Master of Reality | 
 enlarge | Artist: Black Sabbath
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $6.85
You Save: $5.13 (43%)
New (45) Used (18) Collectible (3) from $4.95
Rating:  201 reviews
Sales Rank: 4810
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 5 x 0.4
MPN: 075992725323
UPC: 759927253234
EAN: 0075992725323
ASIN: B000002KDO
Release Date: October 25, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Want it Fast?...We automatically upgrade all single CD sales to Air Mail First Class, and our vetted Five Star Staff will E-mail you a USPS Delivery Confirmation Tracking Number, so that you can follow your order from our door to yours for worry free transactions!
| |
| Tracks:
| • | Sweet Leaf | | • | After Forever | | • | Children of the Grave | | • | Orchid - Black Sabbath, Iommi, Tony | | • | Lord of This World | | • | Solitude | | • | Into the Void |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: BLACK SABBATH
Title: MASTER OF REALITY
Street Release Date: 07/07/1987
Domestic
Genre: HEAVY METAL
Amazon.com essential recording
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
|
| Customer Reviews:
 About as BLACK as it gets! November 21, 2008
James Simpson (USA)
Master 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.
 Sabbath goes Christian! (?) (!!) (???) (!!!!) September 29, 2008
finulanu (Here, there, and everywhere)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality July 4, 2008
DanAMA MCLE (Midwest, U.S.A.)
Black 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.
One of the greatest Metal albums of alltime June 29, 2008
This album basically pioneered the Metal genre. The heaviest Sabbath has ever done by far, wayyyy far. From the opening song "Sweet Leaf" to the closing song "Into The Void", you are in a trance, literally. Oh sure, Black Sabbath (the first album) and Paranoid were classic albums, they just didn't have the metal sound to them that Master does. Master is regarded as the album that opened the doors to the other kinds of experimental metal, such as doom and sludge.
Absolute classic June 11, 2008
bombedzombie (PSL, Florida)
The last truly flawless Sabbath album, from the frenzied first year(s)... before the drugs and turmoil really started to set in. Sludge, doom and stoner metal nuts... listen up, 'cause this is the ONE!!!
I learned to play guitar to THIS album... not "Smoke On the Water" or "Iron Man"... "Sweet Leaf" has to be one of the best Sabbath songs ever (relatively easy to play, as well, for you aspiring guitar players)... "Children of the Grave" and "Into the Void" are personal favorites, as well.
Timeless, crushing, heavy, blistering, and a blueprint of how to do it right.
|
|
|
