Disco de Black Sabbath: “Paranoid [Creative Sounds]”

The span between their debut album and Paranoid was not very long (a little less than a year) but the difference was huge. All the grinding, powerful riffs from their 1st album had been refined and tightened and the legend that was Blak Sabbath became solidified here on their classic sophomore effort. Paranoid has so many truly great Sabbath classics that even the lesser tunes here are overshadowed by their greatness, erasing the few spots of mediocrity. Originally to be titled War Pigs (hence the pink guy on the cover wth the sword and shield)this is the epoch of hard, dark, killer rock. Moving forward from here Sabbath would never fully capture the greatness of Paranoid. If there ever was a must-have heavy metal album, this is it! I grew up listening to this as a kid in the early 70s and I gotta tel ya, these songs are imprinted in my soul!

War Pigs/Luke's Wall - Orginally titled Walpurgis(The Witches Sabbath) with completely different lyrics (hear the original on Ozzy's The Ozzman Cometh) Sabbath felt the whole Satanic thing was getting too out of hand. New lyrics and new title. This is one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time! Absolutely perfect. I can never get tired of hearing it. Tight, cohesive, astounding! A true classic!

Paranoid - This is Black Sabbath's signature song. Straight-forward rocker. Actually only made it on the album because they needed another song to round out the playing time. Ended up being the title of the album, even though the cover is geared to War Pigs, which was going to be the original title. Wow. A filler tune that became great. Who would have guessed? Ozzy to this day stil ends his shows with this Sabbath clssic.

Planet Caravan - This weird little tune actually grows on you to the point where you wind up liking it. Stange effects on Ozzy's voice make him unrecongnizable. Eerie. Haunting. Not their best, but cool enough to garner a Pantera cover years later. Iommi's playing here is mature and melodic. Experimental Sabbath.

Iron Man - Another Sabbath classic! There are so many here! This became a car comercial jingle last year. Pounding. Metal. In-your-face riff. Another truly great tune. I AM IRON MAN!

Electric Funeral - Often overlooked, Electric Funeral is a great song. The riff makes your head swim and the lyrics are kinda cheesy, but this song rocks. Dark, politically-angry, sci-fi metal goodness!

Hand Of Doom - Starts off mellow and moves along into a rocker. About addiction and anti-Vietnam sentiments and, well.... Death & Destruction! One of my personal favorites and another often overlooked song.

Rat Salad - If Paranoid were said to have a weak point, Rat Salad would be it. Nothing more than an instrumental to showcase Sabbath's jamming skills and Bill Ward's drumming prowess. But...it still "Rocks out loud!" as my younger daughter would say. And it showed us something as well: that Bill Ward was a highly-underrated drummer. At a time were everyone was hailing John Bonham and Keith Moon and such as the essential rock drummers, Ward was strangely absent from the list of greats.

Jack The Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots - Yet another Sabbath classic! The lyrics are funny! I'm sorry, but they are. Still, this is a great song where most last songs on albums weren't. 'Cause smokin' & trippin' are all that you do.... Yeah! Hilarious. Classic.

Overall, this is Sabath's most coherent, cohesive effort Their perfect album. With so many staple songs on one recording, how can one not realize that this is the Bible of heavy Metal Albums! Ozzy, Tony, Geezer & Bill became the Godfathers of Metal with Paranoid. And rightly so!

DIG IT!

Black Sabbath's Paranoid album is not only the band's finest hour but also one of the best heavy metal albums ever produced. Although there were many great moments on their first five albums, Paranoid is their only release that is fantastic from beginning to end. Also worth noting is that Paranoid, with the exception of AC/DC's Back In Black, is the best album ever recorded where the songs are based on heavy memorable riffs.

How great are the tracks here? Three of the greatest heavy metal songs ever, "War Pigs", "Iron Man", and the title track are all present here with the latter two being the band's only Top 100 hits. Lead singer Ozzy Osbourne still performs all of these songs regularly whether it's with his solo band or with Black Sabbath on the Ozzfest tours. "War Pigs" is arguably one of the greatest anti-war tracks recorded, which is astounding since these issues were typically touched on more by singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan and Neil Young than bands of their genre. "Iron Man" is still one of the coolest guitar riffs ever recorded and along with the title track still receives generous airplay on classic rock radio. Amazingly, the rest of the album is very strong as well. The tracks "Electric Funeral" and "Hand Of Doom" both feature slow memorable riffs in the chorus and verses and then go into killer jams during the middle of the track. The instrumental "Rat Salad" is also excellent, carried by Bill Ward's underrated energetic drumming. The heavy shuffle of "Fairies Wear Boots" and the moody "Planet Caravan" are also great tracks. This is also their most influential album as Paranoid encouraged literally thousands of teenagers to pick up a guitar and later form heavy metal bands. You can still hear this influence in many of today's heavy bands like Staind and Disturbed. An essential album for all heavy metal fans. Highly recommended.

Fans who are already familiar with Black Sabbath's work are probably wondering if it is worthwhile to shell out the extra money for the limited edition of this album. The limited edition is the same as the Castle Remasters, except an attempt is made to replicate look and feel of the original album. Unfortunately, that is all there is. There are no extra liner notes, lyrics, artwork, etc. which come with the circa '96 Castle remasters. Also, the packaging is not very sturdy and there is an annoying amount of adhesive on the flap of the plastic dust cover. If you are collector, you are not going to want to play this album often in light of the wear and tear that will inevitably come. This is truly for the diehard completist, but a casual fan should stick with the normal Castle import catalog.

Fans will debate my title for ages. But, their is no doubt that Black Sabbath is certainly one of the most influential & yet oddly underappreciated bands of the twentieth century. I'll focus only on the half of the album I prefer. "Planet Caravan is an often underappreciated soft tune that lingers in your mind. Tony Iommi & Geezer hit it right with "Iron Man." The formers riffs were unique when this album came out in 1970 & they still are. Geezer drums in time with Ozzy's Monotone delivery. Many say this song gets overplayed. But, why? Someone must be requesting it as they do LED Zeppelin's "Kashmir." In "Hand Of Doom," the thumping drums & Tony's piercing riffs give it true juice. "Rat Salad," is unlike any instrumental I have ever heard. It holds the mystery around the band well. "Electric Funeral." is a unique twist for a protest song against nuclear war. It may be the best track on the album? "Paranoid," their most popular & bizarre of songs even though it makes little sense.

The title says it all. Normally, when a band releases their second album, it is utter [edit] compared to their debut. That's not the case with Sabbath. You get killer guitar solos from THE Tony Iommi, great basslines from Geezer Butler, great drumming from Bill Ward, and of course the signature vocals from Ozzy Obbourne. Here's what I think of the songs...

1. War Pigs(5/5)Classic song. If you haven't heard this song, I luagh at you!

2. Paranoid(5/5)See #1

3. Planet Caravan(5/5)Great ballad

4. Iron Man(5/5)See #1

5. Electric Funeral(5/5)

6. Hand of Doom(5/5)

7. Rat Salad(5/5)Nice drum solo.

8. Fairies Wear Boots(5/5)Funny lyrics.

You SHOULD buy this if....

1. You like music.

2. Are living.

3. Are anti-mainstream, as I am.

4. A fan of metal.

5. A fan of hard rock.

You SHOULDN'T buy this if:

1. You already have it.

2. Can't find it.

3. If you don't have enough money.