MASTER OF REALITY

Black Sabbath

Prog Related

4.10 | 924 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

colorofmoney91
Prog Reviewer

I grew up on music by Ozzy and Iommi, and Master of Reality by Black Sabbath is one of my favorites by the team.

This album marks the change in Black Sabbath's sound that ultimately became known as sludge or stoner metal, utilizing a thick and fuzzy guitar sound coupled with a slow and steady tempo that drudges through the songs, though the music here actually does frequently pick up the pace. This album is maybe not as progressive as the material on Vol. 4 or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but the music still has short but enjoyable instrumental breaks. Ozzy's voice is also very strong on the album and goes terrifically with the sludgy instrumentation.

Besides being a landmark album in the development of the progressive sludge metal genre, contained within this album are a few of Sabbath's most popular songs - "Sweet Leaf", "Children of the Grave" and "Into the Void", which are all heavy songs. One of my personal favorites, "After Forever", is kind of uplifting compared to the rest of the album and comes across as sounding playful and psychedelic. The short interlude tracks "Embryo" and "Orchid" really add a progressive flow to the album, and the latter is actually quite a beautiful acoustic intro into the heavy groove that makes up "Lord of this World", which is one of the more progressive tracks on this album with its time changes and it is full of fantastic grooves. "Solitude" is a beautiful track with standout bass tone and wouldn't sound out of place on a prog folk album at all. "Into the Void" finishes the album with a strong, steady, solid groove.

One thing that Black Sabbath has always been great at are riffs, and there are plenty to love on this album.

Highly recommended master craft progressive music.

colorofmoney91 | 4/5 | 2011-4-11

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Share this BLACK SABBATH review

Social review comments () BETA

Review related links

Send comments to colorofmoney91
Report this review (#431328)
Buy BLACK SABBATH music online with PA partners
Show all BLACK SABBATH MP3/Stream
Go to BLACK SABBATH page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
Go to Master of Reality page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
Search the Forum for BLACK SABBATH related discussions