MASTER OF REALITY

Sabbath matured further with the release of this album - imo the first of the four peak Sabbath releases. When I first heard this the Heavy metal sound left me breathless and stunned my senses. Sabbath had an instant fanboy in me with the release of this album. From the metallic coughing beggining the "Sweat leaf" track through to the end of "Into the Void" I sat and listened open mouthed to the album and I don't think I even blinked until the thing was finished. Where I enjoyed Paranoid I absolutely adored this. The music was more solid and more together than I'd heard in the previous two albums and Ozzie's voice, to me, was more mature and powerful than I'd heard previously as was the case with Iommi's, Ward's and Butler's use of their instruments. They dispelled the myth that they were anything like "Satanist" on this album and through subsequent material that I've read relating to the band and that made me way more comfortable with the music. The opening track "Sweat Leaf" is their ode to Weed and it is really powerful sound wize with an amazing metal riff driving it. "After Forever" is very Christian in its subject matter which was intentional probably to dispell what many were starting to percieve about the band prior to this. "Orchard" and "Embryo"" are softer tracks very necessary to break the power of the tracks for breathing purposes. "Children of the grave" is the "War Pigs" of this album as far as I'm concerned. "Lord of this World" is heavy excellence and "Into the Void" is an excellent closer to the album - to my mind the heaviest track on the album. A solid four stars and only misses a star in that although it is absolutely brilliant the best was still to come.