Black Sabbath
Paranoid
Paranoid: the 1971 Rolling Stone pan that got heavy metal wrong
Released in the UK on 18 September 1970, Paranoid fixed the doom-metal template. A contemporary hostile review by Nick Tosches in Rolling Stone, alongside chart results with their dates.
The verdict at the time
Nick Tosches reviewed Paranoid for Rolling Stone on 15 April 1971 with open hostility, wrapping the band in Satanic clichés and misogynist Manson-family jokes, mistaking Black Sabbath for peers in Black Widow and dismissing the record as teenage provocation rather than music.
Chart peaks
European positions are listed by country. Later chart entries are labelled separately.
Sources & context
One critic's opinion, summarised from Nick Tosches's original Rolling Stone review of 15 April 1971. The album is now recognised as a foundational doom-metal document and appears on Rolling Stone's greatest-albums lists.
