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Album
Paranoid
Black Sabbath →2,158,354 listeners29,916,124 plays
heavy metalhard rockclassic rockmetalrock
about this album
"Paranoid" is the second album by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in September 1970 through Vertigo Records. The album consists of some of the band's most readily identifiable work including "Iron Man", "War Pigs", and "Paranoid". The album is regarded as a classic, and one of the most influential of the heavy metal genre. It has been certified quadruple platinum with over four million copies in the US alone, making it Black Sabbath's best-selling album. 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 ten in the US in March 1971, and would go on to sell four million copies in the US alone, with virtually no radio airplay. The chart success of "Paranoid" in the US allowed the band to tour there for the first time in December 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. The album was again panned by music critics of the era. However, modern-day music critics are much more favourable towards the album than those of the time. An example is Allmusic's Steve Huey, who cites "Paranoid" as "one of the greatest and most influenti
