Lupine Transmissions - Broadcast 1 available now

I've been very, very quiet on here on year -- and that bums me out a little, as I've indicated in the sparse number of posts I've made. I've done some stuff over at Astral Noize and We Are the Mutants, but the Lupine Book Club has been a but neglected in the process.

But I've had a good reason -- over the last couple of months I've been working on my first e-zine, Lupine Transmissions. And now it's finally ready!

As some of you will know, I've been running this site since 2012.  But the gap between why I started that site and why I enjoy writing today has become an increasingly widening chasm. I wasn’t confident in the prospect of rebranding the site entirely. The structure that the site itself is built on is also ageing, and I am not a proficient behind-the-scenes tech guy.

An e-zine seemed the logical solution, and so Lupine Transmissions was born. It’s a format that could be true to the spirit of the site’s origins while also covering a far broader range of subject matter. So with that piece of self-promotion out of the way, what can you expect to find within its pages? 

• In this issue’s main feature, I speak with Dr Laura Thursby about the cultural influence of UFOs and extraterrestrials.
• Grindhouse Classics takes a deep dive into Lucio Fulci’s 1981 release, The Beyond  
• DJ Studded Leather Gauntlet sends his consciousness all the way from Reno, Nevada to talk his radio show, EVIL SPELLS
• Enter the Crypt rounds up some of some of the best metal releases of the last few months
• Stu Horvath and John “Hambone” McGuire from The Vintage RPG Podcast drop by to talk Dungeons & Dragons – and let you know which edition is their favourite. 

Each issue I hope to feature a mix of metal, tabletop gaming, paranormal/occult and horror. As you might imagine, I’m still feeling my way a bit with this one and I’m not totally certain on release schedule. Maybe quarterly? Broadcast 2, as you’ll see on the back cover, is scheduled for December.

Beyond that – well, as with any creative endeavour it will depend on reader interest. So make sure you tell your friends and get this bad boy distributed far and wide! And don't worry, the blog isn't going anywhere for the forseeable future either. More updates are still planned for the near future. 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Broadcast One of Lupine Transmissions. You can download it here -- it's best viewed on a tablet or PC screen, rather than a phone. 

Tom G. Wolf, October 2019 

New review up at Astral Noize -- Ulver's Drone Activity

Yep, been a while between posts again. This time it's mainly been because my old laptop has been on its last legs for a few months, making writing for extended periods on it difficult at best and totally impossible at worst.

But fear not! I have a new laptop, which is much easier to work with. So I'm hoping to be posting again soon with some kind of regularity. In the meantime, here's a piece I did for Astral Noize -- a review of Ulver's Drone Activity. I've been an Ulver fan for...ooh, about 14 or 15 years by now.  This album is one of my favourites from them. If you like ambient or drone, this one is definitely worth a listen.

You can read the whole thing here.

New article up at Astral Noize

This week I wrote a piece over at Astral Noize, about one of my pickups from this year's Record Store Day -- High on Fire's Bat Salad EP. You can read it here. Enjoy!

Lupine Record Club: Immortal - Northern Chaos Gods

Here we are in 2018, with a new Immortal album! Northern Chaos Gods comes a staggering 9 years after their last release, with subsequent years caught up in a mix of touring, legal battles and of course, the departure of frontman Abbath. It’s not an issue that I necessarily want to dwell on, but it is something that’s kind of inherent to discussing this album. It's tempting to use language like “Black Metal Fleetwood Mac” but I feel that would be kind of lazy and also insulting to people on all sides of the argument.

***

The splintering of Immortal upset me quite a lot when it happened. I was making a tentative return to metal after a couple of years off, and there had been rumblings of a new album after the solid but not spectacular All Shall Fall. Abbath and Demonaz still seemed like an unshakeable duo, coming across as a favourite wrestling tag team in more ways than one. But obviously not all was well…and, well, I don’t run a gossip rag here, but let’s just say that accusations got thrown around from all parties involved.  

