Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

However it's worth pointing out there was more to 1970 than just Zeppelin and Sabbath, the birth of a new decade also saw the birth of three of heavy music's great superstars Aerosmith, Judas Priest and Queen. While those bands were just forming, over in America they were proving that metal wasn't purely a British phenomena as Guess Who released their well remembered American Woman LP and Alice Cooper continued to find himself on Easy Action. Yet despite these notable releases this year belonged to three albums; Led Zeppelin's III, Black Sabbath's self titled debut and of course the album I have chosen to represent 1970 in the time line:

While there is certainly some debate as to whether Paranoid or Black Sabbath's self titled debut album was the true landmark in metal history, there is no doubting that when it comes to heavy metal and changing the shape of music history Black Sabbath and Paranoid are as big and important as it gets. Coming just seven months after their game changing debut Paranoid truly turned the world on it's head. Not just because it was bigger, better and more focused than their iconic debut but because Paranoid was a commercial triumph. This was the moment when the dark gloomy bleak and terrifying world of metal music invaded the mainstream. Sure Zeppelin were heavy, but they were dark, they weren't oppressive, they didn't feel like an other worldly cult; whereas Black Sabbath of course did. "Paranoid" the albums lead staggeringly reached number four in the UK singles chart (forty years on and metallers can only dream of that sort of achievement) and even more miraculously they just about made the US single chart with absolutely no exposure and no radio play. This was unthinkable, it was nearly inexplicable, but it happened, finally metal had arrived.

To think of Paranoid as just a commercial statement of intent sells this album tragically short, it was so much more than that. It was a hit laden monster; on top of "Paranoid", Sabbath gave us a riff second only to "Smoke On The Water" in it's recognizability in the form of the monstrous "Iron Man", and of course then their was "War Pigs". A track so OTT, and so preposterous it should never have worked, it's guitar work is rudimentary, it's theatrics are ludicrious and Ozzy's lyrics are frankly ridiculous, but no one cared because it rocked hard, it sounded gorgeous and it was just too much fun. Sometimes the best way to tackle a board theme is with bludgeoning simplicity and that's what "War Pigs" achieved. Aside from the obvious hits Paranoid was an album that sounded delicious, "Planet Caravan" was the perfect cultish groove-athon to tee up the imposing "Iron Man". "Electric Funeral" simply sounded monstrous, with it's apocalyptic riffing and Ozzy playing the role of the demented preacher warning us all of the world's impending doom. "Hand Of Doom" took the quiet-loud blues rawk dynamic and stretched it the nth while combining it with a creepy down tuned bassline that set the template for forty years of metal expansion. The whole experience is wrapped up perfectly by "Faires Wear Boots" a six minute odyssey that sums up everything that made Sabbath special, it was big, it was overblown, it was ludicrous; but it was loud, groovy and satisfying as hell. It's all these crazy elements and all these obvious weaknesses that should create an unlistenable mess but instead came together to make one of the most thrilling and satisfying albums of all time. Is it the greatest metal album of all time? Who knows, but it'd damn good, and hellishly loud and sometimes that's all you need.