Black Sabbath – Paranoid

WARNING: Hyperbole alert.

Slays my 1976 UK NEMS copy, the clarity is phenomenal.
The drumming is revealled in technocolor, my foot was tapping madly.
Like a blanket had been removed from my speakers.
The bass was visceral, you could hear the percussive hits on the strings.
Gold medal remaster.
The only track removing the gloom/murk didn't work on was Planet Caravan which is dreamier and more psychedelic on the old version.

Pressing is flat, no glitches, as usual with the Rhino High Fidelity, the heavy card sleeves are too big for standard outer sleeves and very tight (I just slip the sleeved record inside the folded insert sheet and it slides in much easier).

HOLY MOLY! This is an exceptional pressing - sounds f***ing immense. Don't care about it being 'unnumbered' this is about as good as it gets.

This pressing is HOT! Easily one of the loudest records I have.

I may have to return mine. It sounds fantastic as others have noted . Except for Rat Salad. The right channel on just that one song is muffled and distorted. Bizarre as the rest sounds amazing.

Sounds incredible. Glad i waited as i missed on on the numbered. Unbelievable. This IS the version to get.

was skeptical and compared this to my 1980 japanese nems pressing and this absolutely destroyed it. felt like i was listening to this album for the first time again. wow.

I just received my copy from Rhino. Same runouts, but the bar code number is different from this entry. Mine has barcode no. 603497815272.

Fwiw, this is amazing pressing overall, as all the others have noted.

I think the mastering sounds great but unfortunately my copy has non-fill and it produces loud scratching sounds on side 1. Side 2 plays perfectly. Thankfully Rhino will be sending me a replacement. Conversely my Stooges and Alice Cooper RHF's I received around the same time both play without issue so overall I'm pretty happy with this series.

Don't pay the douchey scalpers. Go buy from Rhino - as of May 4th, 2025 it's still up on the site.

Let's hope that the usual jackals don't buy all the copies to resell them at triple the price!!
I already bought my copy yesterday thanks to the email that Rhino sent me!
I wish all the true fans to be able to buy this album at its honest price!