Black Sabbath's Master of Reality (2008)

Big YES to John Darnielle's treatment of Black Sabbath's third album in this 33-1/3 series title. It is one of the most creative from the series as it is technically fiction, which suggests a hundred ways to go wrong. But Darnielle, founder and sometimes sole member of the Mountain Goats, has since gone on to publish two novels, in the horror vein. But the novella or long story Black Sabbath's Master of Reality mixes up a resonant character voice with some very sharp yet plainspoken analysis of the music. The character is a teen institutionalized in a mental hospital. He is required to keep a journal, and thus our text, which often directly addresses his counselor or therapist, Gary. Our kid is furious because his walkman and tapes have been taken from him. Master of Reality is his favorite Black Sabbath album and Born Again (1983) is weirdly his second-favorite. He touches on the first two Black Sabbath albums and all the songs on Master of Reality. It turns out, by the way, that Master of Reality is another one of those things with weird versioning problems. Look it up sometime. The story here is divided into two parts, the first in 1985 when our kid is institutionalized and writing the journal, and the second in 1995, when he has decided to write a letter to Gary. Now he is 26 and works as a restaurant manager. He's still mad at Gary and defending Black Sabbath. My own story with Black Sabbath goes like this: I went for "Iron Man" in high school but the band scared me because of the burnouts they attracted, I ignored them until Born Again, which had a cover that scared me, and I was finally goaded into really listening to them after reading Joe Carducci's anti-pop screed in the '90s. Master of Reality was also Carducci's favorite, so that's the album I ended up with. It did not impress me very much either way, which was not helped by my bad attitude about Carducci. This book was helpful for finally seeing some light on the album. It's not as aggressive as the primal metal label (or "War Pigs") might lead one to believe (though my favorite song has a spooky title, "Children of the Grave"). This is another book in the 33-1/3 series that ranks with the best, although I'm not sure anyone else could ever try this fictional approach again. Or maybe they have! It's a big series now. I should also say the Mountain Goats have always been lost on me. My next move with Darnielle would probably be one of the novels. Don't miss this one if you're reading them.

In case the library is closed due to pandemic, which is over.