I actually met Abbath in late 2015, when he was visiting Australia to promote his then-upcoming first album. I was lucky enough to be by the stage door as he was finishing up soundcheck. He was very kind; he accepted my compliments graciously and took time to take several photos with an overweight 30-year old starstruck fan who was trying to find his place in the world again. It was a small gesture, but one that has stuck with me in the years since. So it’s fair to say that I would like a reunion of a more classic line-up, but who knows whether that will happen or not in the future?

Regardless, the dust has now settled and the various legal issues appear to have been resolved; Abbath has pumped out one album and has a second in the works, while Immortal have regrouped as the duo of Demonaz and Horgh.  Northern Chaos Gods has been a long time coming, but was it worth the wait?

***

I decided to be fairly extravagant for Northern Chaos Gods – I picked it up on LP, opting for the white with black splatter vinyl (only 500 released, folks!). I had reasonable faith it would be a high-quality product, if not life-changing.  

The sound harkens back to a pre-At the Heart of Winter Immortal, though the engineering and production is more in line with Sons of Northern Darkness – not surprising, given that Peter Tägtgren is behind the decks again and also filling in on bass. Lyrically, it’s exactly what you’d expect. Blashyrkh and Ravendark feature prominently. Immortal’s lyrics have always had the qualities of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign sourcebook filtered through the Norwegian landscape, which is very much one of the reasons I enjoy them so much.

Now I can’t say I was hugely shocked by any of this; Demonaz was the guitarist of Immortal for years before Abbath and remained the lyricist even after departing from active musical duties. In 2011 he also released a solo album, March of the Norse, which definitely shared some auditory similarities with his main band – this should have been a clue, if nothing else.

Yet while it blasts in all the right places, is incredibly and is loaded with the Immortal tropes we’ve come to know and love over the years, I can’t help but feel that there’s a certain X factor missing. The easy answer is to point to Abbath’s absence, but I don’t necessarily think that’s true; one need only look to All Shall Fall to see that his presence is not a guarantee of excellence.

Perhaps it’s more to do with the way the genre has evolved over the years. In the decades since what we now call black metal was developed, it’s taken on a huge myriad of forms far beyond what Venom, Celtic Frost, Celtic Frost and their fellow pioneers could have imagined. Today, staunch retro traditionalists exist alongside the avant-garde – often on the same concert billing – all competing for the listener’s attention. Northern Chaos Gods’ production marks it as a modern product, but in many ways it could have stepped straight out of the mid-90s.

***  

Immortal are, and will likely remain, polarising. Their willingness to embrace the inherent silliness of the black metal aesthetic – if not always knowingly – sours many who consider themselves more trve and kvlt. Yet their lack of involvement in the far-right politics or illegal activities of many of their fellow Norwegians has meant that they’ve also been embraced by many who might have never dipped their toes into black metal otherwise. Whether or not you feel that is a good thing is largely irrelevant at this stage, because that Viking longship sailed literal decades ago. *EDIT* And just to be very clear, I do not think those activities were good. Nor am I in favour of gatekeeping. 

In many ways Immortal were in a no-win situation for this album. Release an album similar to older material and be accused of trading on past glories; deviate from the formula and alienate the core fanbase. Ultimately, my suspicions about Northern Chaos Gods were proven correct. It is a high-quality product, though not life-changing – it’s unlikely to win new fans, but I suspect the band themselves aren’t too worried about that at this point. Perhaps more importantly, it sets a promising precedent for further material from the “new” Immortal.

Lupine Record Club: Celtic Frost – Morbid Tales (2017 CD Reissue)

Year: 1984/2017

Label: BMG/Noise

You can’t talk about any type of metal or hard rock for too long without running across Celtic Frost. Hugely influential across death, doom, black, thrash, and even helping shape Creed(!), Celtic Frost are in a league of their own. There were lots of bands working in a similar vein at the time – most notably Venom and Bathory – but Celtic Frost always stood out above their competitors. There was an intensity and seriousness to their work that belied their youth, and I suspect has helped their work last the distance over the years.  

