The Album Review Club - *** Christmas Break Playlist (next album 7/1/26) ***

OB1 said:
I was in the crowd at the Cow Shed for Queen on the Day at the Races tour and some twat puked next to us. Obviously a tightly packed crowd! Great gig though, famous even because it inspired We Are The Champios due to the crowd ver loudly singing You’ll Never Walk Alone before the encore.
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Does this mean that you are admitting to also singing "YNWA"?
You do have an out for "peer pressure"
 
Have to say that having read a couple of the comments before I gave this the first listen, I cannot get out of my mind the "Cream on steroids" comment. Once again an album supported by the strength of the bass/drum, with Ward/Butler being excellent to my ears. Although I'm not that enamoured of the rest of it. A couple more listens needed.
 
Black Sabbath one part of the unholy trinity.....Black sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. Boy the early 1970's were really the halcyon days for British hard rock.

Regards the thread the album Black Sabbath (taken from a Boris Karloff film, they used to be called Earth) introduced the World to that sound, plus the singing of dark lyrics, which no-one else was doing at the time.
 
Mr Ed (The Stables) said:
Black Sabbath one part of the unholy trinity.....Black sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. Boy the early 1970's were really the halcyon days for British hard rock

Regards the thread the album Black Sabbath (taken from a Boris Karloff film, they used to be called Earth) introduced the World to that sound, plus the singing of dark lyrics, which no-one else was doing at the time.
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three very different bands. Each with its own history, sound and discography. They shouldn't really be bracketed together.
 
Unburdened as I am from the iconic influence this record had 54 years ago, I feel I can be very objective. And I think this record is slow and boring and kind of stupid. Influential? It’s unmistakeable. The Halloween-esque aura may be KISS-like in what is was supposed to convey rather than real, but that’s fine — and if it was new at the time, more power to them. But the endless blues solos? The insipid lyrics? The tempos mired in the mud? Ozzy with absolutely no sense of humo(u)r? Is this enjoyable or just heavy? To me it’s just heavy — and heavy means lugubrious, not impactful. Why do I like “Paranoid”? Because the BPMs are at least 150. Hell, they’re at least 50! It’s light on its feet. As with Metallica whose big fat hits made them worth it as a novelty, so goes Black Sabbath — here and there they hit me in the gut, just not on this record. Blues played loudly and competently and occasionally innovatively is fine. But I walk away unable (maybe more like unwilling) to get anything out of a single song. And while their sound is their own, it’s as comforting as the potholes I know will show up on San Francisco streets every February, meaning I endure it begrudgingly. So I won’t deny the accomplishment of something new at the time nor the influence on countless bands. But, simply put, I don’t have any desire to hear this again. Especially when I can hear “I Don’t Know” or “Over The Mountain” and chuckle (either with or at Ozzy) and marvel at the spectacular talent Randy Rhoads was.

4/10. I debated giving an extra point for one of the great band names of all time. But this record put me in a foul mood, so they get nothing. Sorry all.
 
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FogBlueInSanFran said:
Unburdened as I am from the iconic influence this record had 54 years ago, I feel I can be very objective. And I think this record is slow and boring and kind of stupid. Influential? It’s unmistakeable. The Halloween-esque aura may be KISS-like in what is was supposed to convey rather than real, but that’s fine — and if it was new at the time, more power to them. But the endless blues solos? The insipid lyrics? The tempos mired in the mud? Ozzy with absolutely no sense of humo(u)r? Is this enjoyable or just heavy? To me it’s just heavy — and heavy means lugubrious, not impactful. Why do I like “Paranoid”? Because the BPMs are at least 150. Hell, they’re at least 50! It’s light on its feet. As with Metallica whose big fat hits made them worth it as a novelty, so goes Black Sabbath — here and there they hit me in the gut, just not on this record. Blues played loudly and competently and occasionally innovatively is fine. But I walk away unable (maybe more like unwilling) to get anything out of a single song. And while their sound is their own, it’s as comforting as the potholes I know will show up on San Francisco streets every February, meaning I endure it begrudgingly. So I won’t deny the accomplishment of something new at the time nor the influence on countless bands. But, simply put, I don’t have any desire to hear this again. Especially when I can hear “I Don’t Know” or “Over The Mountain” and chuckle (either with or at Ozzy) and marvel at the spectacular talent Randy Rhoads was.

