song that one could credit to Black Sabbath's inspiration of the doom metal genre, this is probably it. Ozzy's vocals here match the lyrics quite well. The way he says "Radiation, minds decay!" is just full of bile. They speed up a bit before going into an uptempo, jazzy section, with matching guitars and vocals. "Buildings crashing down/To a cracking ground/Rivers turn to wood/Ice melts into blood!" So much for all that hippie-dippy stuff back then! Then they slow back down into that ever-sinister drone. There's a hint of silver lining as "evil souls fall to Hell" and the good ascend to the "golden chorus" of heaven, but even then they linger on the ones "ever trapped in burning cells". This song is dark and freaking
heavy.
Next is Hand of Doom. Most of the song is at first driven by that quiet yet dark bass riff, becoming louder and more guitar driven as the song picks up. This is probably the most dynamic track on here. Bill Ward's drumming, packed with fills and hi-hat hits to match the song's ascents and descents in volume as Tony enters and exits. After about two minutes, they really start rockin' out, picking up the pace as Ozzy gets louder to match, and the lyrics he belts---written by Butler, as usual---, which are centered around drug use, get more desperate. "You're havin' a good time, baby/But that won't last! Your mind's all full of things/You're movin' too fast!" The riff as he says those things is certainly a quality early aggressive metal riff. Great solo from Iommi, with galloping basslines from Geezer to support it, and then they go back to the more quiet section. "Now you're gonna die!" And with that, the bass riff repeats as it fades out. The most important thing I can say about this dynamic number is that the riff that drives it, whether it's being played by Tony or Geezer, is one of their best.
The last quarter of the album consists of Rat Salad and (Jack the Stripper/)Fairies Wear Boots. Rat Salad's a really fun, jazzy instrumental, with awesome guitar work and more fun galloping bass work from Geezer. At first, Bill just provides some really cool fills to compliment the rest of the song, but then he goes into that drum solo. And man, does he absolutely
rip those skins! I really love the drum sound on this album by the way, and I'm very picky about that usually. It's a shame that Bill couldn't/didn't participate in the reunion, but oh well. The driving, heavy riff that the song's built around repeats a little more, and then the song concludes. Fairies Wear Boots is the album's closer, and the riffs here are a lot of fun. The intro is called Jack the Stripper on earlier releases, but it's partially reprised later in the song. So instead of Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots, shouldn't it be something like Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear/Jack/Boots? Whatever, screw it. The "canon" name for the whole thing is just Fairies Wear Boots. Anyways, this one's less heavy and more fun (and still hard and loud) classic rock. After the very cool aforementioned intro (which features fantastic drumming from Bill), they launch into this awesome riff that's more suitable for fist pumping than headbanging, but it'll be an energetic and hard fist pump for sure! The way the guitars and bass work together here is really something. True to the music, the lyrics here, mostly written by Ozzy, are a bit more fun sounding. Even though people tell him he wrote it, he says he has no idea what they mean. The song closes out with some emotional sounding soloing, finishing one of Black Sabbath's greatest efforts ever.
Here on Paranoid, Black Sabbath evolved their sound and focused less on improvised bluesy jamming and a bit more on creating and excellent set of songs. They certainly succeeded with that goal, as Paranoid is a truly classic set of songs, and is often recognized as the band's magnum opus. I think that honor goes to a certain other later work, but Paranoid is still prime, A-1 grade Sabbath. While their debut laid forth many foundations of heavy metal, it was the innovative Paranoid that truly set the stage for a new era of aggressive music, with not overly-polished production, sinister and murky lyrics and music, excellent layered composition (this trait in particular would evolve with Volume 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath) loud and complex guitar work, thumping bass, pounding drums, and wailing vocals, all while staying exceptionally memorable and catchy. A must-have for any metalhead and an absolute essential for anyone interested in Black Sabbath. 5/5.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS/BEST OF:
War Pigs
Electric Funeral
Hand of Doom
Rat Salad
