Review by Tymell for Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970)
What better place to start the Metal Academy Heavy Metal - The First Era challenge than with (almost) the album that started it all?
Of course, Paranoid wasn't truly the first, that honour going to Black Sabbath's self-titled debut. But it was Paranoid, released a mere seven months after the debut, where Sabbath would really start to refine their craft. No covers this time, and while the blues influences are still there, this time it's a head-first dive into the origins of doom metal. And what an end result.
Paranoid is an album all about death, ruination and endings. It is grim, obsessed with the darkness of the world and humankind. It is doom metal, truly and utterly. "Iron Man", opening with the infamous, apocalyptic pound, is a tale of a scorned, vengeful man of iron, with the faster beat of the drums towards the end like the onrushing doom of his victims. "War Pigs" rightfully lambastes the powerful people of the world who enable the horrors of war, with Ozzy's vocals often isolated and solitary to hit all the harder: there's no ignoring their message, delivered almost like beat poetry.
"Paranoid", despite its higher tempo, is all about mental turmoil and chaos. It has a driving beat, but one driving straight off the edge of a cliff into oblivion. "Hand of Doom" gives us a stark look at drug addiction - that quiet opening is menacing enough the first time, but when it rears up again nearer the end it takes on a whole new meaning, painting the image of someone withered and broken, nothing left to give, drained of all energy. "Electric Funeral" is a deliciously dark dirge, a constant, mournful funeral march for the whole human race in the wake of nuclear war.
"Planet Caravan" is sometimes considered a bit of an outlier track here, and I can certainly see that, but I think it fits in in its own way. It's a hypnotic, otherworldly piece that typically conjures images of a transcendent hallucinogenic trip, though could also be taken more as something about ascending beyond life itself. I find it an enjoyable break if nothing else.
Where I -do- find a starker shift in tone is in the last two tracks. "Rat Salad" is another short one, but where "Planet Caravan" takes us on an ethereal trip, this one is more a couple of minutes of jamming out. Nothing bad, but it doesn't really add anything. "Fairies Wear Boots" is the only "full" track that really sticks out from the general theme of the album. It just kind of exists, never really going anywhere or fitting in with the other tracks all about doomsday or personal turmoil. Especially with it's somewhat more upbeat, almost jazzy instrumentation, it feels more like a leftover from the debut.
Neither of these final tracks are outright bad, but they leave the album closing on a much weaker note than the rest.
As on the debut, there's a darkness here that's so fresh. Sure, there's plenty of rocking groove and still some traces of their early blues influence, but it's all so ominous and heavy. That dark atmosphere is what made the opening track on Black Sabbath itself so good, and here they take that and make it work over (almost) an entire album, capitalising on their strength perfectly. Paranoid isn't just a historically important album, it remains a benchmark and measuring stick for dark, heavy music.
Choice cuts: War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man, Electric Funeral, Hand of Doom