PARANOID

This will be my 100th review on this websitek, so I took a bit of time trying to think of what I'd want to do for such a milestone, eventually settling for this album. The reason for this is that this was one of the 3 albums that originally got me into music in the first place, along with Iron Maiden's Number Of The Beast and Dio's Holy Diver. Of these three, this one definitely holds up the best for me, being highly consistent while also musically and tonally being the strongest. Many of these songs are quite catchy and all around very accessible for fans of rock or metal, but also clearly sowed the seeds for future doom metal bands to further expand on this genre and provide so many of the overwhelming behemoths that came onto the scene later, making it important as well as awesome.

The album starts off with War Pigs, one of the better songs here, starting off with slow, droning guitar chords before the song begins speeding up, highlighting Ozzy Osbourne's vocals, which while not great, really fit the overall sound presented to us. The song eventually speeds up slightly more, and introduces an awesome, groovy riff, occasionally pausing to showcase a drum fill, before kicking back in, all around being a great time, culminating in an outro that keeps crescendoing and speeding up as a riff continuously repeats, bringing in a powerful sense of urgency, all before completely hitting its peak and dying down immediately. Paranoid is the song that everyone knows from this album, and for good reason, as while it's not the best song on the album, it's certainly the one that sticks in the mind the most. The faster pace of it combined with riff after riff, each sounding near perfect, the vocal melody and memorable lyrics on top of this, make it easy to see why this song became so popular. The song is a prime example of how simplicity can be so effective, and it lays out the building blocks for other bands to then expand upon it in the numerous covers there are of it, ranging from the thrashier Megadeth version, to whatever the hell The Dillinger Escape Plan did to it. Planet Caravan is probably one of my favourite songs on the album, despite the fact that it sounds nothing like anything the band had ever done before, or since, but the gentle, spacey atmosphere accentuated by the filters put over the vocals make this such a relaxing, psychedelic track that carries me away in a similar fashion to Rainbow's Catch The Rainbow.

Iron Man is this album's other massive hit, with what I consider to be one of the most iconic riffs in all of metal, being simple, but heavy and absolutely menacing, while simultaneously being really cool and catchy. The way the song speeds up and throws in a guitar solo is also a really cool aspect of the song. Electric Funeral is definitely my personal pick for highest point on this album, being the most doom oriented, and heavy song of the lot, with a really gritty riff and a remarkably unsettling, droning vocal line. The sudden transformation from this into the fast paced bombardment of energy from all fronts is really what sells this song for me though, especially in terms of that incredible bassline. Hand Of Doom is once again, another great song, easily the most ominous and dark one the album has to offer, having some really quiet sections with a creeping bassline, Ozzy's vocals, and little else. The way these then escalate and become so intense is what really sells this song for me though, the power and panic behind it, while still maintaining a relatively slow pace is nothing short of amazig in its execution. Rat Salad is a short instrumental track that mainly serves as a showcase of Bill Ward's drumming ability, filled with fills before eventually a short drum solo, all around being pretty cool. Fairies Wear Boots closes off this album well, with an intro with elements fading in and out, weaving between one another and flowing from one riff to another, especially impressive to hear on a good pair of headphones when they do this between the left and right ear. The song then becomes a catchy, bluesy number with fun, memorable lyrics referring to seeing things while being high. While it's one of the more repetitive songs here, there's really no denying that it works in its favour to create an infectious song all around, and a decent closing track.

There's a pretty good reason why this is considered such an essential album in metal, not only was it an extremely early example of the genre (some say first, others say Deep Purple did it beforehand), but it holds up really well even today. The songs have great riffs and some really great atmosphere, backed up by some good variety in the form of songs such as Planet Caravan and Fairies Wear Boots. This is an album that I feel like most people calling themselves metal fans have heard, and if not, get onto that, not to mention the fact that it would be a pretty great entry level metal album in general, as nothing is particularly challenging to listen to here, and everything sounds absolutely great. I can definitely see how this was one of the albums to originallly get me into music in the first place, since I still see such value in it.

Best songs: Planet Caravan, Hand Of Doom, War Pigs

Weakest songs: None

Verdict: An excellent metal album that hits all the right notes and is simply excellent. While not reaching the same sort of heights as some other albums in the genre, this is nonetheless an extremely good album, and and absolutely essential one to anybody even slightly interested in hard rock and metal.