I first came across their name in 2002, when taking my first steps into the world of extreme metal. But this being a time before YouTube and Spotify, and me not being an avid music pirate*, I didn’t actually hear them until I picked up a copy of Morbid Tales in 2005. Not long afterwards, they’d reform again and release Monotheist; it was intended to be the start of a grand new era for the band, but within a few years things deteriorated again and Celtic Frost were no more, with the key members barely on speaking terms.

Frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer (aka Tom G. Warrior) has gone on to form Triptykon, while bassist Martin Eric Ain has kept a comparatively low profile. Nonetheless, their legacy still looms large, so I was pretty excited when I heard there was a new reissue of their albums on the way. I think it’s been around a decade since they had any sort of larger scale release, probably to coincide with the then-new Monotheist.

Morbid Tales has been remastered, but not remixed as far as I’m aware. In the past, Tom G. Warrior has been pretty adamant that for better or worse, the original mixes of his albums should be retained, serving as something of a historical document. Plenty of bands of their stature take a pretty revisionist stance when it comes to their own history, so I think there’s something admirable about keeping things as they were, warts and all.

30-odd years later, it still sounds great. It’s definitely raw by comparison to modern production techniques – and even in comparison to some of their contemporaries – but it suited their sound, and it still holds a power that is often lacking in bands that are far more polished. Totally essential for anyone interested in the history of extreme music, and great on its own merits too. But is it worth upgrading if you already own a copy? That’s a more complex question than it might sound – you’ll see why at the end of the review.  

Aside from the remastered audio here are three major changes to the packaging – the first is that that the artwork has been restored to its original look. The more recent reissues had an ersatz artwork on it which was perfectly serviceable, but didn’t have the same crude 80s feel**. For some, this will justify the purchase on its own merits.

The second is one that annoyed me a little – namely, the three Emperor’s Return EP tracks have now been moved to the reissue of To Mega Therion. Every other reissue I’ve run across has had Morbid Tales and Emperor’s Return together, so it seems a little strange to me – but no doubt there are compelling reasons for now doing it this way. It is more “correct” in terms of release chronology. In their place are four rehearsal tracks – Morbid Tales, Messiah (an old Hellhammer track), Procreation of the Wicked and Nocturnal Fears. They’re novel, but (like most bonus tracks) not essential. Still, they were impressively tight on these old tracks; missing them live in Sydney a few years ago is still one of my deepest regrets.

The third is the inclusion of a new booklet; the lyrics are contained of course, but there’s also plenty of cool photos from the era, and some liner notes. But you’ll notice that there are no written contributions from Celtic Frost themselves…and herein lies the complexity that I mentioned earlier.

Though Fischer was heavily involved in the process of creating these reissues, he has now withdrawn support for them due to a dispute with BMG concerning his liner notes. Prior to their release, he also had this to say on Twitter:

 I’m sure both sides have compelling arguments as to why they were right, but being a creative type myself I’m more inclined to side with the artist. So would I have still picked it up had I known this beforehand? Probably not. The older reissues still seem to be readily available for the time being, and I was certainly satisfied with my older copy when I bought it all the way back in 2005 – the extras are nice but don’t necessarily warrant replacing an older edition. But if you’re a fan, you’ll have to make up your own mind.  

*Not to mention that a lot of metal was actually quite hard to get hold of if you wanted to go that route back then.  

**Curiously, it’s been readily available as a t-shirt design for pretty much this whole period; maybe they were able to get the rights back around the time they put out Monotheist?  

Sunday Afternoon Reader, Part 5

Wow! It’s been over a year since I did one of these…so I guess I’m technically within the limits I set myself, but it’s definitely been too long nonetheless. Here’s three books I’ve made my way through recently. And hopefully Part 6 will be weeks away, rather than months.

The Death Archives: Mayhem 1984-1994

Publisher: Ecstastic Peace Library

Year: 2011

I’ve mentioned once or twice *cough* on here my love for heavy metal, and it’s near impossible to talk about the recent history of the genre without talking about Mayhem. I’ve always been kind of ambivalent about them (though I very much enjoyed Live in Liepzig), but to deny the influence they’ve had would be a fool’s errand – and when I saw them live in 2010, they put on a crushing live show. 

This book is primarily a collection of photographs, punctuated with short essays from Jorn “Necrobutcher” Stubberud, who’s the sole original member of the band these days. It would have been interesting to hear some thoughts from the others too, but of course most of them are simply dead now – buried by time and dust, in the band’s own parlance. But the photos are fantastic (witness one of the band members wearing a Bon Jovi shirt; could you imagine that now?) not only for their historic value to Mayhem but for their insight into wider European metal culture in the 1980s.

The Art of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Game

Publisher: TSR, Inc

Year: 1989   

Back in the 1980s, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was insanely popular. In addition to the core game and its supplements (quite expansive in its own right), it had spawned its own animated series, video games, a metric ton of tie-in novels and all manner of unusual merchandise. An art book is a logical extension of the game’s products; but by manufacturing AD&D beach towels I feel like there may have been some misunderstandings about the game’s core demographic.

The art in here is primarily drawn from the mid to late 80s, and exudes an impressive sense of professionalism, accompanied by commentary from some of the artists themselves. Most, if not all of it is easily available online, but it’s a nice relic from an era when the game was arguably at its peak popularity. Gone are the crude but charming line drawings of the 70s, and no doubt there’s plenty who would complain that it was emblematic of TSR’s shift from hobby product to milking a cash cow. 

There may be some fairness to that criticism, too; in less than a decade, TSR would find themselves absorbed into Wizards of the Coast, victims of bloated product lines, poor business decisions and mismanagement. What kept the business running as a hobby doesn’t necessarily scale to a global level. But Dungeons & Dragons lives on, with the 5^th edition released just in 2014 – it doesn’t look to be going away anytime soon.

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography

Publisher: Harper

Year: 2007

As a kid, I was a massive fan of all things Peanuts, and was devastated when Charles M. Schulz died back in 2000. I had originally wanted to read this way back on first release, and have vague memories of flicking through it in Borders (remember them?) but probably couldn’t justify the cost. Waiting 10 years did mean I scored it for only $6, and I’m sure there’s a Charlie Brown-esque moral in there somewhere.    

Schulz’s family has been fairly critical of the book, and I can see why; though his personal life was far from enigmatic, author David Michaelis takes a deeper look than most previous biographers, and it stands at odds with some of the conventional hagiography that often grows around beloved public figures.

That said, though Michaelis’ commitment to uncovering the truth is commendable, it’s not a perfect book. It dwells far too long on certain subjects (like the dissolution of his first marriage) and not nearly enough on others that Peanuts fans might find salient (his involvement in the animated specials, his friendships with other cartoonists). I’m glad I read it, but don’t feel that I missed out for having waited this long.     

Album Review -- Arctic Thunder vs Hardwired...to Self Destruct

In 2002, I was 17 and listening to all the metal I could get my hands on. But my ambitions far outstripped my budget, so I used to scour the second-hand stores near my home, and every now and then I’d find a few gems.

One of them was Darkthrone’s first album – Soulside Journey. It was $5, and the Duncan Fegrado cover art intrigued me. I took it home, popped it in the CD player, and things were never the same again. Though it’s never garnered the acclaim of their later, explicitly black metal works, it resonated closely with me. The sheer heaviness – and darkness – was a sound I had been looking for, though I didn’t consciously recognise it at the time. And around the same time, I was also getting acquainted with Metallica’s earlier (and best) years. Master of Puppets rapidly became one of my favourites, and remains so to this day. In tandem, these two albums were profoundly influential on me, an embarrassingly angsty teenager – though not emo, never emo – coming off a profoundly unpleasant year.

Flash forward to 2016 and Darkthrone are releasing their sixteenth studio album – Arctic Thunder. Metallica, just over a month later, released their tenth – Hardwired… to Self-Destruct. Having returned to metal in 2015 after a couple of years off, both were essential purchases. 

