HAZEMAZE - The Paranoid Sessions

The year 2020 celebrates a landmark in the Doom genre: it is the 50th anniversary of the release of Black Sabbath’s first two albums which would forever cement their status as the godfathers of Doom and Metal. Their first album, the self-titled Metal masterpiece, was released on Friday the 13th in February of 1970, followed by the behemoth that would become Paranoid on September 18th. Zakk Wylde’s Zakk Sabbath band took care of covering the eponymous album in its entirety earlier in September (which I’ll review at a later date). Swedish Doom trio HAZEMAZE decided to cover part of Paranoid and have given us The Paranoid Sessions EP which consists of covers of three of the original album’s eight songs. And they released it on the exact date to coincide with when Paranoid saw the light of day 50 years ago. How cool is that?

HAZEMAZE have rapidly become one of my favorite Doom Rock bands. I have an affinity for vintage-sounding Doom/Heavy Psych bands and with their ‘70s-inspired sound, incredibly atmospheric songs, they satisfy my musical needs to the highest degree. You could already hear Sabbath’s strong influence on their two albums; their self-titled debut in 2018 and their follow-up, Hymns of the Damned in 2019 (both albums will be reviewed here soon). HAZEMAZE’s guitar sound has a very Iommian quality to it, so covering Sabbath songs was no hard task for them. Now, there are two ways to go about covering a song: you can put a whole new spin on it and make it yours, sometimes completely changing the genre of music of the song you’re covering. Or you can do a very faithful cover that bears strong resemblance to the original and preserves its essence. The latter is what HAZEMAZE have chosen to do here and rightfully so for this celebratory occasion. 

The guys picked three songs to cover and I’m very happy with their choice: 1) Iron Man, 2) Electric Funeral, and 3) Hand of Doom. You have to cover at least one of the huge hits, for sure, but they could have easily done just that and instead of the two latter tracks also covered the song "Paranoid", and the mighty "War Pigs", which have been covered ad nauseam. Focusing instead on two of the deeper cuts of the album was a great idea. They follow Sabbath’s template yet manage to inject new life into "Iron Man", making it one of the best renditions of this song I’ve heard in years. "Electric Funeral" sounds fresh and vintage at the same time. The gem of the EP in my opinion is the closing song, "Hand of Doom". A pitch-perfect cover that ends the EP on a strong note and would make Ozzy, Iommi, Geezer, and Ward proud. It makes you crave more and wish they’d pulled a Zakk Sabbath and covered the whole album in sequence.

I see nothing but good things in store for HAZEMAZE’s future; this band is heavy, melodic, and has the perfect mix of vintage with a modern twist. I am eagerly awaiting their third full length album. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and pick up this Sabbathian EP. The Sabbath lover in you will thank you.

HAZEMAZE’s Bandcamp page: https://hazemazeband.bandcamp.com/