By the time Black Sabbath got around to releasing their third album, Master of Reality, they were bona fide rock royalty. Their previous two albums, Black Sabbath and Paranoid, had performed tremendously well, and the stage was set for the heavy metal pioneers to deliver yet another genre-defining album in the early 1970s. Indeed, the band did just that, taking their quest of defining heavy metal one step further by helping establish an entirely new subgenre: stoner metal.
Videos by American Songwriter
Black Sabbath began recording at Island Studios in London in the first week of February 1971. It was the first time since their debut that the band had time to experiment and explore without the pressure of upcoming gigs or deadlines rushing their creative process. Despite this loose schedule, the band still managed to fill their time with something green, leafy, and pungent.
Tony Iommi Is The Man Behind The Intro Cough
One need not listen further than the opening track of Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality to know what we mean when we say “stoner rock.” The album starts with their ode to marijuana, “Sweet Leaf.” Appropriately, the track starts with the sound of someone coughing before the first riff begins. Although a clever artistic choice, the cough itself was an accident, according to guitarist Tony Iommi. Iommi is the man behind the distinct cough, which the engineers caught on tape while he was tracking acoustic guitar for a different song.
“Ozzy [Osbourne, Black Sabbath’s frontman] rolled this big joint,” Iommi later explained (via Metal Hammer). “I had a couple of puffs and nearly choked myself. They left the tape running, and it turned into the ideal start for “Sweet Leaf.”” Per bassist Geezer Butler, the band came up with the idea of “Sweet Leaf” after Butler showed his bandmates a pack of Sweet Afton cigarettes from Ireland.
A Factory Accident Helped Lead To Advent Of Sludge Metal
Just before Black Sabbath was about to make their meteoric rise to the top of the rock ‘n’ roll hierarchy, guitarist Tony Iommi suffered an accident that could have been potentially debilitating for someone on his instrument. While working at a sheet metal factory, Iommi cut off his fingertips in a metal flattening machine. Instead of allowing the accident to discourage him, Iommi innovated new ways of playing with false fingertips, modified chord shapes, and lower tunings.
Those lower tunings made their way onto Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, with Iommi down-tuning his guitar as low as C# to loosen the string tension and make it less painful to play. The effect was a massive, almost ominous sound that came to define the heavy metal genre. Countless bands would go on to implement similar techniques out of style, not necessity, including Nirvana and Soundgarden.
Black Sabbath’s Previous Success Inspired ‘Master of Reality’
For most bands, getting a hit record would inspire them to create a follow-up that captures that same commercially successful magic. But Black Sabbath isn’t most bands, and that certainly wasn’t their prerogative in the studio while recording Master of Reality. The mainstream appeal of their previous record’s title track, “Paranoid,” was more unsettling than affirming to the alternative band. When the band set out to cut their third album, they specifically avoided hooks.
“Sabbath was all about the dark reality of life,” bassist Geezer Butler later said. “We’d grown up in the aftermath of World War II, and Aston, where we were from, still had bombed-out buildings and neighbors with war wounds. At the time of Master of Reality, Vietnam was raging, the Cold War was at its coldest, the Troubles in Northern Ireland were close to home. A few others were singing about the underside of life. But we had the heaviness to hammer the subjects home.”
One Of The Nastiest Riffs Almost Didn’t Make The Cut
Prior to Master of Reality, upcoming gigs and other pressing engagements dominated Black Sabbath’s recording schedule. But with two hit albums under their belts, the British heavy metal band could finally call the shots regarding how they recorded their third album. They took time to experiment and expand upon arrangements in ways they might not have if they were in a time crunch, which turned out to be a blessing and a curse. When it came to one of the nastiest, sludgiest songs on the record, “Into the Void,” drummer Bill Ward might have suggested their experimentation leaned toward the latter.
“We tried recording “Into the Void” in a couple of different studios because Bill just couldn’t get it right,” Iommi recalled. “Whenever that happened, he would start believing that he wasn’t capable of playing the song. He’d say, ‘To hell with it. I’m not doing this!’” Despite being one of the most difficult songs to record, we’d say Black Sabbath found their sweet leaf, er, spot with “Into the Void” and the rest of the monumental eight-track record.
Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.