This is a true classic of the genre and is the oldest album in my collection. For some reason I don't own Black Sabbath's debut. Pretty crazy. Well this is when Black Sabbath really moved away from being a heavy blues/rock band and began to polish the sound which would become heavy metal. There was some metallic stuff on the debut, but it wasn't clear at that time what the band's sound would be normally.This album has several of the absolute classics on it: "War Pigs", "Paranoid", and of course "Iron Man". Each of these songs is burned into the brain of metalheads everywhere. But, the best song on there and quite possibly the greatest heavy metal riff of all time is "Electric Funeral", an amazing song from start to finish. "Hand of Doom" is another highly influential, underrated song. The title is where the doom metal genre gets its name and this is one of the earlier examples of the style, although the song "Black Sabbath" off the debut is the earliest.
There are a few tracks on here that show the band's blues influence, in particular the instrumental "Rat Salad" which features an extended drum solo of all things.
This is one of my favorite Black Sabbath albums, but not my absolute favorite. It is interesting to hear this and realize that the band released this album in 1970. It sounds just as fresh and vital today.
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