Master of Reality

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

"This is the album most associate with the birth of doom metal, and rightfully so. The sheer heaviness of this thing is quite impressive especially for its time, because simply there was nothing else like this in 1971. This happened because of an accident in which tips of Tony Iommi's fingers were chopped off (a job accident) he downtuned the guitar to reduce stress on his fingers. Unlike the clowns in the mid to late 90's who did because they wanted to sound heavy without taking the time to write riffs, Iommi did it out of necessity and behold, created Sabbath's early signature sound. 

This one is a little more conventional when it comes to structure, and its primary purpose seems to be heaviness. For instance, "Sweet Leaf" is basically doom metal with some interesting middle work. Its a drug sound, about marijuana, which is historically not dangerous to one's health like harder drugs though in excess it has its negative consequences. 

"Children of the Grave" is possibly the most famous song here, maybe an early ode to speed metal since I know a few bands of that genre who used this riff, only slightly varied. Lots of riffs in there to have your mouth watering to, plus the lyrics are youth oriented, but in a positive way. None of this "drop acid and have unprotected sex... to change the world!" its a generalized concept about changing the world in a constructive manner that makes as much sense today as it did then. Take note you modern fuckwits in the music scene, who write political/social albums so fucking specific that it will be obsolete in ten years. Music that is meant to last has a message that caters to central themes, intelligently written to the point that they are as valid twenty years from now as they are the day you wrote them. Punk rock has a horrible time nailing this concept down, though to be fair the world only has a few dozen punk songs that are timeless, the rest just sort of float out there into obscurity. "Lord of this World" and "Into the Void" are more doom metal, heavy as fuck, and classic destroyer of worlds. 

Doom metal takes most of its nods to this album, which makes sense. Its classic doom metal before the genre even existed. When people say "this band sounds like Sabbath" they're probably refering to this album. They're also probably referring to the fact that the band they're talking about plays fuzzy, bluesy riffs, in which every fucking doom band sounds like Sabbath. That point aside, this is essential. Yes, it is one of Sabbath's best. It focused on something as simple as heaviness, yet created something rather timeless in the process."

One the heavier albums for sure.

source: rym