Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
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CD Details
Artist: Black SabbathBrand: BLACK SABBATH
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Soundtracks:
- Sweet Leaf
- After Forever
- Embryo
- Children Of The Grave
- Orchid
- Lord Of This World
- Solitude
- Into The Void
Music reviews of Master of Reality
Music Review: The archetypal Black Sabbath album. 85/100
Rating: 4 Stars
Exploring Black Sabbath in order to answer the question "When did heavy metal begin?", I think that maybe this album could provide the answer...but the distinctions between heavy metal/hard rock and heavy rock do tend to muddy the waters a bit. Their previous album, "Paranoid", which is in my opinion their crowning glory, did have songs which definitely were hard (or heavy)rock. Maybe this album crystallises the modern heavy metal sound. If modern heavy metal seems a bridge to far for some, then Black Sabbath definitely pioneered a swampy rock/metal sound here.
In some ways, this album seems to me to try and counter-balance their association with the occult and Satanic themes. The themes dealt in this album are The Big Issues. And this album is the proto-type for their following albums, up until "Sabotage", which in my opinion is their second best album after "Paranoid". "Master of reality" is arguably their third best album, but there's not much in it. The album is prototypical in mixing their brand of metal type rock with quirky and experimental tracks. Perhaps Paranoid's trippy delight in "Planet caravan" can be seen as having this design too, but I think that Master Of Reality took it a step further, and, besides, Paranoid is atypical in having so many songs ripe for commercial fodder.
Not being a hardcore fan of heavy metal, the songs which I liked best on this album are:
Embryo: one of the shortest tracks in music, probably, at some 28 seconds long. An instrumental featuring the cello. A jaw dropping kind of track to have by a band called "Black Sabbath"!
Orchid: another instrumental, running at 1:31 seconds. Features what sounds to me like a classical guitar and a double bass, perhaps. With undoubted heavy metal bands like Metallica, you usually hear how they were influenced by bands like Motorhead etc. Not having heard those commonly cited influences on them, it tends to be the Black Sabbath songs where I hear their influences. For example, the intro to this track reminds me of the introduction to Metallica's "Fight fire with fire" off of their "Ride the lightning" cd (another song from that album, "For whom the bell tolls", I think, also sounded to me like it sampled the same bell recording that Black Sabbath used for their debut album's title track).
Lord of this world: has a chunky sounding bass and thumping drums. Also features a driving rhythm...Australian hard rock act Wolfmother's song "Woman" is reminiscent of this Black Sabbath song, in some ways).
Solitude: a mellow song. Doesn't feature Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, I don't think. Seems to reference, lyrically, Bob Dylan's song "With God on our side". The guitar sounds lucid on this song and the bass sounds nice. Bells and a horn, I think, are used.
Into the void: a chunky sounding bass again, with an interesting vocal delivery by Ozzy. Has a very heavy rhythm and there is some speed drumming. Along with Sweet Leaf and Children Of The Grave, these songs could be considered heavy metal, I think.
These are the tracks that seemed the best to me, but on second listen, Sweet Leaf's riff was getting planted in my brain. That faded, but perhaps that song could get stuck in your with repeated listens. It features a coughing man at the start (again, Metallica use this device in a song on their under-appreciated classic hard rock album "Reload", in the song "Bad seed"). It's basically a love song to the band's drug of choice, marijuana, the subject of the song's title. Features the interesting lyric "You introduced me to my mind", so the drug is obviously playing the part of Ozzy's muse in this song. The song has a very heavy riff, which sounds sort of synthesisery, and is very insistent. Some bass is noticeable on the song too.
Children of the grave: features bass and a driving rhythm, which may be by a synthesiser. Ozzy tries to be a voice for hope in his lyrics, but, again, some apocalyptic themes emerge, as they have in previous albums...to do with mushroom clouds - an ever present fear at that time (I mean the threat of total human extinction due to a nuclear war between the US and the USSR). A heavy metal type song.
The final song which I haven't covered yet is "After forever". It's this song which makes me feel that the band are backtracking from their association with the occult. Lyrically, the song seems pro-Christian...maybe you could describe it as the first Christian rock song! The lyrics are sort of a Socratic monologue on theology. Musically, a synthesiser is featured and there is a good, boogie riff, which may be by the synthesiser too. Oddly, parts of this song reminded me of the theme to the tv show "Friends"! Perhaps this song can be grouped with their song "Under the sun" from their next album, which would demonstrate, I think, that the band wore theological masks and had as many positions on the existence or otherwise of God as there were band members. In other words, I don't really get the impression that the band could be described as "committed" to any philosophical position when it came to religion.
Recommendations for this band:
I think that the first three albums pretty much show the band in all its phases. Their debut was sort of folk rock...not a favourite of mine, but I do know that in their home country it is highly regarded. Their second album, Paranoid, is my idea of a greatest hits type album. They never reached those hooky heights again, I don't think. However, if you want to explore the archetypal Black Sabbath album, Master Of Reality is it. Like their following albums, it is more album orientated rock than hit singles type rock. And if you listen to this album, and the next ones up until Sabotage, I think that you will gain new respect for this band's audacity and courage. Led Zeppelin were never this experimental, but they seem to the band that gets all the kudos. In my opinion, Black Sabbath were the superior and more important band.
Description of Master of Reality
Japanese digitally remastered reissue of 1971 album packaged in a miniature LP sleeve.Black Sabbath's first two releases, Black Sabbath and Paranoid, were more than groundbreaking, they were earth-shattering, exposing the public to a brutal new form of noise pollution termed heavy metal. But it was the band's third album, Master of Reality, that cemented the group as blackened wizards of doom and gloom. Just listen to the echoing cough and sludgy guitar riff of the opening track "Sweet Leaf" and compare it to anything that existed at the time. Not only were Black Sabbath heavier than Deep Purple or Vanilla Fudge, they were also more experimental and controversial, exploring themes of darkness, drugs, and depravity that others dared not address. The heaviest and most influential disc of Black Sabbath's career, Master of Reality featured proto-metal sludge like "Children of the Grave" and "After Forever," which served as a blueprint for a legion of musicians including '90s Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Smashing Pumpkins. --Jon Wiederhorn
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