Master of Reality is the very definition of a perfect, classic album - every track is superb, the sound of the album is unique and fantastic, it flows brilliantly and holds together as single monolithic piece of art. It was incredibly original and has been incredibly influential. What more do you want?
3 Likes
Snowblind is such a great track.
It flows like a greatest hits album, without, y’know, being a greatest hits album. Incredible piece of work. One of the finest albums from any genre.
3 Likes
I actually think Paranoid is a slightly better album than Master Of Reality, but nonetheless they are both unarguably absolute classics of the genre (Vol 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath are both cusping classic territory also).
Of the 14 tracks they played last night, 5 were from Paranoid, more than any other album…
Paranoid’s got the ‘hits’ of course - probably their best set of songs, but Master of Reality has the perfection of their sound and works best as an overall piece. The level of musicianship is up a level as well, to an almost unbelievable pitch on Master (until cocaine started taking the edge off a bit).
As you say though, we are splitting hairs here as all of the first five albums are superb and Sabotage is an underrated album too.
For what it is worth i rank them:
Master of Reality
Vol 4
Paranoid
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Sabotage
They played the same set when I saw them in Leeds - they were awesome of course but I was a tiny bit disappointed they didn’t play more from albums 3-6 (no Sweet Leaf and only snatches of Supernaut and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, for instance). Some have suggested that those tracks are harder to play (and sing) than the stuff on the first two albums, which might be true.
1 Like
Will give it a listen (Master Of Reality).
On an obscure sidenote, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the track, was given to me on a cassette when I was 10 years old. A taped compilation of Heavy Metal tracks on a C90. First song I ever heard ‘swearing’ on which sounds dumb typed but the way Ozzy delivered “You Bastard” is right up there with my all time musical experiences. Literally electric stuff. The tape, incidentally just had METAL written on it!
1 Like
it’s not Sabbath without Bill Ward
There was definitely something missing. The tour drummer was much more of a traditional metal tub-thumper. The band as a whole were still amazing though.
Yes - I was at that gig too. Really good.
Just a brilliant band. I can pop on any of the first 4 or 5, maybe 6, albums and listen all the way through. They all just feel really immersive and well crafted.
Master of Reality probably my favourite.
No mention of anything without Ozzy? Heaven & Hell is a classic. More of a NWOBHM sound and different than what came before but it’s so good. Stupidly never listened to it for years then picked up a 2nd hand copy and wow. Dio sounds cracking and the title track and Neon Nights are Sabbath greats.
Vol 4 is my favourite of the classic era. It’s just so stoned and sounds likes perfection (changes aside!) The riffs are all there and it’s got a lot of their best songs on. As an album it flows brilliantly.
Masters of Reality was the one which really got me into them - they were pretty much written off in the 90s (at least compared to their exposre post ‘The Osbournes’ so i got into them the wrong way round via the Kyuss cover of Into the Void. Remember getting that and thinking i must listen to more Sabbath as nothing i’d heard sounded like that.
Wanted to see them again but the farce which is ozzy and the ridiculous price kept me at home.
I think that for a lot of people you can have Black Sabbath without Bill Ward. You can maybe even have Black Sabbath without Geezer. But you can’t really have Black Sabbath without Tony Iommi or Ozzy.
When Dio joined they should probably have just renamed the whole project Heaven & Hell and let it stand on its own two feet. Having read Mick Wall’s bio of them ‘Symptom Of The Universe’ recently it’s a recurring theme that Tony Iommi has never really done anything in his career without putting the Black Sabbath brand on it (ironic given that he no longer controls the rights to the name) no matter how tenuous.
Also doesn’t help that by the time I got into metal in the early 90s both Black Sabbath and Dio were considered something of a joke. Shame, as in addition to Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules being decent albums the first two Dio albums are alright too.
“a lot of people” are idiots 
You can totally have sabbath with Ozzy. Personally it’s not for me, but there are soooo many people out there that love and adore the Dio days.
Mob Rules and Holy Diver are both great!
1 Like
I think you’re underselling Holy Diver there. Alright!? It’s a beast!
I meant, without…soz.
Sorry pal, inadvertently or not, you’ve agreed with me now so therefore I win…
In other news, having driven to Scotland and back last week I had an opportunity to listen to the two Ozzy albums that I’d not recently revisited (Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die can get to fuck).
Sabotage - this is certainly an album of two halves for me. The opening triple salvo of Hole In The Sky, Symptom Of The Universe (from which Metallica stole pretty much their entire career) and Megalomania is as good a run of songs as anywhere else in their career. Second half sees them abandon their signature doomy sound for the first time, ending up as sort of mash of AC/DC (who were supporting them around this time coincidentally) and Queen. It also contains their first identifiably shit song in the form of Supertzar - a skip track of ever there was one. Decent overall, but a definite drop off after their first five classics.
13 - Obviously in the 21st century there are a lot of bands that sound like Sabbath, but what none of them have is a) being the original, and b) Ozzy singing for them. One thing that is particularly noticeable going from Sabotage to 13 is that Ozzy’s voice sounds about two octaves lower - that’s what 40 years will do I guess.13 seems to be laid out deliberately to mirror the classic Sabbath albums (which seems to be how Rick Rubin works when producing heritage bands), with a couple of big songs up front, then a more psychedelic number, a blues number that even manages to squeeze in some Ozzy harmonica, followed by a couple of doomy numbers to finish. That said, now outside of the golden age of vinyl this is about 10 minutes longer than any of their other albums. Iommi’s guitar is still mighty throughout, but it’s the rhythm section that is properly massive here - Geezer bass rumbles and yer man from Rage Against The Machine does a great job on drums. A pretty incredible comeback album given the amount of water under the bridge - a UK record for the gap between number one albums incidentally 
The first side of Sabotage is superb, the second a bit dodgy as you say, although The Writ is pretty awesome. If you’re looking for the first shit Sabbath song Am I Going Insane (Radio) is a contender.
The other thing worth pointing out about Sabotage is that the album artwork is truly, truly awful…
Those red tights…