Though there’s a disparity in the number of releases between the two bands, I’d say that’s not so surprising. Darkthrone haven’t played live since the very early days of their career, whereas Metallica are seemingly on a constant tour. Not to say that both bands don’t have other responsibilities (both Nocturno Culto and Fenriz still have day jobs, for starters), but I’d imagine this is at least part of the reason why. So with that aside, let’s take a look at both albums in more detail. 

DARKTHRONE -- ARCTIC THUNDER

I haven’t really kept up with Darkthrone’s albums over the years. I listened to the first four albums a lot back in the day, but then I kind of lost track. Most of their albums were a real pain in the ass to find in Sydney for a long time, which is at least part of the reason…and I was never really on-board with a lot of their lyrical themes, which probably played a big part too. Through friends, I knew they’d gone kind of “punk” for a few years there, but the tracks I heard here and there were a lot more Discharge than Good Charlotte.

So to cut this long story short, Arctic Thunder was kind of a fresh experience for me. I’d say it still borrows its share of stuff from punk bands like Amebix, but I’ve read others describe it as a big move away from their “punk” albums, so go figure. It’s pretty raw in terms of production, but not that “turn up the treble to 11 and use the shittiest mic/amp combo you can” kvlt aesthetic that has featured so prominently in black metal.  In spite of being a two-man project, the album really does have a band feel about it; I don’t know for certain, but I strongly suspect that most the instruments were recorded at least partially live to preserve that feel.

Nocturno Culto is back to performing vocals on all of the songs, which is a good thing. His pipes have held up well over the years, and he’s shifted back to more of a roar than a shriek. My main criticism is that I think that the producer has smashed the echo button a few too many times. It can be a really great technique, but it gets a little too much outage on this occasion, featuring on almost every track. Nonetheless, it’s a minor quibble; when the tracks are listened to in isolation, it’s not as problematic.   

And for someone who allegedly doesn’t practice very often, Fenriz is crushing it on the drums. It’s not Pete Sandoval-style blasting or anything, but it works really well within the context of the songs. He has never been one to big-note himself, but he certainly has impressive chops.   

Best song: Boreal Fiends

METALLICA -- HARDWIRED...TO SELF-DESTRUCT

As you might expect, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct is a much more polished affair than Darkthrone’s album. This is not necessarily to its advantage; while I know that we’re never going to go back to that mid-range “scooped” engineering we heard on Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, I think it’s definitely over-produced. Tracks like “Hardwired” could definitely have benefitted from a bit more grit, a little less finesse and a slightly rougher style of vocals. And the album as a whole could have benefitted from the songs being shortened, and not being split across two discs. Double albums are generally warning signs of trouble, and this is no exception. The best songs could have been fit onto one disc, and the other pretty easily discarded. Additionally, I have never been on the “bash Lars” bandwagon, but I will say I think his drumming is lacking here. The production on them is good, but there’s something just…off about them that I can’t quite pinpoint. They feel intrusive, as opposed to an integrated part of or driving force behind the songs.

Nonetheless, there are good points. Hetfield sounds more fired up than he has in years, and I still think he’s a good frontman, even if the material he’s working with is rarely as good as it could be. Kirk Hammett also turns in some good solos, and I think we can be safely confident that the days of “Hardrocktallica” are safely behind us.    

Best track: Atlas, Rise!

VERDICT

As someone who is adamantly not a fan of the post-…And Justice for All Metallica, and has memories of St. Anger and the painfully embarrassing Some Kind of Monster documentary still looming large in my memory, this new album was a pleasant surprise. Of course, “not being as shitty as St. Anger” should be at minimum a default mode, not an aspiration. It’s overproduced and overlong, but it’s enjoyable enough to have on in the background. Metallica don’t have much to prove in terms of commercial or artistic success, and that’s part of the problem. But team them with the right producer – perhaps one more removed from their present-day commercial concerns – and they could do great things again.  

