Black Sabbath's Strongest. It's Master of Reality, and after listening to this whole record, the light just isn't the same for a few minutes. Very poignant and dark. Yes, it is, no doubts about it. Other than that well, pick this thing up. The Sab Four always had fantastic chemistry but the structures on this album are more fully realized than anything that had come before. "Sweet Leaf" is a prime example of why I dislike Bill Ward's style. What I like best about this song is Iommis very creative guitar playing. Mans distress so great that he boards a rocket to the sun. Both of these records laid down the foundation to what we know as heavy metal; basically evil sounding and aggressive blues. On the first North American editions of the album, several songs had subtitles given to segments, making it appear that there were more songs than there actually were. That's just one example of how heavy Sabbath could get, only to bring it down with a mellow track. Twenty years later groups like Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, and, particularly, Nirvana, would excavate the same heaving lung sound And be rewarded with critical garlands." Just magical. This song features a pulsating chug that will make you beat your head against a wall for hours. To say that Black Sabbath as a band was ahead of their time is an understatement. [27] In MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (1999), authors Gary Graff and Daniel Durcholz described the album as a "brilliant skull crusher", singling out "Children of the Grave" and "Sweet Leaf" as "timeless". No, my main point when it comes to MoR is how it really shows the thing that made Black Sabbath so incredibly great in my eyes - Their way of handling musical contrast. This gives the atmosphere a slow, downer, and doomful feel, and it works perfectly. Already with the self titled and Paranoid album under their belt, Sabbath begin to experiment with their sound. Here we have Black Sabbath showing an emphasis on slower songs, an approach that the band repeated with the next record, Volume 4. Great crescendo and intro, leading us to great heavier segment, filled with dynamic drumming and nice riffs. "Orchid" is an outstandingly beautiful piece from Iommi. This is in no way a put down to those great albums as they all mean just as much to me as any of those six other releases, it's just that one album in particular has always stood out as the undisputed heavy weight champion of the world in an early discography peppered with undisputed heavy weight champ's, and that album is Master of Reality . What's more, the main guitar melody - complete with some sweet bass playing - is actually triumphant. There are noticeably less solos that wander off aimlessly into the song, taking the direction of the music with them; instead, Iommi gives a much more focused performance on the guitar this time around, with solos still being worked into the music but being stylistically harnessed at the same time so that they dont feel out of control or scatty. How do I rank it? Sure, to outsiders they are the epitome of doom-and-gloom drugged-up heavy metal and those that idolised them like, say, Electric Wizard stressed this by focusing in on these aspects in a fairly cartoonish manner. His very definable voice is undefinable in a single word or phrase . Fully five of the albums six full tracks are unabashed bashers on a whole 'nother level from what has come before, a horror unmatched til the advent of the raw electrics of Vol. This is most notable on the simply perfect "Lord of this World" "Children of the Grave" Sweet Leaf" and "Into the Void" although it is evident in every heavy masterpiece on Master of Reality . Also the excellent Children of the Grave those are the two that make this album essential. Master of Reality is the third studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released on 21 July 1971 by Vertigo Records. The previous two records amped up a blues influence that made them so heavy but Master of Reality is where an inadvertent incorporation of classic music comes into play when it comes to the mechanics. Beginning with the song "Sweet Leaf", it starts with Tony Iommi coughing before we are immediately thrown into some heavy riffs. The truth is that you can fast forward through most of this album and not miss anything spectacular, ninety percent of it is totally dispensable and the other ten percent just doesn't matter. Basically, Sabbath is establishing a pattern of how their albums will sound like because like the ever familiar Iron Man, Into the Void is another track that everyone will remember the band by. Tony and Geezer's riffs are at their best and Ozzy Osbourne's voice was rarely so effective and his voice fits Butler's lyrics almost in a perfect way. Ozzy Osbourne's vocals on the previous albums are great, but his vocals are even better in this album. This is the same band who managed to snag a perfect visual representation on their debut by having one of the best album sleeves in all of music history, yet just two albums later we get artwork with just the title and nothing else. The slower songs contrast with the heavy songs and the darker songs contrast with the lighter ones. This ultimate heavy metal album was released in 1971, a million light years away from what we as metal heads would come to know and love as heavy metal . Dark themes such as drugs, death, sadness, and destruction are just the ticket for these songs. from Iommi. Its true that you either like his voice or you dont, but if you do like his voice, theres absolutely nothing wrong with his performance on this record; he delivers. Bill Ward's drumming is also the perfect companion to the songs on his album . However, while there is a huge debate on what is the best Sabbath record, my choice would easily have to go to their third studio album "Master of Reality". I actually rather imagine this as a continuation of the lyrical themes of Solitude it makes for a rather amusing narrative: Starting off, songwriting is stellar. 