Classic Albums: Black Sabbath - Paranoid (2010)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Original Black Sabbath members Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Tony Iommi are joined by Henry Rollins and various others as they discuss the making of the album "Paranoid" and the influence it had on all future metal albums. Sabbath fans should enjoy this look back at the making of the album and especially since everyone involved with it are here talking about it. We get a brief rundown of the band before this album and then everything else is pretty much devoted to Paranoid. We hear about the first few songs written and how the album began to take shape over time. The dark tone of the album is addressed as the band members talk about what they were going for and how they got it. The lyrics are also a bit topic as it's clear they wanted to do "protest" songs that at one time was being done by Bob Dylan. They talk about how they wanted the songs to have a message and how the album was originally going to be called "War Pigs" but record producers feared that title wouldn't go over too well in America. The song Paranoid also gets discussed as it was the last song done for the album and we hear why it was included and how the members came up with it in the matter of minutes. As is usual for the series, some of the highlights include us going into the mixing studio where we hear different aspects of the album including vocal only tracks or certain guitar tracks before they were put together.