1. Paranoid (1970)
Paranoid is the album where heavy metal truly began, the Genesis moment for the genre. Sabbath was still in a transitional mode with their debut, shedding their blues skin to become a band that changed history. Paranoid is where Sabbath came into their own and wrote songs for the ages.
The occult flavorings of their debut — which worked well paired with blues — are abandoned for social commentary. “War Pigs” starts with the sound of sirens; in the ensuing decades, almost every metal band has used a siren or battle noises to open songs about war. “War Pigs” was initially called “Walpurgis” but changed at the request of label executives. It’s a critique of foreign policy during Vietnam, as biting as protest songs like “Fortunate Son” but more graphic. Generals are equated with malevolent sorcerers: “Evil minds that plot destruction/sorcerers of death’s construction.”
At points, the band appears to be headed in different directions but it all gloriously comes together; Iommi plays a classic riff; Ward is at his jazzy best; Butler’s bass oozes into the spaces and cracks and Ozzy’s voice sounds ominous. The musicianship, particularly the rhythm section, is awe-inspiring; listen to the interplay between the big three, especially the musical section closing the final two minutes of “War Pigs.” It’s music that still gives me goose bumps decades after I first heard it.
There are plenty of riches on Paranoid, an influential song everywhere you look. “Planet Caravan” — a psychedelic, extraterrestrial trip with a lover — is undoubtedly a favorite of contemporary bands that aim for a proto-70s sound: Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats, Ghost B.C., Purson and The Devil’s Blood. “Electric Funeral” is eerie, and Butler and Ward flirt with jazz on “Hand Of Doom,” a candid view of addiction and a bit of an epilogue to “War Pigs.” The song is about the soldier who makes it back from war forever broken: “First it was the bomb, Vietnam napalm/ Disillusioning, you put the needle in.”
The album’s eponymous song was initially a throwaway, something Iommi thought of that ended up as Sabbath’s first single and their encore, much like Keith Richards stumbled across “Satisfaction.” It became their biggest hit and the one of the two songs most non-Sabbath fans know. The second song is “Iron Man.” In the 80s the pro wrestling tag team Road Warriors used it as a ring entrance; recently, it closed out the first film in the Iron Man franchise. It’s about an Avenger but not the good kind; it’s a story about rejection, spite, and revenge. A marching band cadence drives the song to a furious close. “Fairies Wear Boots” has been assigned more meanings than a Shakespeare play but it’s simply about a tussle with skinheads.
I talked recently with a friend who was tired of Paranoid. Like the early Led Zeppelin albums, he said he’d played it so many times that he couldn’t hear it again. I encouraged him to revisit it. Paranoid is the album where everything happened for Sabbath, all at once. Four decades later, it’s as fresh and relevant as ever, not just the most important Sabbath record but a musical benchmark of the 20th century.
