The Devil Cried - SingleSingle · 2007–No score yet
Paranoid - SingleSingle · 1998–No score yet
Black SabbathEP · 19708.8
Their music on the show
2 songs · 2 episodes
Played on the show
As music, the show happened about them — their songs, played to other people’s guests. These are the records above it played from, with each song and the episodes it went to.
Truly the closest anyone has ever gotten to creating a new genre within an album. But while they literally spawned an entire genre from this album, no one has quite been able to recreate this sound, this base, those vivid lyrics, themselves included. I love this album with all my heart
Great first album to a great band. The start of the run of albums which has the famous line “you can only trust yourself and the first six Black Sabbath albums”
Standout tracks
1Black Sabbath6:18
2The Wizard4:22
3Wasp / Behind the Wall of Sleep / Bassically / N.I.B.9:43
I never listened to a Black Sabbath album in my life until this one a year ago. I’m so far gone now, I will put Ozzy up there with Elvis, Dylan, The Stones, The Beatles, Prince as a life changing artist for me.
Standout tracks
1Black Sabbath6:18
2The Wizard4:22
3Wasp / Behind the Wall of Sleep / Bassically / N.I.B.9:43
This is Black Sabbath at their finest and the only reason I gave it a 9 is the song Am I Going Insane but everything else is required listening for heavy metal fans
9/10 — A solid album and one of Black Sabbath’s most iconic records.
Paranoid is Black Sabbath at their heaviest, most direct, and most influential. From the explosive opening of “War Pigs” to the unforgettable “Paranoid,” “Iron Man,” “Electric Funeral,” and “Hand of Doom,” the album delivers one classic riff after another while establishing the blueprint for heavy metal.
What makes it so memorable is its combination of crushing guitar work, Ozzy Osbourne’s distinctive vocals, dark atmosphere, and powerful songwriting. The songs are heavy and aggressive, but they also explore themes of war, addiction, paranoia, and social unrest, giving the album more depth than its raw sound might initially suggest. Although it is not completely flawless, its influence and consistency are undeniable.
A solid 9/10 and an essential Black Sabbath album. It remains one of the defining records in heavy metal and a landmark album that helped shape the sound of rock music for decades to come.
What I love most about Paranoid is what it did to music in 1970. This wasn’t simply a heavy record; it helped define an entire genre. Tony Iommi turned a devastating workplace accident into a completely new guitar vocabulary, Geezer Butler made the bass gallop underneath it like something enormous coming toward you, and Bill Ward attacked his little jazz kit like it owed him rent. Underneath all that weight were lyrics about war, paranoia, alienation and political hypocrisy that still feel relevant. Few albums have had this much influence on everything that came after them.