4/10. I debated giving an extra point for one of the great band names of all time. But this record put me in a foul mood, so they get nothing. Sorry all.
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Paranoid the album 3 times faster than this?
I don’t think so.
All together now, I am Iron Maaaaaaaan,……
 
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The opening song, was a bit of a struggle. I just didn't quite get what it was trying to do. Good heavy guitars, background sound, vocals fine, but is it setting up a cinematic mood album, is it a phantom of the opera type musical story, what's it doing! Weird.

After that, once The Wizzard kick in, enjoyed the rest of the album, which went to a more conventional song format. A band I have never found time for, but I think given the bands I like from a couple decades later, think it was a question of how much, rather than if, I would like this.

Yes, some songs are quite self indulgent. Yes they tend to go on a bit. I have learned to like that, and know how to lose myself in those repeating riffs that move me just with their sheer thickness and musical 'smoke' around them. Like Sleep, Wo Fat, Hermano etc tend to (I accept likely taken from Sabbath), the ongoing cycle of songs like that works on me.

Punctuated then, by the interwoven extravagant guitar blues solos. In some ways, that adds a richness to it. In others, it maybe highlights the repetition more, than just losing a sense of time nodding along to heavy riffs and bass.

The mood is daring, and consistent. Has the doom that again I like, and was noticeable in the Budos band for example. Yet for all the heavy metal origin on display here, I think it is the blues undertone that really makes it work. Warning was my favourite song on the album.

Had a listen to their next couple albums as well. While they are more polished and maybe easier to take in, I am glad GD put this one up. As the debut, there seems a more 'fuck it, try it' attitude to it. Those creases seem ironed out later on, but have a pureness to them.

Overall musically, probably somewhere close to a 7. On it's own, as an album. But then given its likely influence on bands I really like, Kyuss, Brant Bjork's stuff, QOTSA and even the new Greenleaf album I listened just last week, I think I owe it more. Whether it was consciously borrowd, inadvertent or even just opened doors for bands finding audiences for it, got to give it an extra point for that, an overall 8 from me.
 
Had it for years, and not listened to it for years, simply because imo they have far better albums. I was too young when it came out to appreciate the fact it was 'different' to anything preceding it, and when I first got it, I was slightly disappointed that it wasn't as 'dark' as made out....maybe it would have been if I got it around it's release?
Still better than albums that aren't 'my thing' but I like rock/metal and there's far better albums by Sabbath and other bands.
6.
 
Coatigan said:
Had a listen to their next couple albums as well. While they are more polished and maybe easier to take in, I am glad GD put this one up. As the debut, there seems a more 'fuck it, try it' attitude to it. Those creases seem ironed out later on, but have a pureness to them.
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Glad you enjoyed it - I’m sure I read an Iommi quote somewhere about the third album where the fans didn’t want all the pop tunes that appeared on Paranoid and wanted them to get back to the more basic sound.
Given your penchant for heavier stuff give Kulk a try - their latest album is a real belter
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Unburdened as I am from the iconic influence this record had 54 years ago, I feel I can be very objective. And I think this record is slow and boring and kind of stupid. Influential? It’s unmistakeable. The Halloween-esque aura may be KISS-like in what is was supposed to convey rather than real, but that’s fine — and if it was new at the time, more power to them. But the endless blues solos? The insipid lyrics? The tempos mired in the mud? Ozzy with absolutely no sense of humo(u)r? Is this enjoyable or just heavy? To me it’s just heavy — and heavy means lugubrious, not impactful. Why do I like “Paranoid”? Because the BPMs are at least 150. Hell, they’re at least 50! It’s light on its feet. As with Metallica whose big fat hits made them worth it as a novelty, so goes Black Sabbath — here and there they hit me in the gut, just not on this record. Blues played loudly and competently and occasionally innovatively is fine. But I walk away unable (maybe more like unwilling) to get anything out of a single song. And while their sound is their own, it’s as comforting as the potholes I know will show up on San Francisco streets every February, meaning I endure it begrudgingly. So I won’t deny the accomplishment of something new at the time nor the influence on countless bands. But, simply put, I don’t have any desire to hear this again. Especially when I can hear “I Don’t Know” or “Over The Mountain” and chuckle (either with or at Ozzy) and marvel at the spectacular talent Randy Rhoads was.

4/10. I debated giving an extra point for one of the great band names of all time. But this record put me in a foul mood, so they get nothing. Sorry all.
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Ha, ha, ha. Foul mood! You sound like a 1970’s parent whose teenage son brought the album home and played it loud.
 
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