PARANOID

Only three stars? Yes. This is a progressive rock sight. I will review it as a progressive rock album. If this were a metal site, this album would get five stars, but it is not. I selected three stars because in the eyes of a prog fan, it is a good album, but it is not essential to listen to it.

The songs "War Pigs", "Planet Caravan", "Hand of Doom", and "Fairies Wear Boots" can be classified as prog. The remaining four songs are fine heavy metal ("Iron Man" and "Paranoid" being metal classics), but have no prog elements to them.

"War Pigs" starts off the album with powerful heavy metal riffs to drive the song. These riffs drive the song throughout, only stopping when Ozzy tales his wartime tales. We have some fine soloing courtesy of the great Tony Iommi, and the songs ends with a fine guitar segment called "Luke's Wall." A fine way to start the album off. We then go to "Paranoid", while it is a fantastic rock song, it is not prog in any way.

The album then leads into "Planet Caravan", quite possibly the softest song ever created by a heavy metal band. The song could be easily qualify under psychedelia. Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler give a jazzy feeling to the song while Bill's light percussion drives us through this spacey adventure. Even Ozzy's vocals are soft and beautiful (surprisingly, but he is using a mike effect for it). The album then delves into the metal classic "Iron Man" and the terrifying "Electric Funeral". Like before, not prog, but great metal.

"Hand of Doom" appears next, and uses the common prog metal technique of alternating between soft and heavy passages. An instrumental follows called "Rat Salad" follows, and it is probably the weakest song on the album. The album closes with the Jimi Hendrixesque "Fairies Wear Boots". The opening is somewhat similar to the psychedelic rock of the late 60's. The song itself is amusing, talking about seeing aliens and fairies, but finding out that the narrator just smoked too much dope.

Like I stated, prog fans may find interest in songs such as "War Pigs" or "Planet Caravan", but will not find much interest in the metal numbers. Good album for a prog fan, but ultimately, non-essential to their collection.