This album defined what Black Sabbath invented: a new genre of hard rock music called "heavy metal." It rose to number 1 on the Billboard charts in the U.S. and the U.K. It established Black Sabbath as a force to be reckoned with. It has spawned countless bands that aspire to Black Sabbath's ascendency as "the godfathers of heavy metal." But no band has yet to supersede Black Sabbath. Given the fact that Black Sabbath established an entirely new genre of music, no band can assume its mantle, ever. Iommi's distinctive original style of monster riffs and finger shredding guitar solos is easily recognizable on every Black Sabbath album, especially the Paranoid album in which nearly every song is what fans loved to hear during the "13" tour and "The End" tour. With every new album Black Sabbath released during its 49 year run, the Sabbath sound is easily recognizable due to Iommi's unique guitar playing that no other band can lay claim to.Read full review
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Most of you should be legally required to know this, but Black Sabbath's Paranoid is one of the greatest albums ever released. It is brimming with classic material from start to finish, and has aged remarkably well in the 39 years since it's release. But what about this 3-Disc Deluxe Edition? Is it a phenomenal extension of what we have? Or a poor attempt at a new version of the album that is built to rob us of our money? The Good: First offf, and thank god, this was remastered well. Unlike the deluxe edition of The Who's Who's Next and Beck's Odelay, which were both ruined by enoughing terrible EQing to make a city go deaf, Black Sabbath's Paranoid is nicely remastered. Although it is a little bit louder than other versions, it doesn't take away from the album. Worse case, you just slightly lower the volume and you are fine. Also, the new material on the third disc is a combo of different versions of the great songs; first, some songs are with their original lyrics (though Paranoid's original lyrics are horrifically bad; so bad, the Backstreet Boys god awful music seems decent in comparison); other songs are stripped of the vocals (and some background guitar, but I'll get to that) to become instrumentals, no doubt giving Black Sabbath tribute band singers perfect practice material.........just kidding! The booklet looking back at the album is a nice read, which gives a good example of what the booklet for a deluxe edition should say..... Lastly, the surround sound mix on the album is just awesome, breathing new live and adding a new dimension to this classic. The Bad: This is going to be very, very nitpicky, but this is just my opinion: First off, no live material. I know Black Sabbath hates releasing old live material, but c'mon; give us some love here! Secondly, there is no songs that didn't appear on the original album; no cut songs, no early versions of what appeared on later albums; nothing. Lastly, it was disapointing that there was nothing on the DVD other than the album. It's amazing they didn't do any interviews, documentary, making-of for this album, which is weird considering there is a documentary on this album available on dvd; they could have at least did what AC/DC did for Back In Black on DualDisc, and had a heavily edited down half-hour piece from that documentary on this DVD. It just sucks they didn't let us get an even deeper look into the album (excluding the excellent booklet) Overall, even with the bad things I mentioned above, this album is still so mindblowingly awesome, it is a must buy, must listen too, must worship every day album, and the deluxe edition does breathe excellent new life into the album. Quite simply, do the world a favor, and buy it!Read full review
This collection is very good. You get the original mix, a remastered mix and the quad mix on 2 CDs and 1 DVD. There are also some rarities included. The quad mix was done in '74, and technology has come a long way since then. The surround mix could be better (I've heard better and much worse), but this is probably going to be the only Sabbath music in surround. Maybe Steven Wilson, Elliot Scheiner or Bob Clearmountain can remix some other Sabbath music. We can only hope!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Incredible re-release! The multi-channel surround mix is like hearing it for the first time all over again (put it in DTS mix for the ultimate experience!). A couple re-mixes which keep things fresh as well... simply put - quite possibly the most significant recording to come out of the seventies right along with Dark Side of the Moon! Stands the test of time with flying colors... can certainly be appreciated by both the young and old. A required recording to any rock music collection.
This a "cool Black Sabbath CD" to add to my "collection"!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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