Black Sabbath “Master of Reality” released 50 years ago today, July 21st, 1971.  Iconic heavy, heavy doom metal, Master of Reality is recognized by those that recognize such things as the first stoner rock album. It hit #8 in the US and #5 in the UK. The well-known story about the heavier sound is that guitarist Tony Iommi downtuned his guitar to make playing less painful after the tips of two of his fingers were severed in a factory accident. The rest is dark, dark history. The other great backstory is in regards to the creation of the stoner rock genre: when recording, Iommi’s coughing fit after inhaling a giant joint was captured on tape, that coughing fit was then included at the start of the lead track “Sweet Leaf” which is, of course, about pot. It’s a great track and now a stoner anthem. Black Sabbath released at least a couple of singles from Master of Reality: “After Forever” was a single before the LP’s release, but it failed to chart (too bad, it’s also great); they also released “Solitude” as a single, also a chart failure. Though not a single, the closing track “Into the Void” is hailed by many other musicians as their favorite Sabbath tune ever, including folks like James Hetfield, Eddie Van Halen and Soundgarden.

Our copy has the title Master of Reality embossed in black making it utterly useless in photographs. “In his autobiography Iommi describes the cover as “Slightly Spinal Tap-ish, only well before Spinal Tap.” (Wiki) Later represses have the title in un-embossed gray, not nearly as cool but a helluva lot easier to read.