Paranoid
by Black Sabbath
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Black Sabbath bestography
Paranoid is ranked as the best album by Black Sabbath.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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Paranoid track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 87 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Paranoid rankings
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 2 hours ago).
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Paranoid ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 2,131 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 5 days ago |  HoldenM | 1,847 | 84/100 |
| ! | 07/23/2026 02:05 | stryker700 | 295 | 90/100 |
| ! | 07/10/2026 12:27 | jimdipanfilo | 12 | 81/100 |
| ! | 06/18/2026 02:06 |  AvalancheGrips | 777 | 85/100 |
| ! | 06/05/2026 20:25 | Retsamr | 53 | 85/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 86.2/100, a mean average of 85.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 86.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.2.
Paranoid favourites
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Paranoid comments
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HoldenM 5 days ago | #315484
Rocks so hard. Sabbath is the truth.
Goodbye flower power, welcome doom!
I can't get enough of Bill Wards drumming, the solo in rat salad is brimming with energy.
Rest In Peace Ozzy 🕊️✝️😈🔥
This is the 1st heavy metal album that caught my ear with lots of bass and hot guitar licks. Every song has great pace. War Pigs and Iron Man must be the most recognized songs from this band. Even my kids born in the late 90’s love this album and Master of Reality.
A solid 8/10 album for the casual listener. Tracks 1,2,4,5 are great, the rest are just OK. I can definitely see why metal heads would rate this even higher, though.
Side 1 is possibly one of the greatest sides in hard rock / early heavy metal.
"War Pigs" set the bar for heavy metal protest songs; truly a classic.
"Paranoid" was 20 years ahead of its time; many of the new wave and synth pop bands of the 80s owe their style to that song alone.
"Planet Caravan" has some wonderful guitar work and nice percussion and smooth bass work. This is almost a smooth Jazz/samba fusion; not something you'd hear on a heavy metal album, but you hear it here. A relaxing song, but not quite up to the level of the first two tracks.
"Iron Man" is an iconic heavy metal song with a riff that is played to this day. The song sounds like a fusion of southern rock and heavy metal.
Side Two is very good, but simply can't match the excellence of side one. That being said, this is truly a landmark album in the history of 20th Century popular music.
9.5/10!
Still one of the greatest albums of all time. Despite having heard War Pigs, Iron Man and Paranoid too many times in my life, this is the quintessential heavy metal album.
JoaoMoreira 02/09/2024 01:05 | #301840
Solid as fuck record.
Strong, wide and heavy with a purpose.
Great musicianship!
Masterpiece. The riffs and guitar tone on this album are some of the greatest ever put to record. Ozzy is in his absolute prime here.
5 Stars.
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