2 and not only are there just 2 they are laughably simplistic and not even creative. 100%: erickg13: January 1st, 2007: Read: Heavy . All 3 instrumentalists are noticeably improved since Paranoid, and Bill Ward in particular has a furious drum segment in the middle of the song. The first side alone, you have the epic anti-Vietnam War Pigs, which has some of the best riffs and musical passages known to man - that DUN DUN! Based around a medieval chord progression, Iommi and Butler paint a perfect smooth picture, while Osbourne's vocals are augmented by a flute. The lyrics are a little vague, and the main verse riff is a little same-y, but overall this is another great Sabbath classic. Even the outro: Children of the gra-gra-grave.. to realize this is a much more sonically developed Ozzy Osbourne then the man who could barely droll out "the world today is such a wicked place!" I've always preferred just going into the studio and playing, without spending a lot of time rehearsing or getting sounds." So that is all of the metal songs on this release. But more importantly, the dark and heavy sound will smack you harder if you are a fan of rock music from the late 60s and early 70s. Master of Reality trudges out of the primordial ooze to remind them that they should be afraid. Woo hoo! His vocals on this song are beyond awful. The short but witch-y folk interlude of Embryo sounds arbitrary but its the type of bauble that gives Master of Reality its doom metal character. They once again managed to craft a new collection of music different from the previous record(s), much like 'Paranoid' was different from 'Black Sabbath'. A prayer of course that went unheard. The aforementioned Children Of The Grave goes from pummeling rhythms backed by clanking kicks by Bill Ward to slow and menacing doom riffs laced with terror. It drifts from trailing Tonys parts to following Ozzys vocals in an almost dancing manner. Ozzy's voice is, for better or for worse, very recognizable, very memorable, and very imposing. The shortest album of Black Sabbath's glory years, Master of Reality is also their most sonically influential work. Master of Reality is a 34 minute journey that ebbs and flows. Lowlights: Sweet Leaf, Lord Of this World & Into The Void. Listen to Sweet Leaf: a simple heavy chord structure with unorthodox drum beats throughout the first half and when it transitions to the solo, that's where the clarity of that classical composition can be heard. Until you took me, showed me around Into the Void is my favorite song on the album, maybe even my favorite all-time Black Sabbath song (although War Pigs is hard to beat). We were going: "What could we write about?" "Master of Reality" is an album that does so much right, but so much wrong too. "[citation needed], Butler, the band's primary lyricist, had a Catholic upbringing,[8] and the song "After Forever" focuses entirely on Christian themes. How wrong they are, indeed It's unfitting and off-putting. Finally, Ozzy. How it does that is after the atomic destruction minded song Children of the Grave ends, another darkly mellow instrumental interlude returns only to be followed by Lord of This World; a track coherent with Children of the Grave and After Forever throwing out a blue print for how the later subgenre of doom metal should and did sound like. Continuing the trend of Paranoid each member continues to become more proficient in their individual instruments. It is an insight, like Orchid, of what we could expect from Iommi from then on as he set the world ablaze as a songwriter. I have loved this album since I was seven years old in 1979 . Not bad, but definitely boring. "[32] The same magazine also ranked the album 34th on its "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". And for the most part, the first two would keep growing and evolving from here, and the later two would keep slipping further and further. The former is a call to arms directed at the youth of the world to seek other enterprises aside from self-destruction. This is another song that is simply fun to listen to, and that is what Sabbath is all about. For more information, including other credits, articles, and images, please go her. So no, there is not a time for peace and it is too late. Think about it; all the bands early output is riddled with massively non-metal moments, but this is what makes them so special but of course this gets its detractors, the same fellows who think Hamlet would have been better if Junior had knifed Claudius in Act II rather than soliloquising about the nature of truth and the afterlife youre boring us, William! My favorite metal album ever, if you haven't heard it then go listen NOW. This song is all that keeps the album from being perfect. Children Of The Grave - This cut gave birth to all headbanging cuts. Now being a previously mentioned die hard Sabbath fan the obvious answer to this question would be their first album Black Sabbath . Black Sabbath - Master of Reality music album discussion and ratings. Ozzy screams and yells, for maybe the most powerful vocal performance of his career, though hints of his signature mechanical, overdubbed vocals appear on Master of Reality. No matter youre favorite genre of metal is, this one is for you, particularly anyone who has any interest in doom metal. There are qualities this album has that are almost intangible, for example, Master is one of the few albums I've ever heard that is both frenetic and slow at the same time. Yes, yes - As already pointed out, Sabbath was pioneers, and did undoubtedly forge the metal genre as it is today, so I'll restrain from praising them in that sense. Its organic enough to not sound out of place in the 70s rock climate but still has enough grime to be just as earthshaking as your modern stoner/sludge metal fare. before returning to the main motif. His punishing pummeling style forces the issue at hand aggressively down the throats of all that would dare try to not pay attention to Throwing any hint of a solo only into the end was such a power move that I feel like it could have gone on even longer and I wouldnt have complained. 1, and "Sabotage" is a very good second. Where is the adventurous songwriting? His high shrieking passion is felt throughout the album and makes this perfect album all the more perfect . Production was once again handled by Roger Bain, and this one sounds a little different. The early 70s were a ripe time for Sabbath as they were churning out classic albums left and right. Solitude is a gloomy number that reinforces the depression of it all. The third installment of the work of our heavy metal forefathers sees a lot of evolution both in sound and subject matter. Master of Reality is the pinnacle of that theory. (This trick was still being copied 25 years later by every metal band looking to push the . Master of Reality contains so many classics, its not even funny. Master of Reality gives us great, heavy fucking metal riffs that sound great in standard tuning, or any tuning (go look up a 1992 performance of Into The Void with Tony Martin, standard tuning and still Azbantium splitting). Individually, the band were also on the up. Could it be you're afraid of what your friends might say Must of gotten quite tired of the Gillan and Plant comparisons. But this is Black Sabbath, emotional variation is one of their many fortes it may a stoned, happy anthem its still a Sabbath anthem. acoustic-based music. And deliver it they did. Highlights include Sweet Leaf, in particular in the under the guitar solo (more like band solo) And for material contained within Master of Reality, just more classic Black Sabbath, thats all. "Children of the Grave" posits a stark choice between love and nuclear annihilation, while "After Forever" philosophizes about death and the afterlife in an openly religious (but, of course, superficially morbid) fashion that offered a blueprint for the career of Christian doom band Trouble. After Forever and Children Of the Grave are the albums stronger moments but like all the other numbers, they fall somewhat flat because of two problems. This song is about Christianity, but it isnt really praising God as much as it is deriding those who dont praise God. Whether expressing his undying love for the "Sweet Leaf" or sharing his warning to those who would listen of war and the end of times this is his moment and his moment alone to be crowned undisputed king . A song which feels like it's built up into three phases, each one getting on top of the other when it comes to heavy riffing. While the lyrics are simple on paper, their subtle tone enhances the themes, and they would be further executed by the instruments and vocals. Type: Full-length Release date: June 29th, 2009 Catalog ID: 2701106 . [4] This is the album where Sabbath's early sound comes into form, and the possibly the most consistently heavy album of their work with Ozzy. Black Sabbath, the bong-headed dead-beat dads of metal proper, had accomplished virtually everything that they were ever going to according to the mainstream by the end of the Master of Reality record. The lyrics deal with themes on drugs, especially on the track " Sweet Leaf". Highlights: Solitude, Orchid & Children Of the Grave Despite whatever protometal relic you can pull out of your ass, nothing was heavier than Master of Reality in 1971. Here Tony Iommi began to experiment with tuning his guitar down three half-steps to C#, producing a sound that was darker, deeper, and sludgier than anything they'd yet committed to record. Master of Reality is eight songs of depressed euphoria. It was certified double platinum after having sold over 2 million copies. Iommi belts out a very catchy, great grooving riff, and Ozzy sells the track pretty well. Its easy to forget just how progressive this thing was underneath all the throbbing heaviness, especially with that opening riff that sounds like gangly trolls lifting boulders in some far off and distant land in a time before polygamy was a sin. It's also a pretty cool song, the outro slightly long of tooth (about four minutes counting the cool "Orchid" instrumental), but Ozzy in top form over another 'the world is going to shit' warning lyric. The mid-song breakdown takes the form of one of Sabbath's trademark 'band solos' before returning to the sludgy riffing of before. Not my favourite Sabbath song, och my favourite "soft" Sabbath song, but one of the songs that has affected me more than most things in life has. The structure on Children of the Grave was, at the time, unlike anything Sabbath had normally written. To this I can only respond that the songs serve the purpose of showcasing a varied approach to music and a defiance of conventional thinking, and in this particular case it didnt fully work out as intended. Almost indescribably perfect, it has, along with all of Sabbath's efforts around this time, defined the sound and tone that changed the face