Black Sabbath: Ranking Every Ozzy Osbourne Album From Worst To Best
2. Paranoid
The record by which many metal artists hold themselves accountable, to an extent, the group's sophomore effort - released just seven months after their debut album - remains their most enduring in popular culture, in no small part thanks to its title track and breakthrough single.
The freewheeling, frantic burst of Paranoid was reportedly penned and recorded in under two hours, as a throwaway filler cut to help pad out the album, with none of the band expecting much from it. Instead, it took them to four in the UK Singles Chart and remains their biggest hit.
Yet even away from that sub-three-minute blast, there's enough all-time classics crammed into the record's forty-two minutes to make any of their contemporaries green with envy. The insidious wail of War Pigs, the swing of Fairies Wear Boots, the solos of Rat Salad - it's all fantastic.
If there's a song that can match Paranoid here for ubiquity, it's the apocalyptic jackhammer of Iron Man, a song further enshrined into popular culture through its multiple appearances across film and television. It may just be Osbourne's Sabbath-era signature song.