{"id":309,"date":"2016-01-08T08:54:43","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T08:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.wordpress.com\/?p=309"},"modified":"2016-01-10T08:39:16","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T08:39:16","slug":"black-sabbath-introduced-heavy-metal-to-the-masses-45-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/?p=309","title":{"rendered":"BLACK SABBATH INTRODUCED HEAVY METAL TO THE MASSES 45 YEARS AGO"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 7, 1971\u00a0Black Sabbath<\/strong> laid the foundation with the groundbreaking release of Paranoid<\/strong>. After a storming production with the band’s self-titled debut, the heavy metal pioneers served their most successful album to the states on this day.<\/p>\n

Coming right out of the gate with the group’s smash hit singles, no time is wasted within the 40 minute run time as each track captures the early innovation being constructed from each member of the classic lineup.<\/p>\n

An LP that centered its tone around a tuned down guitar and sinister vocals created the most revolutionary impact in rock history. Setting the bar to an incomprehensible level, Sabbath<\/strong> built standards that even challenged the great Led Zeppelin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Paranoid<\/strong> sent shivers down people’s spines with the eerie voice of Ozzy Osbourne, from\u00a0his political tirade in War Pigs<\/em> to an echoed powerhouse in the title number. Tony Iommi showed no mercy on his Gibson SG, cranking out an abundance of memorable material from the doomy riff of Electric Funeral<\/em> to the dramatically\u00a0amplified\u00a0one in Iron Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The thunderous bass line of Geezer Butler gives this album the layer of thickness it needs to emphasize the genre in which Paranoid<\/strong> is setting forth. And who could forget the sheer intensity of Bill Ward in action? Even the instrumental, Rat Salad<\/em>, put the drummer’s skills in the well deserved spotlight.<\/p>\n

Opening with a song like War Pigs<\/em> is only the introduction to this 4X platinum selling release with plenty of chants, bridges and everything required to make the all-around perfect metal anthem.<\/p>\n

Paranoid<\/em> and Iron Man<\/em> are great examples of how less can equal more in songs. Driven by not-so technically innovative riffs yet still packing a bigger punch than anything you’ve heard in the least amount of chords.<\/p>\n

One of Sabbath’s best representations of tone mastery is the first track off of side two: Electric Funeral<\/em>, ringing out with Iommi’s most compelling riff alongside Ozzy’s one syllable singing. It’s probably the creepiest thing you’ve ever heard, but you can’t get enough of it.<\/p>\n

Despite the nearly half a century gap between now and the time listeners were first caught trying to figure out what the hell to make of it, Paranoid remains a national monument of music. A masterpiece for taking the style of Led Zeppelin<\/strong> and giving it the dark underbelly that the 70’s weren’t prepared for.<\/p>\n

Sabbath came from the same era that gave birth to The Beatles<\/strong> and The Rolling Stones<\/strong> except they weren’t playing flower power. Instead, they became the band who defined the new decade’s taste in music and generated\u00a0a new breed of genres.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that’s why Paranoid<\/strong> goes down as arguably the best heavy metal album of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 7, 1971\u00a0Black Sabbath laid the foundation with the groundbreaking release of Paranoid. After a storming production with the band’s self-titled debut, the heavy […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,8,14,16,18,41,88,130],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-this-date","tag-70s-hard-rock","tag-70s-heavy-metal","tag-bill-ward","tag-black-sabbath","tag-black-sabbath-paranoid","tag-geezer-butler","tag-ozzy-osbourne","tag-tony-iommi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Black-Sabbath-Paranoid.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364,"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudsoundepicenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}