1. Sweet Leaf 2. After Forever 3. Embryo [Instrumental] 4. Children of the Grave 5. Orchid [Instrumental] 6. Lord of This World 7. Solitude 8. Into the Void
The Silver Surfer is happy Submitted on: 2009-09-27
The Silver Surfer is happy and shocked. Did he fail to find the truth? Not quiet.
"You Children of The Grave are Children of Today" Submitted on: 2009-08-19
With two albums under their belts, Black Sabbath evolved from a good local act to stunning band and was staring to get some recognition after Paranoid. Their third album Master of Reality was to be released in 1971, and to this day it's still one of my favourite albums and one of Sabbath's greatest. The first self-titled album was a strong bluesy, really dark and heavier than anything else out there, then they got known with Paranoid which is considered one of the best and most influential album of all-time. But in my opinion if there's one album that you can get tired of hearing of all that Sabbath has done, it has to be Paranoid. I like Master of Reality better, the songs are just better to me and it's something you don't always hear on classic rock radio like Paranoid or Iron Man. Besides I think the album represents the band at best, as lords of doom.
Master starts out with the epic opening of Sweet Leaf, with Tony Iommi choking on a joint(it's truly how it begins) and the songs just kicks in with the nice slow riff, it truly is one of Sabbath's best songs. I will also mention it was written about Ozzy's favourite leaf (I guess you know which one). After Forever is one of the best things the band did, if you read the lyrics more closely you'll see that its Sabbath saying they believe in god! It might sound weird with Sabbath's reputation at the time, but they wanted to get the satanic thing behind them at the time. "Would you like to see the pope on the end of the rope? Do you think he's a fool? Well I've seen the truth and I've changed my ways" just great lyrical stuff. Then Embryo follows which is a nice and different, 28 seconds acoustic song, it's a great introduction to another classic, Children of the Grave. Another favourite, Tony's chug-a-chug riff, Ozzy's vocals, Geezer's bass playing and Bill's drumming altogether make this song [pretty fast considering the time and make the song special.
Orchid is a more complete instrumental; it lasts longer than Embryo and sounds better with gentle acoustic guitar. Lord of this World is a slow rocker like Sweet Leaf, just another great song, and much like the rest of the album really dark. The ending is fantastic with the song getting faster with a great drum beat and another amazing solo. Solitude follows; it's a slower more emotional song. I feel the song is beautiful, it seems weird but I think it's truly a unique song and something very different and well done for Black Sabbath, plus the guitar work is amazing, not much of a riff, just melody. It's not a song they played live often (if they ever did), but I appreciate it and like to hear this from one of my favourite band. The name fits the song really well as it pretty much describes the whole song in one word. Into The Void is the epic here, at 6:11 it's the longest song on the album.It'another excellent song not much to say except it's highpoint.
Master is one of my favourite Sabbath albums because it's just everything the band is; it's dark, heavy, and it's edgy. It's really a masterpiece and a classic album. The fact that it's got so many classic and that all the songs are great and unique combined with the musical abilities of the individuals who perform it just make that good, that timeless. Black Sabbath left their mark in music and this is one of their best albums, a must have for any rock n'roll(heavy metal or whatever you call it) fan or Sabbath fan.5 stars all the way.
Raw power Submitted on: 2009-08-09
If you like really raw hard rock, then Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality is for you. The sound is very raw and crunchy. It's not crystal clear. Sometimes albums like this with this kind of sound are better than the well-produced crystal clear ones because they offer what is most important when it comes to hard rock - the attitude. The riffs and melodies are there no matter how clear or muffled they are. That's the most important thing. They're there. This music will get stuck in your head. That's all that matters.
The album begins with Sweet Leaf and its classic coughing in the beginning. The next track is After Forever with its awesome guitar riff provided by the great southpaw guitarist Tony Iommi. Embryo is a short guitar solo if you will. The next song, Children Of The Grave, has an outstanding guitar riff and is very melodic. I always play this song during the Halloween season because its one of the must-play songs. It ends with the haunting sounds of ghosts. Very creepy. Orchid follows, a mellow guitar song. Lord Of This World rocks with another great guitar riff. Definitely one of the best songs on the album. Into The Void provides yet another great guitar riff. Solitude is the last song and is very mellow and mystical.
If you like rawness and purity to your hard rock, then this album will satisfy you. One of the great Black Sabbath albums. It will rock you.
Definitive heavy metal album of 70's Submitted on: 2009-07-26
Black Sabbath's first two albums, BLACK SABBATH and PARANOID introduced the world to heavy metal, and it seemed like a tall order to try and actually top those trailblazing masterpieces. Well, Black Sabbath managed to pull it off with their third release, MASTER OF REALITY. In my opinion, MASTER OF REALITY is THE definitive heavy metal album of the 1970's, just as POWERSLAVE by Iron Maiden is THE definitive heavy metal album of the 1980's. There's just something about the incredible rawness to the sound of the songs that give it its metal texture and mood. Songs like Lord of this World, Children of the Grave, Into the Void and the cold and eerie Solitude exemplify this. This album is very dark and very heavy. I prefer this album over PARANOID and the first album because it is what heavy metal should be all about---darkness, heaviness and rawness. Black Sabbath is the greatest heavy metal band of all time, and I recommend this album for a starting point in your Sabbath collection. All of the songs get 10/10.
The archetypal Black Sabbath album. 85/100 Submitted on: 2009-06-26
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 arguable 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.
The Silver Surfer is happy
The archetypal Black Sabbath album. 85/100