Generals gathered in their masses

Black Sabbath - Paranoid - 1970

One of the things that I have noticed lately is that this whole thing of rediscovering music chronologically has a small caveat: Many times I will end up listening to my favourite albums just once, while I will give a couple more listens to those albums I wasn't too familiar with.
Well, here is the exception: I have just spent the last couple of days listening to this album. A lot!
This one takes everything that was good in the first album, and makes it even better by adding more focus to the material. A lot of the first album, regardless of how good it was, was slightly aimless blues jams. Here, they got rid of all the frills, and hit you with an album in which each single track is relentless, brilliant, and a bit brutal.
The lyrics, while not extremely sophisticated, are a ruthless depiction of the times, dealing with war, greed, violence, drug abuse, and rendering some haunting visual scenarios.
Of course, we have some of the best known Sabbath classics, such as "War Pigs", "Iron Man" and the title track. But there's also "Planet Caravan", which probably is one of the mellower songs from their repertoire, and the harrowing "Hand of Doom".
So glad to have been listening to this one!

• The outro of "War Pigs" is known as "Luke's Wall", and it's one of my favourite outros ever. 
• Listening to this one again, I still find that Ozzy will never make it into my personal Top Ten vocalists. Somehow, though, his voice seems so appropriate for these songs. 
• I have to admit that I had never paid all that much attention to "Hand of Doom". It is a brilliant song, and the changes in rhythm, coupled with the lyrics, make it the stuff of nightmares.
• They say the idea for "Fairies wear Boots" came to them when Geezer and Ozzy were smoking pot and saw, well, fairies wearing boots. I want to have whatever it is they were having. I mean, who wouldn't want to see fairies wearing boots?
• As a side comment, Ozzy referred to "Fairies.." saying he didn't know what the song is about, but everybody told him he wrote the lyrics. 

Valhala, I'm coming

Led Zeppelin - III - 1970

This will always be a bit of a strange album to me. Definitely, my least favourite of the first four albums, I'd say. And also the one I will listen to the least.

But it also has two of my favourite Zep songs: "Immigrant Song" and "Since I've been Loving you", and because of those two, I can't really dislike this one.

While their turn to a more prog/folk/acoustic style was probably welcome by a lot of people, I think that's what undoes this one for me a bit. I don't mind their previous acoustic incursions, and definitely I love some of their acoustic songs in the next album. I think that here it feels a bit too much, and I am not particularly keen on any of the more folksy tunes. So, for the most part, what in the old days would be the Side B of the album, I am not too keen on.

• Many of the most acoustic songs from this album were written at a location called "Bron-Yr-Aur". That's where the song "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" comes from, as well as one with the same name, minus the "Stomp", in Physical Graffiti.
• It was not easy for me to choose which of my two favourite songs to put as a video here. I ended up with a sort of compromise, and we'll have "Since I've been Loving You" as a video.
• As part of the compromise, here's this link for you to visit:  http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/vikingkittens . You really want to go there. It will change the way you view "Immigrant Song" for ever!!

Let the people know what's going on

Asterix - Asterix - 1970

I don't have a clue who these guys are. 

All I know is that they were the first incarnation of a mostly German band that would then become Lucifer's Friends, another band I know nothing about. Their singer, John Lawton, was also part of Uriah Heep at some point.

But I do like this album quite a lot, and it was a very interesting find. I'm not sure it has aged all that well, it does sound like something that couldn't have existed at any other time than in the early 1970s. But dated or not, this is a very good album, that offers a lot of variety, and some good quality early hard rock / metal music. It's not going to change your lives, but you can certainly enjoy yourselves.
Also, how can you go wrong with a band called Asterix? 

• I will have to use some labels or something so that I can remember the albums I would definitely go back to again, so that I don't forget.

Bonus tracks

• Because we can never have too much "War Pigs", because the outro of it is called "Luke's Wall" and because today is May 4th (I have just realized that one), here goes this awesome fan video

• And because the cats is not enough, and I actually love this version (and the movie), here you have Trent Reznor's version of "Immigrant Song", from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo