Black Sabbath - Paranoid

We can argue up and down, left and right over the true beginnings of Heavy Metal as we know it. The only consensus that truly matters is that Black Sabbath fucking rules. Their second album Paranoid is a sludgy slab of sinister bliss of the highest caliber; the single versions of “War Pigs” and “Iron Man” just do not do the album versions justice as both are expanded into glorious jams that extend far beyond the Iommi riffs we all know by heart. The biggest surprises come from the gentle flutes and bongos of “Planet Caravan,” featuring some downright lovely vocals from Ozzy, and the jazz flourishes cracking through the bridge of “Electric Funeral.” Endlessly quotable, never replicated, still a stunner 50 plus years on.

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