Description
Offered for sale is a 1971 U.S. pressing of Master of Reality by Black Sabbath, including the rare poster that was included only with early pressings of the album.
About this copy: This copy of Master of Reality is a 1971 pressing on the green Warner Brothers label.
This is technically a second issue of the LP, as the song titles do not include titles for the introductions to the songs.
The cover is VG++, with slight wear at the edges and corners.
The original Warner Brothers inner sleeve is included.
The disc is VG++ and close to M-, with a few scuffs from the paper inner sleeve that are common on 1970s Warner Brothers pressings. There are no other significant marks on the disc, which has clearly only been played a handful of times.
The ultra-rare poster is M-, with no rips, tears or holes.
A beautiful copy of a classic LP that is very hard to find complete, and the nicest copy we’ve ever seen that wasn’t still in the shrink wrap.
Background: Master of Reality was Black Sabbath’s third album, and while it didn’t sell as well or get as much airplay as Paranoid, it still reached #8 on the U.S charts and #5 on the charts in the UK and was certified 2x platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA.
The opening song, “Sweet Leaf,” may have the best intro of any hard rock song ever recorded.
Allmusic.com gave Master of Reality a rare 5 star review:
The shortest album of Black Sabbath’s glory years, Master of Reality is also their most sonically influential work. Here Tony Iommi began to experiment with tuning his guitar down three half-steps to C#, producing a sound that was darker, deeper, and sludgier than anything they’d yet committed to record. (This trick was still being copied 25 years later by every metal band looking to push the limits of heaviness, from trendy nu-metallers to Swedish deathsters.) … If Paranoid has more widely known songs, the suffocating and oppressive Master of Reality was the Sabbath record that die-hard metalheads took most closely to heart.
You can listen to “Sweet Leaf” here:
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| Country of origin: | U.S. |
| Size: | 12″ |
| Record Label: | Warner Brothers |
| Catalog Number: |
BS 2562 |
| Year of Release: | 1971 |
| Format: | Stereo |
| Share: |       |
