5 Stars
Audio CD (paid link)
Although this is far from a perfect album, upon its release it defined the whole Heavy Metal – Stoner Rock movement along with their debut released a mere six months earlier.
Although universally panned by the critics on both sides of the Atlantic, both albums were an incredible commercial success. Paranoid reached number one in the UK whilst reaching Number 12 in the US whilst going quadruple platinum.
Just four months after their debut was released, the band was back in the studio. In between times, they had been constantly on the road.
So very little was prepared for recording; only one song, ‘War Pigs,’ was in rough form and at first taken as the album title. Hence the album cover was a blurry image of warriors on the charge with Samurai swords held aloft.
When the album title was changed at the last minute to Paranoid because of the success of the single, the suits just blurred the original picture. A little loosening of the purse strings here would’ve helped.
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With the band scrambling for material for the album, an out-and-out rocker was required. Toni Iommi had the riff and twenty minutes later, the perfect heavy metal single was laid down. Quickly released, it became a smash hit and gave us all the hilarity of Black Sabbath stood in front of the cameras, miming to their song on the British music show Top of the Pops to a very nonplussed teeny bopper audience. Paranoid has been used as the final encore at almost every Black Sabbath concert since.
The album itself starts out with ‘War Pigs,’ the unmistakable Toni Iommi Riff from his guitar, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward on bass and drums respectively, with the sirens wailing, before Ozzy Osbourne comes in with a rant against governments and at the time in particular the Vietnam War. A song as relevant today as it was over fifty years ago. Geezer Butler wrote the lyrics, and at least they rhymed.
Next up was ‘Paranoid.’ Then ‘Planet Caravan,’ a song of its time, slowed down, light of texture, even including some flute! Then thundering in on perhaps Toni Iommi’s most famous riff comes ‘Iron Man,’ a bone shaker of a song with Ozzy’s spoken word intro. It’s the perfect heavy metal song and a staple of the live show.
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‘Electric Funeral’ stomps its way into your head, a very typical Black Sabbath song, bringing their followers together. ‘Hand of Doom’ is Black Sabbath doing what they do in the studio, but given more time, this song may have found itself on the cutting room floor. ‘Rat Salad’ is an Iommi throwaway riff given over so Bill Ward can have a short drum solo. In concert, Bill Ward’s solos were long and brutal, making this a bit of thankfully short nonsense.
The album closes in fine style with ‘Fairies wear Boots.’ The exact subject matter of this song is a mystery still all these years later, but probably inspired by an incident in London where a bunch of skinheads called Ozzy Osbourne a fairy because of his long hair. The song is built around another inspiring Iommi riff, twisting and turning before reaching a rousing conclusion.
Paranoid is a fabulous album, not without its faults, but a golden part of history.
Written by Mott the Dog, naturally on Pattaya’s Darkside.
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