Black Sabbath is the most important heavy metal band of all time, hard stop. It’s impossible to overstate just what they did for the genre. The fact a record as heavy as Paranoid came out in 1970 is sort of shocking. You almost don’t blame the parents of yesteryear for losing their shit over kids rocking out to Sabbath considering groups like The Carpenters and Simon & Garfunkel were on top of the charts at the time (and this is with all due respect to Simon & Garfunkel– I love ‘em, but they just ain’t Sabbath).
There are so many little details to love about this album. Drummer Bill Ward is the backbone, laying down massive grooves all over the place with huge fills that are heavy on tom work. This is also one of the very few records to feature an extended drum solo (“Rat Salad”) which would be considered sheer lunacy if you heard that on a record today. Bassist Geezer Butler, along with having an all-time rock name, is legitimately one of my favorite bassists of all time. He has this predilection to rip a bunch of mini solos in the background of every song, putting dashes of color everywhere. The fact you can hear the pluck of his fingers rattling the strings every now and again makes it even more memorable. Tony Iommi’s guitar playing produced some of the most iconic riffs of all-time. From “Paranoid” to “War Pigs” to “Iron Man”, it’s all there. Iommi’s use of double tracked guitars, panned left and right with slightly different tones, gives a widescreen width that makes everything sound huge despite the limited production techniques in the early 70’s.
And then there’s Ozzy. The Prince of Darkness. He is larger than life, an all-time rock icon, and has served as the definitive face of metal for fifty years strong now. I still get chills when he bellows “Generals gathered in their masses” to kick off the album’s opening track “War Pigs”. Ozzy’s solo career was exemplary, but for my money nothing beats his vocal performance in Black Sabbath, and no album in their discography beats Paranoid. Ipso facto, this is the best Ozzy album of all time.
Long live Black Sabbath. And long live rock and roll.
Standout Songs: “Paranoid”, “Hand of Doom”, “War Pigs”, “Fairies Wear Boots”
