Text written by WikiBrother Lucas David
35 minutes is all it took for Black Sabbath to establish themselves as the new masters of rock. Of course, bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd were strong at this point in their careers, in fact they were at their peak, but Sabbath brought with them something we can't deny – change. An evolution of style and rhythm that showed Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward were drawing a line for rock with their Master of Reality.
The 60s were about youthful freedom and creativity. It championed an incandescent sense of identity and an unbridled feeling of potential about to explode and save the world, and we, in 2021, know what it's like to have that desire. But 50 years ago, Black Sabbath knew better. The turn of a new decade tinged technicolor dreams with a deep shade of black from which no one could escape. The libertine hell of the 70s was beckoning, and Sabbath produced an album laden with doom to precede it.
The album was not only a natural evolution from the previous decade, but also showed a band transforming into the heavy metal heroes they would soon become known for. The first album, followed by "Paranoid," are not "light" albums, but they were still defining the group's sound and style. This one, however, kicks the door down and takes the band to more dangerous horizons.
There's a rawness to this effort that any fan of the band who heard the sound on the radio will have been left adrift. The group tuned their instruments a tone and a half lower and let the explosion of their music sound like crooked church bells. This was certainly the moment when Black Sabbath became the band they were always meant to be; from the very first moments of "Sweet Leaf" the group showed that they weren't a band for everyone, and didn't want to be.
Beyond the artistic creation, musically they also pushed themselves to produce a different sound, doing things they hadn't tried before. "In 'Children of the Grave', 'Lord of This World' and 'Into the Void' we lowered the pitch by three semitones. It was part of an experiment: tuning together to get a bigger, heavier sound," states Tony Iommi in his autobiography "Iron Man".
These three songs are what make this album perfect. The heaviness present in them, with striking riffs and incredible solos, combined with Ozzy's iconic voice, shows a band that is confident in itself. There isn't a single unused melancholy on the record, and with the murky waters of the aforementioned songs, the band was able to give life to an album that emerged from the darkness, made with a self-awareness that few rock bands have managed to achieve. Black Sabbath didn't need fantasies about Lucifer or occultism to convey their worldview; they pointed to the growing depressive nature of society itself.
Even with the changes that have always been present in the band's albums, it's difficult to classify Master of Reality into just one style, since many say that sludge, stoner, and doom metal emerged from it, but it can be said that it was with this third album that Sabbath truly found its sound. The burgeoning heavy metal scene would never be the same again.
*This text was written by a Wikimate and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the site's authors.
Want to have your text published on Wikimetal? Send an email to [email protected]
