Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality (Re-Issue) [Album]
 

Some albums start with a note that captivates you, a lyric that makes you take notice, a riff that tingles your spine. "Master of Reality" makes you notice with a coughing fit brought on from smoking weed. Such begins one of the most classic Black Sabbath and rock albums of all time "Master Of Reality" and it’s opening track ‘Sweet Leaf’ which as you probably will have guessed by now is about cannabis and is a weird love ode to the green leaf and all the ‘pleasure’ it brings to one man in his life.

The next track ‘After Forever’ was not written by Tony Iommi but by ‘Geezer’ Butler and in a strange move focused entirely on Christian themes with lyrics such as

This managed to at least, for a period of time debunk the myth that Black Sabbath’s members were seen as Satanists by religious groups at the time. We then move into ‘Embyro’ and then straight to ‘Children Of The Grave’ which follows a similar lyrical content to previous songs such as ‘War Pigs’ with it’s talk about revolution and war that ends on a slightly psychedelic feel, a sample lyric being:

We then bring on the second instrumental intro ‘Orchid’ which has an acoustic guitar slowly showing a more mellow side that sildes nicely into ‘Lord Of This World’ which for the second time on the album kind of takes things in a ‘crisis of faith’ perspective as Satan is actually mocking those that follow him in a weird turnabout way.

‘Solitude’ then shows how Black Sabbath can adapt to a slower style as it becomes a ballad with the intro, Tony showing off his skills not only on guitar but flute and piano and Ozzy showing his softer vocals. At the time I can imagine some fans were all ‘this doesn’t sound like the Black Sabbath that we loved so far’ but given the direction of songs on later albums such as ‘Changes’ (the BETTER version not the Ozzy/Kelly mess) this was a welcome start.

As we reach the closer of ‘Into The Void’ we go back to the familiar sound of the past and end on a classic style Sabbath song which for future generations would begin the genre of sludge/stoner metal (Kyuss being a band covering it.)

The musicianship is classic Black Sabbath with a few twists (such as the interludes and 'Solitude'), the biggest change in sound being Tony downtuning his guitar to avoid tension, Geezer did similar with his bass and what they didn’t know at the time is that future generations would use this style to birth sludge metal, a darker style of metal mostly done by bands such as Eyehategod and Down to name a couple. Ozzy’s vocals still have the strength in them that sadly, due to abuse slowly started to become fragile as the years went on and it’s intriguing to see him do soft vocals on one track showcasing his vocal range at the time. The 2009 re-issue also features various outtakes and is a nice document on how songs can changed, 'Sweet Leaf' being more about the love of a good woman before it became a stoner anthem for the ages.

'Master of Reality' remains a classic for both old and future generations to listen to and discover, it proves that Black Sabbath are one of the most influential bands of all time and to me, "Master of Reality" was THE Sabbath album (let’s cause debate there shall we?) due to it’s diversity.