In 1972, after extensive gigging and a failure to release a record, they caught the ear of Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who began managing the group.
in July the band released Master of Reality , just six months after the US release of Paranoid .
Production completed in April 1971
The album reached No. 12 in the US in March 1971, and would go on to sell four million copies in the US with virtually no radio airplay.
In February 1971, after a one-off performance at the Myponga Pop Festival in Australia, Black Sabbath returned to the studio to begin work on their third album. Following the chart success of Paranoid , the band were afforded more studio time, along with a “briefcase full of cash” to buy…
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The US release was held off until January 1971, as the Black Sabbath album was still on the chart at the time of Paranoid ‘ s UK release.
In 1971, Bobby Liebling and Geof O’Keefe left their previous groups (Shades of Darkness and Space Meat, respectively) to form a new band that reflected their interest in the emerging genres of metal and heavy rock . Liebling suggested naming the group “Pentagram” to reflect the gloomy subject matter of…
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Greg Lindstrom, Robert Garven, Jerry Fogle and Pat Galligan (later a guitarist in Angry Samoans ) played in Titanic, their first band in junior high school. With a desire to play heavier music similar to that of Mountain and Grand Funk Railroad , the rest of the band parted with…
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After forming in late 1971, the band played their first gig on January 1, 1972, at an anti-Vietnam war peace rally.
The album followed in the UK in October 1970, where, pushed by the success of the “Paranoid” single, it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart.