Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.19. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. The contradictory message ("Think for yourself and don't let others dictate your beliefs! By the way, Christ is the only answer.") will aggravate those who pay attention, so I advise just immersing yourself in the riffs and letting them flow over you, because musically speaking the song is still a treat - yet another showcase for Iommi's fuzzy riffs, with the repetitive structure set against Ozzy's chantlike vocals giving the song a hypnotic quality. Taylor 2006, pg. 199, "Some say that Master of Reality was the first stoner metal album. The album as a whole is more late 1960s Heavy Psych in the vain of May Blitz, Grand Funk Railroad, and Leaf Hound."

Black Sabbath – Master Of Reality (2021, Purple, Vinyl) - Discogs Black Sabbath – Master Of Reality (2021, Purple, Vinyl) - Discogs

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2020. Archived from the original on 13 February 2021 . Retrieved 6 February 2021. Master of Reality peaked at number five on the UK Albums Chart and number eight on the US Billboard 200. [ citation needed] Though negatively received by critics on release, the album is now considered one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time. It was certified double platinum after having sold over two million copies. [6] Recording [ edit ] I love the rhythm of Children Of The Grave,” notes Geezer. “It was unique at the time, a menacing, marching vibe. The downtuning definitely summoned the advent of doom metal and heaviness in general. Too many bands to mention have told me they were inspired by it.” Let's not beat around the bush: Into the Void is the heaviest song of all time. Sure, you get louder songs and about more gruesome subject matter, but it doesn't get any better than the closing minute and a half of Iommi riffage. Butler and Ward also jam a little at the end, too! The whole thing is a masterpiece in the pleasure-pain see saw: the guitars are mixed a bit too loudly and panned rigorously in the last sections, but it's the kind of pain that gives its way to ecstasy and repeated listens. Production was once again handled by Roger Bain, and this one sounds a little different. What is immediately apparent is that Tony's guitar is a little crunchier than previously. The other more obvious difference is that the album is heavier and more bass-driven than before, due to Geezer being slightly more prominent in the mix, along with the lower tunings used on the album. Bill's kit sounds as clear as ever, and Ozzy is mixed to the fore.Where the first album was built mostly upon a non-conventional approach to structure, and the second one mainly played off of technical intrigue, this album is more straight-forward in structure and focuses on heaviness more than anything else. If you play the guitar parts to “Lord of this World” and “Into the Void” through a modern sounding distortion setting, you will have something equally as heavy as what the likes of Pantera and Metallica were doing in the early 90s, although it is far more musical in my view in the case of Sabbath. Not all of this, incidentally, was rendered in La Brea sinks of lugubrious bass blasts — several of the songs had high wailing solos and interesting changes of tempo, and “Paranoid” really moved. If you took the trouble to listen to the album all the way through.

Master Of Reality (Deluxe Expanded Edition) : Black Sabbath Master Of Reality (Deluxe Expanded Edition) : Black Sabbath

Bill Ward (drums) - Bill Ward's performance is similar to his previous works. He is instrumental in propelling Children Of The Grave, with the tom-work moving the song along nicely. He also goes completely insane in the middle of Sweet Leaf (along with everyone else), laying down blistering drum lines. On this album he shows what an accomplished (and to an extent underrated) drummer he really is.The secret is moderation,” says Geezer. “Once that becomes addiction, the shine slowly wears off and you start to question the whole meaning of everything. With such a gruelling schedule, we were taking more and more substances to keep us going, instead of taking time out to breathe. We wore ourselves out in the end, and the dream became nightmarish at times.” Christgau, Robert (12 December 1971). "Consumer Guide (21)". The Village Voice. New York. Archived from the original on 4 May 2013 . Retrieved 22 October 2012.