Darkthrone, on the other hand…well, at this stage in their career, they’ve certainly settled into something of a comfortable groove. As with Metallica, they don’t really have anything to prove artistically. And though some of their albums have sold quite well (in comparison to other extreme metal bands) they’ve always been quite happy to give the middle finger to more corporate considerations. What distinguishes them is a willingness to explore new territory. Not that they’re experimental, per se; more that they have used their reputation and experience to do what they want. If you happen to enjoy it, good for you – if not, then they won’t be losing any sleep over it. 

Hardwired…to Self Destruct is enjoyable -- and it's definitely pleasing to hear Metallica sound re-energised -- but Arctic Thunder genuinely rocks. I can already tell you now which one is going to sound better in ten years. 

POP! Rocks – Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead

Series: POP! Rocks

Company: Funko

Year: 2016

Lemmy Kilmister was a genuine rock icon who drank hard, took obscene amounts of drugs and who even Ozzy “I snorted a line of ants in front of Mötley Crüe” Osbourne couldn’t keep up with. He worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, played in Hawkwind, appeared on The Young Ones, had ridiculously huge facial warts and perhaps most impressively, stayed a relevant force in music until he was 70. He was a much-loved and admired figure across rock, punk and metal – and remains so, but he shuffled off this mortal coil late in 2015.

Now in spite of my admiration for the man, I’ll freely confess that I am not the world’s foremost expert on Motörhead. I’m a very Greatest Hits kind of fan – Ace of Spades, Killed By Death, Bomber, Hellraiser – among many others, are all great hard rock/metal songs. But you’ll need to look elsewhere for indepth assessments of their albums. Today, we’re going to take a look at Funko’s tribute to the man.

It’s a pretty faithful to his look – a warts and all rendition, one might even say. Pardon me for a moment while I pat myself on the back for that one. Ahem. But yeah, he’s dressed in pretty standard Lemmy gear – long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up, Motörhead t-shirt beneath. Iron Crosses on his cowboy boots (somewhat controversially, Lemmy was a big collector of WWII and Nazi paraphernalia, though did not share their ideology). An Ace of Spades tattoo is visible on his left arm (not pictured) and his right arm has some kind of eagle design – apparently it was done by the Kat Von D!

Paintwork isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the Funko average. The tampoing of the tattoos and t-shirt design are particularly nice, and a good sign that Funko has stepped their game up there too.  This is important, because details like his Rickenbacker bass would look terrible if Funko hadn’t stepped up their game since their early days.   

So overall? This is a good POP. Metal fans the world over owe Lemmy a huge debt, whether directly or via the bands he’s influenced. It’s a weird way of paying tribute, granted – but a fun one nonetheless. And now that Funko’s released Ozzy and Lemmy, there’s a few more metal legend POPs I’d like to see them release – starting with Ronnie James Dio. If Funko could get onto that, that’d be great.

Motörhead actually appeared on the Hellraiser III soundtrack, so there's a nice bit of crossover for you. 

Black Sabbath – Master of Reality (2015 vinyl reissue)

Tonight, we try something a little different on the LBC -- a vinyl review!

So for Christmas last year, my wife bought me a small hi-fi system that has a turntable attached. I last had one back in about 2007 (or more accurately, was borrowing one from a friend) when I was in my sharehouse days, and I accrued a little collection of records. Not a lot by collector standards; maybe 20? I didn’t have an mp3 player back then, so CDs were the more convenient format. But I liked the experience – ritual, even – of sitting down and having to listen to the album from start to finish. Particularly if was accompanied by a glass or two of Jack Daniels and cola, though back then I was not as well-financed and often had to settle for Woodstock and cola premixes. I wasn't as classy back then...to this day the sight of a Woodstock longneck makes me feel ill.  

All of those records have gone now, mostly donated to fellow metal fans who had turntables of their own. But I decided I wanted to get back into it after years away; music is one of the great pleasures of my life, and good music is worth investing in. Naturally it followed that then my first album purchase should be one that I’d always wanted on vinyl, but never owned. And so we come to the subject of today’s review, Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality.   

