Masters of Reality

Fronted by singer and guitarist Chris Goss, Masters of Reality stood apart as an outlier in the rock landscape spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s, delivering a hard-rock approach rooted in the sounds of Cream and Led Zeppelin while incorporating contemporary flourishes. The original roster comprised bassist Googe, guitarist Tim Harrington, and drummer Vinnie Ludovico. Goss dissolved the group soon after the warmly received self-titled debut of 1989, then reassembled it a few years later as a trio that paired Googe with legendary ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker. That configuration cut 1993’s Sunrise on the Sufferbus, a release that introduced modest changes to the band’s sonic palette yet again drew strong critical approval. Still, Masters of Reality never aligned comfortably with prevailing hard-rock currents and stayed largely unknown to the broader audience. Retrospectively, their reverence for earlier styles and their warm, expansive guitar textures clearly foreshadowed the stoner-rock wave of the 1990s, a link further underscored by Goss’s acclaimed production on three of Kyuss’s four albums. Those projects in turn launched a sustained production career for Goss and led Masters of Reality into an extended hiatus. Goss rejoined Googe in 1997, recruiting guitarist Brendon McNichol and drummer Victor Indrizzo for a run of live performances that produced the album How High the Moon: Live at the Viper Room. A new studio album, Welcome to the Western Lodge, appeared in Europe in 1999 but reached American listeners only after Spitfire licensed the record in early 2001.