Daily album battle · No. 6 · Friday, 23 October 2026 · Final result

Paranoid vs In the Court of the Crimson King

Black Sabbath against King Crimson. 1969 against 1970. In the Court of the Crimson King won with 67% of 3 votes.

Paranoid by Black Sabbath, album cover
ParanoidBlack Sabbath
1970 · Philips
33%
33%Paranoid
67%In the Court of the Crimson King

In the Court of the Crimson King won with 67% of 3 votes.

How the vote swung (UTC)
Paranoid aheadIn the Court of the Crimson King ahead
Share card: Paranoid against In the Court of the Crimson King
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In the Court of the Crimson King beat Paranoid 67–33 in Riffology's daily album battle

#RiffologyBattle #BlackSabbath #KingCrimson

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Tale of the tape

On paper: 5–1
Paranoid
In the Court of the Crimson King
18 September 1970
Released
10 October 1969
Philips
Label
Stateside
Rodger Bain
Produced by
King Crimson, Robert Fripp +1
Basing Street Studios, Regent Sound (London) +1
Recorded at
Wessex Sound Studios (London)
16–18 June 1970
Recorded
7 July – 13 August 1969
41:51 · 8 tracks
Running time
41:59 · 5 tracks
2
Singles
1
No. 1
UK chart peak
No. 5
No. 12
US Billboard 200 peak
No. 28
4× Platinum
US certification
Gold
Gold
UK certification
Gold
20k
Listeners
8.3k
321k
Wikipedia readers, last year
367k

Charts and certifications from Wikipedia, credits from MusicBrainz and Wikidata, listeners from ListenBrainz. A dot marks the stronger number.

The case for each

Paranoid by Black Sabbath

Paranoid is Black Sabbath's second album, released in the UK on 18 September 1970, just after their self-titled debut. The band went back into the studio quickly and recorded it in only two days in June.

The full story, tracklist and credits →

In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson

In the Court of the Crimson King is the debut album by English band King Crimson, released on 10 October 1969. It is often regarded as the first true progressive rock album, blending rock with jazz, classical and symphonic influences.

The full story, tracklist and credits →

On Riffology

riffology.co →
Podcast · Episode 57 · 1 h 25 min
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
0:00 / 1:25:09

Previous battles

Battle champions

Albums with the most battle wins.

  1. 1
    Rage Against the MachineRage Against the Machine
    1–0
  2. 21–0
  3. 3
    DoolittlePixies
    1–0
  4. 4
    BadmotorfingerSoundgarden
    1–0
  5. 51–0
  6. 61–0
  7. 71–0

How the daily album battle works

Every day at midnight UTC the vault draws two well-known studio albums, close in popularity, era and style, and puts them head to head. Everyone sees the same battle. You get one vote, and the result is shown once you've voted. Voting closes at midnight UTC, when the next battle starts and the result goes into the record books for good.

No album battles twice in the same year, and every finished battle keeps its own page, so the arguments can carry on.