Master of Reality

Black Sabbath在Paranoid引起轰动之后，推出的又一张重量级专辑，虽然在排行榜上不像上一张专辑那样成功，但曲风则在重金属道路上又前进了一步，听着很过瘾。专辑录制时吉他手不巧手指受伤，他把所有的弦都调低了一度半以便完成演奏，不过完全没有影响效果。专辑在Billboard上曾排到第8，有两百万的销量。

这张专辑在滚石杂志选出的500张历代最强专辑中排名第298位。

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

With Paranoid, Black Sabbath perfected the formula for their lumbering heavy metal. On its follow-up, Master of Reality, the group merely repeated the formula, setting the stage for a career of recycling the same sounds and riffs. But on Master of Reality Sabbath still were fresh and had a seemingly endless supply of crushingly heavy riffs to bludgeon their audiences into sweet, willing oblivion. If the album is a showcase for anyone, it is Tony Iommi, who keeps the album afloat with a series of slow, loud riffs, the best of which -- "Sweet Leaf" and "Children of the Grave" among them -- rank among his finest playing. Taken in tandem with the more consistent Paranoid, Master of Reality forms the core of Sabbath's canon. There are a few stray necessary tracks scattered throughout the group's other early-'70s albums, but Master of Reality is the last time they delivered a consistent album and its influence can be heard throughout the generations of heavy metal bands that followed.