Master of Reality

Recorded at Island Studios in London from February to April 1971, shortly after a one-off show at the Myponga Pop Festival in Australia. Rodger Bain produced it for the last time, with Tom Allom engineering, and Iommi took over production for the next several albums. On Children of the Grave, Lord of This World and Into the Void Iommi tuned his guitar down a step and a half to ease the tension on his injured fingers, and Butler tuned his bass to match. Iommi called the result a bigger, heavier sound.

Ward said the earlier albums had been made in a couple of days, while this time the band had room to experiment. Iommi added classical guitar, played flute and piano on Solitude, and later thought the extra time had confused them. He said Into the Void was tried in several studios because Ward could not get the part right.

Sweet Leaf opens with Iommi coughing on a joint Osbourne gave him while he recorded acoustic guitar, and Bain used a piece of the tape as the intro. After Forever is a Catholic-themed song by Butler, issued as a single with Fairies Wear Boots in 1971. The first editions came in an envelope sleeve with a poster and an embossed title.

It reached number 5 in Britain and number 8 in the United States, and sold two times Platinum in the US. Robert Christgau called it a dim-witted, amoral exploitation and Lester Bangs found it monotonous, while AllMusic gave it five stars. Rolling Stone ranked it 298th (2003), 300th (2012) and 234th (2020) in its 500 greatest albums lists. It is seen as a foundation of stoner rock and sludge, and Billy Corgan said it spawned grunge. Ward named it his favorite Sabbath album in 2017.