Last Updated on 27 January 2026 by Massimo M.
Black Sabbath’s third album, Master of Reality, saw the band build on the foundations laid with the release of their two 1970 albums.
What Black Sabbath do with Master of Reality is explore new fusions of heavy rock n roll.The result is a very influential album that was also the group’s most commercially successful album in their so-called classical era. Recorded in late 1969, the group’s debut album contained a heavy dose of dark themes, but was a surprise hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
To build on this momentum, Black Sabbath returned to the studio just four months after their debut release to record Paranoid, which shifted the lyrics’ focus to real-world themes. Combined, these first two albums altered the rock landscape by consolidating “heavy metal” as a subgenre.
After the release of Paranoid, Black Sabbath launched their first tour of the United States. It is recorded in a longer time than the two and five days respectively intended for its predecessors: the two main sessions take place in about ten days in February 1971 and as many in the following April in a studio (Island of London) equipped with a 24-track mixer instead of the usual eight tracks.
These logistical and technical improvements allow Black Sabbath to experiment as never before and, in parallel, to the expansion of the sound palette, to expand the thematic one as well. Introduced by the repeated and amplified coughs emitted by Tony Iommi after sucking a joint passed into his studio by Ozzy, Sweet Leaf is one of the band’s most famous and successful songs, an ode to marijuana inspired by a slogan of Irish sweet Afton cigarettes: “It’s the sweetest leaf that gives you taste”.
The song immediately launches into a slow, simple but powerful riff, imbued with distortions and, after two verses, the band breaks into a quick jam with bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward following Iommi in playing quickly before returning to the main theme, which seems even more powerful at this point. Faith in the religious sense is the subject of the next piece, one of the most appreciated and discussed in the repertoire of the Birmingham formation, After Forever. Butler, who grew up in a Catholic family, openly reflects on the existence of the soul and life after death, but his lyrics are immersed in plumbee atmospheres, also due to the tuning of a tone under the guitar: a necessity for Iommi, deprived by an accident at work of some phalanges of the left hand. So, although the piece begins with unexpected major chords that ring like bells, insisting on the first, third and fifth degrees of the Sol triad, it soon sinks into the proto-doom sounds that have characterized the band since its debut.
The half-minute “Embryo” is a strange interlude, which seems to have Scottish origins and serves as an introduction to the next track “Children of the Grave”. This jam, mostly direct and heavy, contains some anti-war themes and has been cited by singer Ozzy Osbourne as the kick ass song of the group. 
The second side of the album features some lesser-known tracks, starting with “Orchid”, a finger-picked folk acoustic instrumental that at the same time adds a certain real character to the album and is slightly surreal in its hypnotic repetition of patterns.
“Lord of this World” returns to doom metal but with Ward’s very animated drums at first and later wallows through some blues rock riffs and slight jams.
“Solitude” begins with a finger picking guitar and a bass line by Butler, while Osbourne’s gloomy voice is almost English folk in verse, relaxed, dark and moody. In the track that closes the album, Into the void, emerge all the thematic and musical elements that the band has developed in these first years of life: the science fiction so loved by Butler, the inevitable Satan opposed to the ideals of peace and love, the raw and realistic vision of contemporary society are accompanied by a forest of riffs carved in legend, some of them abandoned after a handful of jokes, ingenious variations of tempo, further stimulating blues and jazz hints. Osbourne begins to sing after a minute and a half, and concludes his part by inviting us to “leave the Earth to Satan and his slaves, to their future in the graves”, to “build a house where love can remain” and wishing us “peace and happiness every day”.
This closing track is the fifth milestone of an eight-track album which should be enough to make us understand the greatness of a record that did not reach the popularity of Paranoid but that still has an immense influence today.
Certified double platinum after selling 2 million copies, Master of Reality was Black Sabbath’s only U.S. Top 10 album until 2013.
The group built on this success with a world tour in 1972, before finally taking a break to work more methodically on their next album.
The album cover is made in a simple way, consisting only of the Master of Reality writings in gray, under the words Black Sabbath in purple, all on a black background. The title of the album and the name of the group are written in large letters and with a wavy effect. The first vinyl edition of the album had the gatefold cover containing a poster of the band, and the words Master of Reality written in black with purple outline instead of gray. On the back of the album are transcribed the lyrics of the songs. Finally, there are other variations of the cover with green and red lettering.
In the first editions distributed in North America, several songs on the album had subtitles, which identified the various musical detachments creating the impression that there were more songs than those actually present. The intro to After Forever had the subtitle “The Elegy”, the outro of Children of the Grave was called “The Haunting”, the intro to Lord of This World was titled “Step Up”, and the intro to Into the Void was called “Deathmask”. The same treatment had been used on the band’s two previous albums released in America.
Album tracks
Side A Sweet Leaf – 5:02 After Forever – 5:25 Embryo – 0:30 (Iommi) Children of the Grave – 5:15 Side B Orchid – 1:31 (Iommi) Lord of This World – 5:27 Solitude – 5:02 Into the Void – 6:11
Black Sabbath discography
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