Review by Morpheus Kitami for Black Sabbath - Master of Reality (1971)

There's really not much I can say about this one you haven't heard before. Half the tracks are such that if you've heard Black Sabbath, you've probably already heard them. Sweet Leaf, for instance, is one of the three tracks you are guaranteed to have heard if you have ever spent any time listening to classic rock radio.
Compared to the past two releases, Master of Reality is a lot more typical. Outside of two short interludes, every song is more mundanely done in comparison to the non-traditional structures of the first two albums. It's more poppy, in the sense of being more easily digestable even if every song is solidly doom metal outside of Solitude.
There's a weird sort of love ethos going on in this album. Every song has something to do with it, but not always in a good way. Sweet Leaf talks about how much they love marijuana; After Forever talks about, in a way that nobody is quite sure is serious or not, about how Jesus is the only way to love; Then the rest talks about the disasters that will befall us without love. Considering the way the genre developed, it's amusing that arguably the metal album could be read as an antithesis to the whole genre.
Most of the material on this album is iconic, outside of the aforementioned Solitude and Lord of This World. There's basically nothing new to say about it. How many others have praised the subtle creepiness of After Forever, using hippie-sounding melodies as the chorus to counteract the dark, pro-Christianity lyrics. Even when the album is not being outright dark, it is still being dark under the surface.
Master of Reality strikes me as the perfect metal album. Oh, there are ones I personally like better, even in Sabbath's career, but Master of Reality states all that is good about the genre, and states in a period of time that does not linger for too long or too short. Master of Reality may be the third album, but it is not their third best album.