Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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.

Thanks to my brother Kevin for enlightening me regarding the existence of this book.

This is a unique addition to the 33 1/3 series. Instead of an in depth history and analysis of the the album here we have an epistolary novel written by John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats). The narrator is a disaffected, institutionalized teenager, and later, the same narrator ten years later; and the format is prescribed journal entries and subsequent (unsent? unread?) letters to his counselor.

This little book holds up well on its own as a novel- I think it is brilliantly conceived and tremendously affecting. There is a lot to be read between the lines. If you want more facts about the album then read the Wikipedia entry for Master of Reality. The narrator of this book only guesses at the facts behind the making of the album - for example it is never even mentioned that the guitar and bass were de-tuned to C# creating the heavy, sludgy (groundbreaking?) sound. But the intuitive approach and emotional response to the album portrayed in this book is amazing.




Personally - bought the album when I was twelve and it was, along with Alice Cooper, one of my first journeys into non-mainstream music - and I have never looked back. I don't think I had ever, well, thought about this particular album as deeply as our narrator; however I think I might be able to write the little book about other specific albums.

If you are a fan of the album, or if you have never even heard the album, or if you have ever been a teenager, I recommend this short novel (read in one sitting).

Fun fact - before college John Darnielle used to work at the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California.

I feel like I should start out by saying that I am an intensely dedicated fan of Darnielle's many outlets, whether it be his LPTJ blog, The Mountain Goats, The Extra Glenns, his contributions to Decibel, etc. etc. Let me say also that I am pretty sure most of the reviewers (though I haven't read them all) giving this a five star rating are similar in their positions.

I cannot blindly give this book a five, as much as I adore Mr. Darnielle. It was not perfect, as much as a enjoyed it. There were stumbles, in my opinion, where Roger became a little too repetitive, or where some things just seemed oversimplified. But as a whole, especially as his first book, I really enjoyed the book, and it was a quick read. I appreciated it even though I am not a well-versed fan of metal or anything. The character of Roger seemed to cover his bases enough that I could still understand what he was saying about the music--I think this is mostly in part not to his descriptions of the music itself, but to his feelings about it. Darnielle successfully creates emotional attachments which allowed me, as a reader, to sympathize, despite never having been locked up in a mental institution.

I think anyone who had even a remotely rough time in their adolescence and who turned to music to make their way through their troubles will thoroughly enjoy this book and be able to, in some extent, relate to Roger's troubles.

talk about a 1st rate good book!!! the ingenious way he tackles the sabs and alienation of underclass teens is beyond creative. good work mr. darnielle. i'll be passing this book onto all those who enjoy reading and rock and will revisit it as long as i have eyes. `

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.

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.

A lovely gem of a book. An incredible meditation on fandom and teenage pain, and a truly Foucauldian take, in simple and biting language, on the mental institution as one of this culture's most misbegotten engines of conformity and punishment, which stands in here for everything rock, at its best, rebels against.

Amazing book! Go out and buy it today. You don't even have to like Black Sabbath to enjoy the great writing in the book.

Opened the first page and immediately said "F--" to myself. Yet another 33 1/3 that gives no information on the album on the cover of the book. I am not a fan of these types at all. No interest in fantasy and fiction. I have learned my lesson (also avoid PJ Harvey and NIN) to read the reviews of any 33 1/3 before buying. It's sad because they used to be an automatic buy. 0 stars

I read this wonderful, thin book in one day. It is not really about Black Sabbath's third release "Master or Reality", but about a fellow who spend two years in a mental hospital in his teens in the mid-80s, right when Black Sabbath was releasing "Born Again", who relates that period of his life to the release. The book is good, ponderous, thinks about what Black Sabbath might mean to people, and explores the travails of the good messed-up teen. And this he is. The book mentions other Black Sabbath releases, and other bands that were near-contemporaries of Black Sabbath (Foghat, Rush, Mahogany Rush, etc), as well as some of the band's heavy followers (Metallica, Slayer, Helix, etc), but nothing in the narrator's world is more important than this band and this one release. Interestingly, the narrator gets some of his facts wrong - he doesn't mention that guitarist Tony Iommi was in an industrial accident that severed the fingertips of his fretting hand, which is an important event in the band's development, and he refers to Ozzy as the band's lyricist, which I don't think he was - but that's probably part of having an unreliable narrator, not about the author not knowing these details. You'd have to assume that Darnielle, who is also a musician in his own right and fronts The Mountain Goats, would know all of this as real rock gospel.