Originally released in 1971, Master of Reality was Black Sabbath’s third album, coming hot on the heels of Paranoid, which had seen them crossover into more mainstream success. Things like that happened back then, I guess; I wasn’t there for it, but it seems like people didn’t burst into tears and complain if you liked the Monkees AND Deep Purple. Nowadays the boundaries have become a lot stricter; it’s hard to imagine someone enjoying Cannibal Corpse AND Justin Bieber, though I’m sure there’s at least one such person out there.  

(On another note, 3 albums within the space of two years seems outrageously speedy by today’s standards. But people churned out albums like nobody’s business in the 1970s; it wasn’t unusual for Elton John to pump out two a year for a while there, though it must have been incredibly difficult to maintain that pace in tandem with touring.)

This reissue is kind of bare bones – no bonus tracks or gatefold presentation, just the disc in the sleeve. But conveniently, it does come with a copy of the album on CD too, so you can have it handy for ripping it to your mp3 player or for car trips.

And you probably will be listening to it quite a bit. Black Sabbath and Paranoid were unquestionably heavy and great, but for me this is when they really got into their groove. Tony Iommi had started detuning his guitar for a variety of reasons, including aiming for a heavier register and making his guitar easier to play. Not because he was lazy – but because he was missing parts of his fingers on his fretting hand due to an industrial accident. Detuning is virtually de rigeur these days, but in 1971 it was virtually unheard of.

His riffing and soloing are both in fine form here. Though he’s still not as polished as he would be on Vol. 4 and onwards, there is a raw power that permeates the album. On bass and drums, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward frequently sounds like they're playing a different song to everyone else – this would be a criticism elsewhere, but it actually works in quite a complementary fashion, particularly on “Lord of this World”. And Ozzy’s voice was arguably at its finest. He was never really a good singer in the traditional sense of the word, but his frantic yowls have rendered him distinct – and rarely bettered – in the world of rock vocalists.

Lyrically, the album moves into explicitly Christian territory, particularly on “After Forever” and “Lord of this World”. It’s a rebuttal of sorts to the accusations of Satanism that were thrown at them after their first two albums,* and one that’s mostly handled with a gravitas appropriate to the heavy tone of the album. In spite of this, they never quite managed to have the influence on the Christian music scene that they deserve (or that I’d like), with many churchgoers of the era apparently preferring the more gentle strains of Harry Secombe or Keith Green.

Less - or perhaps more - heady topics are covered too. Or more specifically marijuana -- on the opening track “Sweet Leaf”. Plenty of doom bands that have followed in Black Sabbath’s wake seem to have built their entire careers off the back of this particular song, if album artwork and song titles I see on Encylcopedia Metallum are anything to go by. And though it’s a good song, I think they actually did themselves one better on Vol 4, with the cocaine-inspired “Snowblind”. And of course, a few years later we’d hear the flipside, with Ozzy singing about the dangers of hard drinking on “Suicide Solution” on his first solo album.    

“Children of the Grave” is probably the real standout track. It is punishingly heavy, even 45 years after release, yet stands as a contrast to the nihilism that has permeated plenty of metal, including Black Sabbath’s own work. Grim in tone, it serves as a warning – a vanitas, if we want to borrow an painting term – but still holds the promise of hope, and a brighter future if people are willing to commit to it.

Master of Reality and Vol. 4 stand as my favourite of Black Sabbath’s albums. While all of their first 6 albums are great – seminal, even – these are the two that have resonated with me most over the years. Its influence can most be heard in doom metal, but has permeated virtually the entire spectrum of hard rock. Essential listening for novice Sabbath fans and long-term metal fans alike.     

*The members themselves have wavered back on forth on these topics over the years (a few of the lyrics on Vol. 4 in particular deviate quite a bit from the sentiments expressed here), with the most recent information I could find indicating that they were primarily identifying as agnostic, with the possible exception of Geezer – which would make sense, given his status back then as the group’s resident Catholic.