PARANOID

I'll get straight to the point; Paranoid is in my opinion a letdown compared to the amazing debut album and the release that would follow. It's still a decent Heavy Metal classic but outside of having all the biggest hits of Black Sabbath's early years there's just not enough of much else to help the music not to lose some of it's energy towards the second half of the album.

I like the idea of the band mixing up moods and styles this time around but can't help the feeling that they loose the perfectly balanced groove that was so clear on the debut album. Clearly, Paranoid is an album of individual moments and not a complete album experience which poses quite a concern for me since I generally prefer a complete album experience instead of hearing a few hits. I've also never been a huge fan of War Pigs or Iron Man, both of which I've already heard to death. The title track is a different story since it's short and very sweet experience.

Planet Caravan is a track that never made much sense to me. Placed between Paranoid and Iron Man for a possible purpose of adding a calm moment right before the Iron Man riff storms in and blows the listener away. This does work in theory, but practically it just ruins the whole mood that the album has been building up to this point. Electric Funeral is another track that I love almost as much as I hate. The buildup and the riffs are quite decent but the hopscotching vocals just never worked for me as I guess that they're suppose to. Hand Of Doom is a long track giving us the first signs of experimentation but the end result just isn't all that memorable. Rat Salad is a quite unnecessary composition that sounds more like a jam that the band recorded spontaneously in the studio and just added in to mix in order to shake things up even further. Fairies Wear Boots brings the album to a surprisingly effective ending which unfortunately fades when the rest of the record is taken into the account.

I really don't care if I offend anyone with my remarks since this type of sloppiness have gone on unnoticed for too long and just has to be pointed out to anyone who has a biased outlook on this release. Fortunately things would get a whole lot better with Sabbath's next release that showed exactly how a great album complete album experiences should sound like!

***** star songs: Paranoid (2:47)

**** star songs: War Pigs (7:55) Iron Man (5:53) Electric Funeral (4:47) Hand Of Doom (7:07) Fairies Wear Boots (6:13)

*** star songs: Planet Caravan (4:24) Rat Salad (2:29)