Electric Funeral - Release, Reception and Legacy

Release, Reception and Legacy

In the decades succeeding its initial distribution, Paranoid has been regarded by many as Black Sabbath's best album, and by some the best heavy metal album of all time. The "Paranoid" single, released before the album, reached number four in the UK. Pushed by its success, the album hit number one in the UK, and is the only Black Sabbath album to have done so. The US release was held until January 1971, as the Black Sabbath album was still on the charts at the time of Paranoid's UK release. The album broke into the top twenty in the US in March 1971, and would go on to sell four million copies in the US alone. Paranoid's chart success in the US allowed the band to tour there for the first time in October 1970. This spawned the release of the album's second single "Iron Man", and although it failed to reach the top 40, "Iron Man" remains one of Black Sabbath's most popular songs. In addition, it is considered to be Vertigo's breakthrough release.

Like its predecessor the album was panned by music critics of the era, with Robert Christgau grading it a C−, though admitting that the band took "heavy to undreamt-of extremes." However, modern-day music critics are much more favourable towards the album than those of the time. Allmusic's Steve Huey cites Paranoid as "one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time", which "defined the sound and style of metal, more than any other record in history" and Ben Mitchell of Blender calling it "the greatest metal album of all time".

• In 1989, Kerrang! magazine listed the album at No. 39 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".
• In 1999, Q magazine (12/99, p. 170) included it in their list of The Best Gothic Albums Of All Time, writing that, " stamped their bombastic and doom-laden imprint on British rock forever."
• In 1999, Vibe (12/99, p. 162) included it on their list of 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.
• In 2003, the album was ranked number 130 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
• In 2006, the album was ranked number 6 on Guitar World magazine's list of The Greatest 100 Guitar Albums of All Time.
• In 2010, Paranoid was covered as part of the Classic Albums documentary series, which examines albums "considered the best or most distinctive of a well known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music".

Prog-Sphere.com's Conor Fynes writes that Paranoid is "not quite perfect, but it's fairly close, especially considering that the sound of heavy metal was still so young. At the very least, it deserves its status as a classic. With memorable songwriting, evocative lyrics and some of the best riffs ever written, who could ask for more?"