Master of Reality - Wikipedia

Terence "Geezer" Butler (bass) - With the mentality "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," Geezer continues in his trademark fashion. His detuned bass (relatively matching Iommi's tuning) lends a heaviness to the album not seen in other bands around the time. Highlights include Sweet Leaf, in particular in the under the guitar solo (more like band solo) John "Ozzy" Osbourne (vocals) - Ozzy's voice is continually improving, gaining a little strength and some range. The change is evident on Sweet Leaf. Of particular not is the rather un-Ozzylike performance on Solitude, which has even real fans in disbelief that it's really him. And right there I'd like to state a point. "Solitude" is one of my favourite songs ever. 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. Maybe it's just because it has an personal meaning for me, but then again, it is an incredible song. Ozzy shows off his range as a vocalist, proving everybody wrong who said he could't sing - And everything instrumental is just perfect. The eerie flutes, guitars and pianos creates an athmosphere uncompelled in any song I've ever heard. It gives me images of a very suicidal person, sitting in a misty forest, bleak and misguided by love, ready to take his life. Chilling. beautiful and brilliant. The remainder of these pictures are various cover variants for Master of Reality. Several of which are referenced from Hugh Gilmour’s story on cover art above.It was like four kids let loose in Toys R Us,” recalls Geezer of the ensuing carnage. “As to be expected of four blokes in their early 20s, we went a bit wild. Booze, women, drugs, nice hotels, private planes – all of it paid for by what we loved doing. But as with everything, too much of a good thing has its downside.” Orchid” suffers from the same plight as “Embryo,” except it is a little more developed. The bowed bass is pretty cool. Meh. Some versions of the album report Embryo as a 5 minute song. This is incorrect. Embryo is a short instrumental right before the start of Children of the Grave. This music on this release is very aggressive but at the same time it's very melodic there's a lot of great music encased within this release. It is one where you see a lot of raw emotion but at the same time you also find a lot of real issues with the music from a lyrical persepctive. This is a release from a band that has already been able to observe some of the things going on around them on their first two records. It is the bookends that are really what's encouraging and also very spectacular.

Black Sabbath‘s Master Of Reality: the story - Louder

This album had the secondary song titles like the first two albums did (and Volume 4 did after this). However, the ones from Master of Reality were used less often than any of the others. They are “The Elegy” (with After Forever), “Deathmask” (with Into the Void), and “The Haunting” (with Children of the Grave). So, ‘Into the Void’ really is the heaviest song ever (I probably say that about three times a week about different songs, but this is always one of them). I actually rather imagine this as a continuation of the lyrical themes of ‘Solitude’ it makes for a rather amusing narrative:Speaking of bad lyrics, the words to After Forever may irritate some listeners. The song itself is perfectly heavy, but the lyrics bash people who unthinkingly bash religion simply because they think it's the cool thing to do (which is fair enough - I'm an atheist myself but I think people should choose their religious beliefs because they've thought things through for themselves rather than to make a fashion statement), but then turns around and uncritically embraces Christianity as the answer to all man's ills. Think I am just joshing? Being contrary for the sake of it? Then take off your obsession based nostalgia goggles and take a look at the album's artwork. 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. I guess they thought we would be happy they are written in giant font but no, the font is ugly, the colors are weak and it reeks of laziness. About the only good(?) thing I can say about it is that it DOES perfectly represent most of the music herein quite perfectly. At least the music that most like the album for. How is that I know you are not asking, but this imminent slashing, could be repeated for most of the albums songs.... The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. 18 November 2003. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007 . Retrieved 1 September 2009. To my ears it is never good to have Ozzy sing over slow music, where we are forced to listen to his voice. This would be successful in some cases from Volume 4 - Never Say Die but here Ozzy gives only one quality vocal performance, more on that later. Master of Reality is a 34 minute journey that ebbs and flows. The slower songs contrast with the heavy songs and the darker songs contrast with the lighter ones. It's that perfect balance that makes this one of the most metal and heavy albums Sabbath ever did. Solitude is a slow and solemn song that takes the listener down into a deep abyss. All of a sudden the song is over and the closer Into The Void just crushes you with the buzz saw intro. I feel like without Solitude, Into the Void wouldn't be as heavy. They both work with each other and they both need each other to be successful.