Black Sabbath's Paranoid at 50: potent anthems of working-class strife

Written off by critics as horror trash from unskilled labourers', Sabbath's masterpiece album took beaten-down listeners on a rollercoaster out of their struggles

I first heard Black Sabbath's second album during the part of my childhood when I was most susceptible to its charms. As a quiet, earnest Catholic school kid - the kind that excitedly whispers I'm clean!" to themselves after their first confession - it's not all that surprising that I eventually got bullied. The boys called me names, pushed me into lockers, and dug their pens and markers into my clothes, as if to tell the rest of the pack: He will let you do this!"