Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Black Sabbath
Label: Vertigo Records
Release: 1970
Runtime: 42:07
Rating: 5/5
Black Sabbath, the legendary heavy metal pioneers from Birmingham, earned cult status as musical innovators in a relatively short time after forming and taking their early, blues-tinged steps. Their ambiently gloomy debut, soaked in occult lyrics and one of the first heralds of a new rock subgenre, was marked by the noisy, one-of-a-kind electric guitar sound from the fingers of innovative-ideas master Tony Iommi, the melodic bass lines of Terry ‘Geezer’ Butler, the massive yet dynamic drumming of Bill Ward, an all-pervading dark atmosphere, and anything-but-idealistic lyrics delivered by the technically limited but otherwise hugely charismatic singer Ozzy Osbourne. It already made clear that this was one of the most gifted bands around, cut from a very special cloth. You could say the cult foursome, with their dark visions and occult ‘excursions’, were among the first musical heralds of the spirit of a new era, that is, the noticeably more somber, inflation-scarred seventies compared with the generally idealistic and almost naively cheerful sixties.
»Paranoid«, their second album, was originally supposed to be called »War Pigs«. But the ‘bright sparks’ at Vertigo had the final say. They figured the original title might hurt the feelings of supporters (read: hawks) of the Vietnam War, which was still smoldering at the time, and were also convinced the album would sell better if it was named after its famous lead single. »Paranoid« is one of the most important achievements of heavy metal pioneering and is crammed with Sabbath classics that every true metalhead can recite by heart, especially at midnight. Some of them, led by the title track, »War Pigs« and »Iron Man«, are the most recognizable creations of their entire career and are known today even to plenty of casual heavy rock listeners, and over the decades they’ve racked up a whole pile of covers of one kind or another.
Compared with its predecessor, which had its share of sometimes almost pretentious improvising and where the blues pulse of most of the material was still clearly noticeable, the individual songs on the much tighter »Paranoid« gained a clear focus, or as we’d say, ‘a head and a tail’. The ‘ominous’ occultism of most of Geezer’s lyrics took a back seat this time and made room for social criticism, led by pacifism, and for science fiction. That’s already obvious from the bizarre cover with the ‘cop’, a paranoid patron saint of a special kind in his underpants, with a plastic katana and a cardboard shield. Its absurdity comes from the simple fact that it was meant, in exactly that form, for the original title, i.e. »War Pigs«, but labels are known for making senseless moves.
Almost all the songs on the album, with few exceptions, are recognized today as classics by countless heavy rock fans. The opening pacifist manifesto »War Pigs«, the centerpiece of a two-part suite together with »Luke’s Wall«, which started out as a critique of the Vietnam War and later became one of the most beloved anti-war rock standards, ranks among the best achievements in Sabbath’s entire career. It opens with a grim guitar riff and the wail of air-raid sirens. Ozzy practically declaims the accusing words, fired like a knife into the pot bellies of crowned heads and the robed, tie-wearing necks of society’s ‘elite’. Iommi’s fat guitar phrase cuts mercilessly through Geezer’s jagged bass lines, while Ward’s roiling drum crashes keep the atmosphere as uncompromising as can be. With witty guitar passages and some mouthwatering soloing in the middle of the closing, melodically tinged section of »Luke’s Wall«, Iommi once again proves himself a grand master of guitar innovation. Smack in the middle of the US, this timeless Sabbath evergreen was even banned from the airwaves after 9/11, since it landed on the ‘blacklist’ of Bush’s ‘Ministry of Truth’, which says plenty about how politically incorrect it is. Funnily enough, this evergreen was originally called »Walpurgis« and had fully occult lyrics about a witches’ sabbath, but they had to swap the whole thing for a pacifist theme because the label found the original version a bit too ‘satanic’.
The title track is the best-known Sabbath classic of them all. With its fairly simple structure, instant accessibility and melodicism, it immediately etched itself into the hearts of all heavy rock fans. The secret of its success lies in a tempo that’s markedly sped up by usual Sabbath standards, mostly thanks to the rattling bass lines, which are infused with a red-hot guitar riff and massive drum swings, while Ozzy shines in the role of a paranoid maniac. As is so often the case with big hits and timeless standards, »Paranoid« came about, so to speak, in the ‘last minute’ at the label’s request for a representative single. The experimental, almost space-rock »Planet Caravan« is the most psychedelic creation of their career. Ozzy sings through a vocoder, and together with a dynamic accompaniment of percussion and restrained chords on acoustic guitar, it creates a ‘tripped-out’, slightly futuristic mood. The lyrics are about a random individual floating through space together with their partner.
