Black Sabbath - Paranoid: Deluxe Expanded Edition

Metal gurus’ finest hour with all the trimmings

1970, heavy metal’s Year Zero, was a busy one for Black Sabbath. The Aston quartet’s self-titled debut album came out in February, and the follow-up, the sleeker, more sinister Paranoid, followed just seven months later. With sharper edges and nastier riffs than Sabbath’s much bigger contemporaries Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, the album made it clear to any doubters that heavy metal didn’t just have to be about hobbits and sports cars. The tracklisting is a legendary roll-call to this day – headbangers the world over still recite the hallowed “War Pigs, Paranoid, Planet Caravan, Iron Man, Electric Funeral, Hand Of Doom, Rat Salad, Fairies Wear Boots” mantra four decades later.

This buffed-up 3-CD reissue adds the 1974 quadrophonic mix and eight alternate versions of the established songs. The quad mix wasn’t available as we went to press, but we’re guessing that without a 5.1 retweak it’s only of curiosity value. The bonus tracks are far more intriguing, however, with six instrumental versions of the songs and new cuts of Paranoid and Planet Caravan with alternate lyrics. The former in particular is unnerving: hearing Ozzy Osbourne wail something vague about occult visions instead of the expected “Finished with my woman ’cause she couldn’t help me with my mind” just feels wrong.

Universal | 1782444 (3-CD)

Reviewed by Joel McIver
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