European versions also featured the same black and purple embossed cover design, but with more conventional sleeves. Unsurprisingly, few copies survive with posters intact, and can attract high prices when they are included. An alternative take from this photo session appears on the 1982 picture disc release of Paranoid. The UK edition was housed in “box” style sleeve with a flap at the top, and as if to add some much needed colour, also came with a very nice poster of the band standing in a forest or wood, taken by Keef (who was responsible for photography for the first four Sabbath LPs). The original UK pressing has a black sleeve, with “Black Sabbath” in purple, and then “Master Of Reality” embossed below it. The original UK pressing on Vertigo is a relatively straight forward, simple design, but this record certainly has the most alterations and variations in comparison to any other Sabbath LP cover. NOTE: The cover art used at the top of this page is from the 2009 Universal Deluxe Edition Remaster (purple & purple). You can see many of these cover art variants in the images section below. Both times responsible for art design, so I figured he’d know a thing or two about it. Hugh was involved in the 1996 Castle remaster series, and the 2009-2011 Universal Remaster series. As I had been talking with Hugh Gilmour recently, I thought to ask him. As I was preparing the Fall 2011 revision to the site, I was looking over cover art, and was reminded there were several differences in cover art for Master of Reality.… and YES, it’s Ozzy singing on Solitude.Solitude had a working title of Changing Phases.Embryo is a short instrumental right before the start of Children of the Grave. Some versions of the album report Embryo as a 5 minute song.The coughing at the beginning of Sweet Leaf is Tony Iommi right after he took a drag on a joint.Latter prints still had incorrect timings on the booklet, but the CD itself was properly spaced out. When it was corrected, the times were made worse, as Solitude was listed as an 8:08 song, and Into the Void at just 3:08. Depending on which version you got, Deathmask had a running time as high as 3:08, which is arbitrary, as it falls in the middle of vocals in the song. The original Warner Brothers prints of the album had some strangeness with Deathmask and being an individually labeled track.They are “The Elegy” (with After Forever), “Deathmask” (with Into the Void), and “The Haunting” (with Children of the Grave). However, the ones from Master of Reality were used less often than any of the others. This album had the secondary song titles like the first two albums did (and Volume 4 did after this).LP Earmark 41001P (ITL 2003 – Picture Disc).2012 Vinyl Mastering by Greg Moore Masterpiece.
2009 Project coordination by Steve Hammonds & Jon Richards.1996 Design, booklet notes, & sleeves by Hugh Gilmour.1996 Remaster by Ray Staff Whitfield St Studios.
Recorded at Island Studios in London from Feb-Apr 1971.Engineered by Colin Caldwell & Vic Smith.Produced by Rodger Bain for Tony Hall Enterprises.Tracks 1,4,6,7,8 by Iommi / Butler / Ward / Osbourne.Spanish Sid (Early Version Of ‘Into The Void’).