Black Sabbath's Master of Reality: 33 1/3 (Paperback)

by John Darnielle (Author)
Key Phrases: Black Sabbath, Master of Reality, Born Again (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Darnielle, singer and songwriter for the much-loved band The Mountain Goats, cuts right to the chase in his short novel, the blunt, direct tone of his adolescent protagonist Richard Painter perfectly encapsulating the enduring appeal of metal's great progenitors. It's all about the Mighty Riff when it comes to Sabbath; everything else is secondary, and while one could easily make a case for at least half a dozen albums that deserve the 33 1/3 treatment, the riffs that define this particular album are, to echo young Roger's sentiment, unfuckwithable." -- Adrien Begrand, Popmatters.com

"Just like Black Sabbath throws big rocks at subtlety and Roger's manifesto-journal channels anger towards the mental health establishment, Darnielle's book obliterates the sterility of music criticism. I imagine him reading reviews of his work and building up all of this disdain, deciding finally that he's going to do it better. Ultimately, Master of Reality critiques criticism itself, an institution that encourages us to thrash apart the art of others -- without offering any blood of our own." -- Tiny Mix Tapes

"Mountain Goat John Darnielle's off-stage literary proclivities are no secret, which makes us all the more excited for his first novel, a paean to Black Sabbath's Master of Reality. The book is the latest in Continuum's 33 1/3 series ultrasmart series of elegant, pocket-size appreciations of rock albums as diverse as the Beatles' Let it Be and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Darnielle unpacks the classic, riff-erific album as a scrabrous series of diary entries written by a teenager in a Southern California mental institution. Those curious to see the budding rock critic off-stage or who are simply bonkers for Sabbath are advised to check out this reading." -- New York Magazine

"Total affection for, and strong identification with, music is a cross-generational experience, and though the motivation behind the 33 1/3 series meshes nicely with a post-Generation X obsession with the minutiae of personal experience, it's also immediately accessible to anyone who's ever written favorite lyrics on her algebra notebook. While nostalgia runs thick in Darnielle's book (the nature of the series essentially demands this), there's a greater point about music and memory to be found in Roger's story. Indulgence in the memory of intense feelings can be strangely comforting, and perhaps even necessary. Or, as Roger puts it: `It doesn't have to mean that to everybody, and it means more no matter what...'" -- Thea Brown, The L Magazine

"[Darnielle] straightjackets the essence of Black Sabbath where 40 years of music musings and cultural damnation have failed." -- Raoul Hernandez, Austin Chronicle

"[T]he focus of Darnielle's fans has always been on his lyrics and the stories contained within them. Now he's stepped off the stage and sat down at is typewriter to deliver Master of Reality, his first novel and a stunning piece of rock criticism and appreciation.

Readers are likely to come to Master of Reality from a variety of backgrounds. Some will come as Mountain Goats fans wanting to see Darnielle tackle a novel, others as Black Sabbath fans wanting to read about a favorite album. Some will simply be fans of the cult-popular 33 1/3 series, which has now grown to dozens of books, yet kept its level of quality very high. Hopefully, there will be others who will pick it up as novel first, because it truly is a first-rate story, full of moments that will pluck at your heartstrings as you're brought back to the moment you first fell in love with a piece of music, when an album provided not just the soundtrack to your life but also the meaning behind it. If, by some strange chance, none of this happens, well, you're probably going to at least dust off your old Sabbath vinyl, and there's nothing wrong with that either." -- NewPages.com

"This is not the first time Darnielle explores these dark waters. In fact the text is a retelling, if not an extension of " The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton," the first track on the Mountain Goats' 2002 album, All Hail West Texas. As both the text and the song are meditations on the redemptive aspects of heavy metal, the depravity of institutional authority and the refusal to forgive, the reader who is familiar with either Darnielle's musical work or Black Sabbath will find the text particularly rewarding." - Christian --Enoughcowbell.com, April 3, 2009

Product Description
John Darnielle describes Master of Reality in the voice of a fifteen-year-old boy being held in an adolescent psychiatric center in southern California in 1985. The narrator explains Black Sabbath like an emissary from an alien race describing his culture to his captors: passionately, patiently, and lovingly. This album has a genuinely remarkable historical status: as a touchstone for the directionless, and as a common coin for young men and women who felt shut out of the broader cultural economy.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 101 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826428991
• ISBN-13: 978-0826428998
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,696 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A++ would read again, April 22, 2008

By	Kirsten (Brooklyn USA) - See all my reviews

this sweet, sad little riff of a book succeeds--like the best of the 33 1/3 series--on so many levels at once I'm itching to pick it up and read it through again. whether you are a fan of Black Sabbath (I haven't listened in years), interested in unexpected forms music criticism (the fictional narrator here makes no appologies for being a superfan), or just looking for a compelling story (a proverbial page-turner from the heartbreaking dedication to the last page), this book will not dissapoint. if you've heard Darnielle's music (like, um, Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton) you know the man can tell a story, and Roger's story--too real to be non-fiction and too passionate to be grouped with standard criticism--resonates through all the frustrations and humiliations I've ever experienced. if only I'd had Ozzy to guide me through it... I think I'll pick up Master of Realitiy and give it a listen while I re-read this.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bleak Tale with an Epic Soundtrack, May 20, 2008

By	Christopher J. Thompson (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John Darnielle has been a writer i have enjoyed for some time now. Between his monthly editorials in Decibel magazine and his long running web zine (last plane to jakarta) I have read a good deal of his work. So I was excited to hear he has not only written a book, but a book about Sabbath. Metal is my absolute favorite and Darnielle's approach to metal from the point of view as a music fan, rather then singularly a metalhead, coupled with his deep insight of the obscure has been the drawing point for me to read his material. In this book he tackles one of the great albums from the first heavy metal band.

For those familiar with Sabbath, you know one could easily be engulfed by the amount of quality music they have released over their long history. The most popular release has always been they're sophomore release, Paranoid. With hits like the title track, "War Pigs", and "Iron Man", Paranoid was an album that made Black Sabbath a world name. Yet, Darnielle choose to write about Sabbath's less lauded third release. Master of Reality is an album full of Sabbath greats such as "Sweet Leaf", "Children of the Grave" and "Into The Void", but as Darnielle describes in the book, you'll never hear any of these songs waiting in line at the grocery store.

Choosing the path less traveled is a passion for Darnielle in his music exploration. In all of his writings he makes a connection with music that you will not find reiterated in the endless blogsphere. This can come from him writing about something different or him skillfully putting cognitive reality to word. In this book though, Darnielle writes a fictional tale of a boy institutionalized, and his cruddy life is explained through his eyes. Darnielle, for a large portion of his lifted, worked in youth mental health facilities such as the scene of this book. He recalls the troubled lives within the padded walls and sterile hell to write a description of Master of Reality as they would see it. The songs often are given multiple meanings as the character's experience changes. All of which are fresh and exciting to understand. This book deals with rage, teen age love, fear, religion, and the struggle to live on past tragedy. I strongly reccomend it to fans of the 33 1/3 series, fans John, fans of Sabbath, and to fans of music.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done!, May 6, 2008

By	Cliff Milledge - See all my reviews

Darnielle has a real gift for making simple words (mad, sad, bad) ring true and hit hard when coming from the pen of his 15 year old narrator. This book is not to be missed. I hope he continues to write books as well as music in the future, because obviously his talents run deep.