MASTER OF REALITY

Master Of Reality is one of Sabbath's most convincing metal album of the Ozzy years. It will appeal to the metal audience for its dense and heavy doom attack, but it has more to offer then just that. Most of the songs have gone beyond the simple heavy blues of the first album and contain more complex arrangements and even some folk influences.

Sweet Leaf kicks things into action. Vintage Iommi riffing and Ozzy shouting against it. Works brilliantly. Very similar to Iron Man but less silly and much more convincing. On After Forever a light folksy tune fights with ultra heavy churning metal sections. This diversity make them appear even heavier then they are. Embryo is a great folk tune again on clean electric guitar and serves as an excellent introduction to Children of the Grave. Great percussion work here.

Just as on Genesis Foxtrot, Orchid sets off side two with a gentle acoustic track much like Horizons. The songs that follow can not be compared to Supper's Ready of course, but still, they represent the pinnacle of Sabbaths 70's work, muck like Supper's Ready did for Genesis. The songs here set the benchmark for all future doom bands. Lord of This World does it in a slow funeral tempo, Solitude with gentle guitars and flutes, Into the Void with vintage headbanging staccato riffing and eerie chanting. The variation between slow and fast will become a template for nearly every future doom metal album.

This album works a lot better then Paranoid, which lacked a bit of punch and was uneven in the songwriting with both classic tracks next to a few tepid affairs. If you want to check out Sabbath, pick up either the debut, this album or Heaven and Hell.