Black Sabbath Paranoid

from allmusic:
With Paranoid, Black Sabbath perfected the formula for their lumbering heavy metal. On its follow-up, Master of Reality, the group merely repeated the formula, setting the stage for a career of recycling the same sounds and riffs. But on Master of Reality Sabbath still were fresh and had a seemingly endless supply of crushingly heavy riffs to bludgeon their audiences into sweet, willing oblivion. If the album is a showcase for anyone, it is Tony Iommi, who keeps the album afloat with a series of slow, loud riffs, the best of which — "Sweet Leaf" and "Children of the Grave" among them — rank among his finest playing. Taken in tandem with the more consistent Paranoid, Master of Reality forms the core of Sabbath's canon. There are a few stray necessary tracks scattered throughout the group's other early-'70s albums, but Master of Reality is the last time they delivered a consistent album and its influence can be heard throughout the generations of heavy metal bands that followed.

Black Sabbath - Past Lives (2002) [2CD] {2010 Sanctuary Records Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 840 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 280 Mb
Full Artwork @ 400 dpi (png) -> 214 Mb
© 2010 Sanctuary Records | 2749907
Rock / Hard Rock

Hot on the heels of Ozzy Osbourne's rebirth as a pop culture icon comes PAST LIVES, Black Sabbath's first official Ozzy-era live recording. Initially released as an unauthorized 1980 recording called LIVE AT LAST, disc one takes the same material and considerably cleans up its fidelity. The album was recorded at a pair of 1973 UK shows in Manchester and London. Among the thunderous standards trotted out are "Sweet Leaf," "War Pigs," "Snowblind," and of course "Paranoid." Still decades away from the neurological damage caused by long-time drug and alcohol abuse, Ozzy is in fine fettle, incessantly declaring his love for the crowd when he's not exhorting them to clap.

A sequel to the 2004 set Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978, Rules of Hell rounds up all the Black Sabbath albums with Ronnie James Dio, beginning with 1980's Heaven and Hell and its 1981 follow-up Mob Rules, spending two discs on the 1982 live album Live Evil, then skipping forward a decade for Dehumanizer, Sabbath's reunion with Dio…

Considered by many to be the first heavy metal band, Black Sabbath was formed in 1968 by Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward…

A Limited edition 12” clamshell box set which contains: Deluxe double CD album, 12” heavyweight (180g) vinyl album in a gatefold sleeve, Exclusive DVD containing “Black Sabbath - The Re-union” documentary, plus 5 behind-the-scenes videos, 13 exclusive photographic prints and hand written album lyrics.

By the mid-'70s, a number of problems were threatening to break up the original line-up of Black Sabbath. The stress brought on by lengthy touring, drug use, and alcoholism had begun to dilute the band's original, influential heavy metal. Sabbath began to drift away from the straight-ahead power rock of such classic albums as PARANOID and SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH, as evidenced by its final two albums to feature singer Ozzy Osbourne, 1976's TECHNICAL ECSTASY and 1978's NEVER SAY DIE. However, TECHNICAL ECSTASY does contain some intriguing, overlooked tracks…