of heavy music . "[26], In 1994, Master of Reality was ranked number 28 in Colin Larkin's Top 50 Heavy Metal Albums. Black Sabbath > Master of Reality > 2009, 2CD, Universal Music Japan (Reissue, Remastered, Japan, Mini LP, SHM-CD) . "[25] Rolling Stone magazine's Lester Bangs described it as "monotonous" and hardly an improvement over its predecessor, although he found the lyrics more revealing because they offer "some answers to the dark cul-de-sacs of Paranoid. For me, it has always been an album with very few truly low points, but not really any shining highlights either. Nothing on Paranoid couldve ever reached the speeds of the charging Children of the Grave and while the tempo shifts on songs like Sweet Leaf and Into the Void are nothing new, they were never this purposeful. If the album were "Children of the Grave" and "Into the Fucking Void" four times, it would be totally fucking perfect. You could perhaps say that Black Sabbath became even more headbangable by the time this album was released. When Ozzy's voice starts up you can hear the difference in his voice is instantly evident. Play it fucking loud. All contain a wide array of heaviness and beauty that was evident in every release . The revised US pressing timings, shown below, compound this likely error. The thick dank perfect tone of the guitar is one the stuff legends are made of . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "Children of the Grave" (maybe) This was the "best" he could do at the time? The band did this album not too long after Paranoid and seeking out another album to write and continue the trademark heaviness feels comfortable. Guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler downtuned their instruments during the production, achieving what Iommi called a "bigger, heavier sound". He is clearly a decent singer, but he made the right decision not to make a point of this and instead be content to ride the grooves that the rest of the band are laying out. Being contrary for the sake of it? Choice Cuts The album is too short, and sometimes Ozzy sounds a little out of breath (the bash 'em up smash 'em up ending section of "After Forever"), and the songwriting isn't as strong as Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Sabotage. There are some albums you are not allowed to hate and some albums you are not allowed to like. Again, this was the best Iommi could do at the time? Geezer is also on fire with his bass work on this track. Here Tony Iommi began to experiment with tuning his guitar down three half-steps to C#, producing a sound that was darker, deeper, and sludgier than anything they'd yet committed to record. Some early German, US and Canadian pressings had the title incorrectly printed on the record labels as 'Masters Of Reality'. If you deem this album to be good because of the heaviness and the stripped down raw feel, I have no issue with that, I am aware Black Sabbath created doom metal with this release. After Forever - This track carries a sort of gospel feel to it. Overall the song is pretty uninteresting, musically and lyrically. About the only good(?) Writing in Mojo in 2013, Phil Alexander observed: "To most it is the quintessential stoner anthem, a point borne out by Sabbath's own Olympian consumption of hashish during their early days." This one record is the perfect definition of all that can be defined about heavy metal . Sure, you could have the interludes Embryo and Orchid lengthened, but that could honestly lead to unnecessary padding. The guitar and bass sound on this very album is nothing less than perfection defined . But like all of the compositions here, it fails to have any imagination, the opening musical stanza is tense but plummets immediately. While yes, it is incredibly soothing, the woodwind instrumentation, spine-tingling bass, and hopeless vocal delivery injects a feeling of abandonment that I just cant ignore. Solitude is a slow and solemn song that takes the listener down into a deep abyss. Whoever decided that Master of Reality should begin with the sound of Tony Iommi coughing after taking a big hit with a joint is a genius. And although the alternately sinister and jaunty "Lord of This World" is sung from Satan's point of view, he clearly doesn't think much of his own followers (and neither, by extension, does the band). Tell me how the first time I ever heard Children Of The Grave that I thought the eerie outro voices sounded like Jason Voorhees. thing I can say about it is that it DOES perfectly represent most of the music herein quite perfectly. Larkin described it as Sabbath's "first real international breakthrough" and "a remarkable piece of work". The intro of "After Forever" was given the title "The Elegy", the outro of "Children of the Grave" was called "The Haunting", the intro of "Lord of This World" was titled "Step Up", and the intro of "Into the Void" called "Deathmask". He turned something so simple into something so awesome and spiced things up with some sick leads and solos. Here Tony Iommi began to experiment with tuning his guitar down three half-steps to C#, producing a sound that was darker, deeper, and sludgier than anything they'd yet committed to record. Along with his great tone, Iommi also presents us with some extremely catchy riffs. Geezer's accomplishment's besides his song writing abilities are in his perfect instinctual deliverance of his bass lines that round out the unbelievable groovy heavy riffs of Toni Iommi . Geezer's bass is especially heavy in this track, driving the song along nicely. Like the debut album, Master of Reality deserves props simply because it introduced the world to a brand new