Black Sabbath
Master of Reality
The sludge-metal cornerstone the critic called monotonous
Released in the UK on 6 August 1971, Master of Reality became Black Sabbath's third album and their first to debut in the US Top 10. A contemporary hostile review, alongside chart results with their dates.
The verdict at the time
Bangs attacked the record as "thick, plodding, almost arrhythmic steel wool curtains of sound" and dismissed it as monotonous, writing that the "only criterion is excitement, and Black Sabbath's got it" while conceding the lyrics offered "some answers to the dark cul-de-sacs of Paranoid".
Chart peaks
European positions are listed by country. Later chart entries are labelled separately.
Sources & context
One critic's opinion, summarised from the original Rolling Stone review of 25 November 1971. The album is now ranked #234 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020) and recognised as the foundational document of stoner rock and sludge metal, cited by Billy Corgan, John Stanier and countless heavy bands as a seminal influence.
