I wrote a similar review for this album on some metal site, but I think this is an appropriate forum for this information as well.
Master of Reality is hailed by many Sabbath fans as their greatest work. What??? I think Technical Ecstasy is far better (and that includes Bill Ward’s horrendous – Told you once about your friends and neighbors…PUKE) sorry for the tangent there.
Anyway back to Master of Reality. Let’s break it down. At first glance you have 8 tracks. Take away the 2 pointless and silly instrumentals Embryo and Orchid and you have 6. Solitude is a joke; it is almost as bad as – Told you once about your friends and neighbors…PUKE again.
So, we are left with 5. That’s right, a supposedly full-length album with 5 real songs on it. Now of those 5, included is After Forever, the original Christian Rock song. (Would you like to see the pope on the end of a rope?) What was Iommi smoking when he wrote this one?
Into the Void goes on and on and goes nowhere. A good friend of mine once called this song a compilation killer. He put it on a mix tape (yes it was years ago) and then had to fast forward over it every time he played the tape, until I threw it out of his car window. It’s too long, and just plain dull.
Lord of this World, Sweet Leaf and Children of the Grave are all legitimate Sabbath classics, but three songs does not a classic album make, as Yoda may have said.
Finally, lest I forget, Master of Reality will be forever marred by that geigh outro in Children of the Grave. What was that? Whispering? Were they serious?
4 comments:
I would like to add that I realize quality is more important than quantity, but here both are lacking.
Interesting post. As a Sabbath fan I partially agree.It is def' not their finest work. Better than Technical Ecstacy? Hells yeah! Better than Never Say Die even. The last solid record the original line-up released (imho of course)was Sabotage.
Spirited debate aside though, how depressing is it to see that Ozzy is playing with Iommi and Butler again this summer? I mean, they SUCK now. I'd rather watch re-runs of Hee-Haw than catch one of their lackluster sets.
C'mon njcrc, Ozfest is coming, we can see Halford, and Sabbath on the same stage - better invite BD Guy.
I'd say there are five good tracks - Children of the Grave, Lord of this World, After Forever, Into the Void, and Solitude. I can handle AF (despite the words), don't think Void goes on too long, and quite enjoy Solitude.
The production is poor, though, and some of the playing pretty sloppy. There is some overdubbed percussion on Children that I think is out of time with the track. And I hate Sweet Leaf! To me that track is simply tedious. Children of the Grave should have been put first instead.
The five good tracks could probably benefit from being remixed.
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