sound which launched a whole subgenre or two of metal. There is such a terrifying shadow-and-light dynamic here. This is another album that many people will claim to be their favorite, and for damn good reason. It is a little long, but ultimately worth it, and whilst I don't agree with the song's message, it's all about the music, man, so who cares? The actor's a Slipknot/ Linkin Park guy, but Aemond's all over Black Sabbath. Butler and Ward also jam a little at the end, too! "Then it got to the point where we tuned even lower to make it easier vocal-wise. The sixties are gone and the whole album plays like a savage rebuttal to the hippie optimism of Turn! This record had the arduous task of following up Paranoid, but did so with flying colors. Sweet Leaf has one of the most insane middle sections Ive heard, and is probably the closest thing to a power metal song. the thrashy segment on Into the Void. You'd think that it would get boring but Black Sabbath always keeps it fresh and entertaining on this album. [Rhino's 2016 deluxe edition of Black Sabbath's Masters Of Reality is a spiffy repackaging designed for the States. [24] Despite the album's commercial success, it was viewed with disdain by contemporary music critics. This was just the start, and what a great one. Lord of this World is very nice, and After Forever, which is not nearly as Christian as it looks at first glance (it skewers both those who blindly bash, and those who blindly obey), is decent quality as well. Even songwriting wise, this album has a little less depth than even "Paranoid" had. We also see a tendency towards brief instrumentals which also are often found in more recent metal efforts. They really help to give that song its wonderfully evil atmosphere. What he lacks in an actual singing-voice, he makes up with charisma that he seems to be able to pull from his ass at any given time. Sabbath have released significantly better albums, including during the Ozzy era, just listen to any other. So there we have it, Master of Reality. It's a solid addition to the Ozzy era, but I wouldn't call it the best for any member of this band. This IS the heavy metal band that started it all for most people as well as for me . Sure, its heavier than anything until at least Welcome to Hell but that, again, isn't of great consequence as: trust me, just lower the tuning, slow down the bpm, add sound effects, and you have a recipe for disaster just check that sweat leaf cover: As soon as that riff bursts out of the gate, you know you're in for a wild ride. Orchid is a 90 second instrumental, which I love. After losing his fingertips in an accident at his workplace, he had to have metal implants where they used to be. It's incredible how a band could release three top notch albums in two mere years, but, I tell you, Sabbath did it. What ever genre of metal people are fans of, this without a second of doubt obviously influenced them all . What is immediately apparent is that Tony's guitar is a little crunchier than previously. Master of Reality is the third studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath. The shortest album of Black Sabbath's glory years, Master of Reality is also their most sonically influential work. reviews; charts; news; lists; blog : login; browse genres. Black Sabbath Master Of Reality Sealed, Latest Press Of The 2015 180gm Reissue, With Embossed Cover. It's that perfect balance that makes this one of the most metal and heavy albums Sabbath ever did. But the song is mostly known as the weirdest and most original vocal performance of Ozzys career, at least with Black Sabbath. I'd just come back from Dublin, and they'd had these cigarettes called Sweet Afton, which you could only get in Ireland. Just on this record you get the contrast between the stay-at-home-get-high anthem, Sweet Leaf and the forlorn, Solitude (a song that is inexplicably subject to a whole lot of What? It doesn't matter what you're doing. Ozzy sings it with an ever so dreary demeanor and it follows suit to the feeling that Planet Caravan evoked. Its perhaps the finest Black Sabbath ballad ever and its so perfectly understated and sincere. There is a reason they are the metal godfathers that we know them as today. Still, if you want a heavier version Id recommend the Live At Last version. Well, The Pentangle released the merely good Reflection, but never mind that. To talk about a Black Sabbath CD without reference to the bands story and their influence on the genre is a pretty difficult task, because it is when you listen to albums like Master of Reality that the ENTIRE groundplan of metal magically begins to unfold before you like a scene out of National Treasure (if National Treasure were a better film). Sometimes I think I'd really like to go back to the way we recorded the first two albums. The only themes Solitude has are vapidity and nap-time. He is instrumental in propelling Children Of The Grave, with the tom-work moving the song along nicely. Reading too much into things? Now as I wrote, Sweet Leaf is an ode to marijuana and its relaxing effects. Most of all, it was always be the Master. during the wordless chorus, and the first appearance of synthesizer in a Black Sabbath song toward the middle (if you dont count the intro to After Forever). So, highlights? So what else can I say about this album other than it's the best Sabbath record ever? All of a sudden the song is over and the closer Into The Void just crushes you with the buzz saw intro. More epic doom riffing; "Lord of this world!!! In the liner notes to the 1998 live album Reunion, drummer Ward commented that Master of Reality was "an exploratory album".