Master of Reality
Warner Bros / Wea - Warner Bros / Wea
Black Sabbath
Release date: 1990-10-25
Audio CD
Album Rock, British Metal, England, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Pop, Pop/Rock Music, Popular Music, Rock
1. Sweet Leaf
2. After Forever
3. Children of the Grave
4. Orchid - Black Sabbath, Iommi, Tony
5. Lord of This World
6. Solitude
7. Into the Void
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Master of Reality
Date undefinedMaster of Reality,Sabbath's third offering,and possibly there heaviest,is a milestone in the Heavy Metal genre.
By 1971,the band had formed there sound fully and this was quite the step from there last two releases.
The result was a thicker degree of heaviness and the fact that it was just one MEAN record.
Each track is a classic,several among the greatest of all time.
Here's a look at the album's tracks:
Sweet Leaf-The band's ode to the joys of pot is unerlined by one of the most iconic heavy riffs of all time.
That beginning cough is Tony Iommi taking a bad drag on a joint!
After Forever-"Would you like to see the pope on the end of a rope,do ya think he's a fool?"
With a line like that you'd be shocked to learn this is actually pro-christianity!
Great deep album track that certainly dispelled the band's satanic image.
Embryo/Children of the Grave-A moody instrumental piece follows into one of metal's great metal anthems,sung with absolute conviction by Ozzy.
Covered,rather well,by Dio on the Live Evil album.
Orchid-Lovely acoustic instrumental by Iommi,showcases what you could get away with in Heavy Metal at one time.
Lord of the World-One of my favorite riffs ever,and a surprisingly neglected Sabbath song.
The song is about how the devil has corrupted our world,and the question of who is actually in charge of it.
Typically good lyrics by bassist,Geezer Butler.
Solitude-Depressing,soft song about Ozzy contemplating his existence and loneliness of love long lost.
Rates among the best metal ballads ever made,and one of the most underrated.
Into the Void-About as heavy as it gets!
Probally the stand-out track on this album,Into the Void was very ahead of it's times,with a structure that set the standard for many a metal classic to follow in the next decade.
That riff is quintessential Sabbath.
And so is this album.
Metalheads,Rockers and so forth,if ya don't got it,pick up a copy now!
Classic.
Master of Reality
Date undefined Wait a minute, wait a minute... this is a Christian album? Is Black Sabbath going all Jesus freak on us? Um... what the hell? Why is Ozzy telling me that God is the only way to love? Okay, this is getting on my nerves. I'm gonna go listen to something else.
But wait! This album's good! Very, very, very good! Tony Iommi touched on the overlord of guitar tones here. Like your guitars deep, heavy, grumbly, thick, and evil? Oh, then you've got 'em all over this record. Check out "Sweet Leaf." A song and a half, that "Sweet Leaf!" Or, more accurately, a riff and a half! Ah yeah, man. The ultimate pothead theme song. I'm a-thinkin' it's Sabbath's very best song, with only two real competitors. One of them is "Symptom of the Universe..."
...and the other is "Children of the Grave," which is right here, on this very album! What's better than a song with one great guitar riff? Two great guitar riffs! What's better than a song with two great guitar riffs? A song with one of those guitar riffs played on guitar and the other played on a heavy, distorted, Jack Bruce-like bass that sounds like a guitar! It's really fast, too. It's one of those quintessential proto-thrash songs, along with "Symptom," "Paranoid," "Achilles Last Stand," and probably something by Motorhead. The song just keeps on delivering one great guitar part after another. There's even a slow section with haunting keyboard embellishments! Score! And it's anti-war, and if you ask me that's reason enough for it to be cool. Something tells me Geezer Butler didn't like war. I mean, "War Pigs," "Electric Funeral," and now this. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
"After Forever" is also great. Despite it being one of the more overtly Christian songs on this album, it's got the same heavy, sludgy doom riff we know from Black Sabbath. Totally grooves, too. Did I mention that those three songs are all on side one? Something about side one of Black Sabbath albums. Consider how amazing the first sides of Paranoid, Master of Reality, and Sabotage are for a minute. On the other hand, side two is a bit of a letdown. The Jesus anthem "Lord of This World" is a fine slab of sludge, though I still can't get over how weird it is hearing a band named Black Sabbath singing about the healing powers of God. But I don't really like the rest. "Solitude" is terrible, as a first. Black Sabbath should not be doing weepy, melotron-laced ballads. Some people can pull it off, but Sabbath can't. "Into the Void" is pretty much by-numbers sludge. And "Orchid" is a lousy acoustic instrumental. Iommi rocked the electric guitar, but Steve Howe he was not.
Still, a fine follow-up to the indisputable classic Paranoid.
Master of Reality
Date undefinedBlack Sabbath - Master of Reality I hadn't listened to this album since I bought it on cassette many years ago. It was as good as I remember! If you're a Black Sabbath fan from back in the day, this is a must for your collection. A classic indeed.