»Iron Man« is yet another hugely popular classic, marked first and foremost by a distorted, smeared and brutal-sounding guitar riff, one of the most famous in Iommi’s entire career, which laid the groundwork for countless future metal guitar standards. In recent years »Iron Man« has enjoyed a fresh surge of popularity, even among a brand-new generation of listeners, thanks to the film of the same name about the Marvel superhero of the same name, since it played in the end credits of the first movie from 2008. That makes it all the more ironic that Geezer’s sci-fi lyrics have nothing to do with this popular comic book hero. Instead, Ozzy sings about a man who travels through time and lands in an apocalyptic future. Horrified by humanity’s downfall, he tries to return to his own time and bring back a warning about the catastrophe, but on the way back he runs into a magnetic field that turns him into a man of metal. The process also leaves him mute, which means he can’t warn anyone about the vision of a dark future. Enraged by his grotesque appearance and his inability to communicate verbally, he plots against humankind and starts using his new powers to destroy everything around him. In a twist of fate, he ends up becoming the main cause of the catastrophic future he once witnessed.
The chilling »Electric Funeral«, another full-blooded ‘doom & gloom’ Sabbath classic straight out of a nightmare, is without doubt the darkest and most fatalistic piece on the album in terms of ambience. The lyrics once again touch on the consequences of all-out nuclear war and the desolation of a post-apocalyptic future where only a handful of grotesque mutants eke out an existence among the survivors. The slow tempo with its rolling guitar riff, the snarling bass lines and Ozzy’s thoroughly wicked singing are the main ingredients of this gloomy prototype of doom metal. The brief shift into faster rhythmic waters comes off almost like a decoy maneuver, a feeble ray of optimism in the middle of total darkness, and it soon bows to the complete triumph of the fatalistic main motif. Black Sabbath were already great musical experimenters at the start of their career, as the dystopian crusher »Hand of Doom« demonstrates once more. It’s yet another pacifist manifesto in the vein of »War Pigs«, with its many sudden tempo changes and dynamic bluesy guitar finesses in which you can feel the roots of this legendary band. Ozzy again sings as if he were in the middle of a merciless fight with rabid foxes, and he shines with his sudden, almost choleric outbursts of bile.
The instrumental »Rat Salad«, with its conspiratorial rattling bass lines, is made up of a guitar solo and a drum solo. In the first part Iommi shows how you can whip up a witty solo spot in no time, while the second belongs to the unstoppable Ward, before they finally join forces again together with Geezer. The closing evergreen »Fairies Wear Boots«, complemented by the instrumental section »Jack the Stripper«, is perhaps even the most fun track on the whole album when it comes to the chorus and the unusually ‘everyday’ lyrics. The words tell of the band members’ close encounter with a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads, who were debating whether to kick the living daylights out of a quartet of longhairs with joints in their hands, but luckily it never came to an incident. This closing evergreen has a very interesting and cunning structure with unexpected time changes and tempo shifts, with plenty of mischievous bass rattling woven together with Iommi’s uncompromising guitar passages and a rumbling drum stampede. Ozzy’s vocal delivery is distinctly mocking this time, and he’s more than obviously having a great time at the expense of human stupidity, while the aggressive rhythm section and a dirty guitar riff back him up perfectly.
»Paranoid« is, in every respect, the most important album by Birmingham’s heavy rock giants and a masterpiece of heavy metal in its embryonic form, the record that finally shot them into the stratosphere of the most exciting bands of the first half of the seventies. That one of the best heavy rock albums of all time had a tremendous influence on the development of absolutely every form of heavy metal is something even the sparrows on the roof are chirping about by now. As unbelievable as it sounds, it’s still the only Black Sabbath album to top the British charts, which further helped build their well-deserved monumental status. If a complete ignoramus ever stops you and asks where to start exploring the Black Sabbath legacy, shove »Paranoid« into their hands right away.
Line-up
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
Tony Iommi – guitar, flute
Geezer Butler – bass
Bill Ward – drums, congas
Production
Rodger Bain
Track list
1. War Pigs
2. Paranoid
3. Planet Caravan
4. Iron Man
5. Electric Funeral
6. Hand of Doom
7. Rat Salad
8. Fairies Wear Boots
