Technical Ecstasy

Black Sabbath's seventh album Technical Ecstacy was released in October of 1976. The album was a departure for the band as it was their second album to be recorded in the US and the first to have artwork done by the legendary Hipgnosis(same company who did sleeves for Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Pink Floyd and many others). Also, Technical was the first album where problems between frontman Ozzy Osbourne and guitarist Tony Iommi came to the fore. Ozzy was battling drug addiction and Tony decided to take control of the band but it doesn't make it bad. I first bought this album on cassette in February of 1994 on a whim and loved it at first listen. I eventually bought the CD and found out that side one of the tape was actually side two and vice versa. The songs are great as well. The album kicks off with Backstreet Kids which was somewhat of an autobiographical song for the band and had a killer riff. Next is You Won't Change Me, which is perhaps the creepiest song off of this album and is a great song through and through. Drummer Bill Ward's vocal debut comes on the next track It's Alright. Many people putdown this song but I think it is beautiful. The underrated classic Gypsy is one of the band's best tracks and ends the first half with a bang. The second half kicks off with All Moving Parts (Stand Still) which strangely kicked off the cassette edition of the album but is a good track nonetheless. Next is Rock 'n' Roll Doctor which was the single and sounds somewhat like Rush's In the Mood from Rush's debut released in 1974. The ballad She's Gone follows and is somewhat seen as a mediocre followup to Changes on 1972's Black Sabbath Volume IV but I like it. The closing Dirty Women is arguably the best song off on the album and the band has held this and Rock and Roll Doctor in high regard as it appears on numerous compilations like The Best of Black Sabbath import disc and 2002's Symptom of the Universe compilation. This album was the band's first flop unfortunately as America was now embracing fluff like Starland Vocal Band and Captain and Tenille when Technical was released. However, this album did eventually go Gold in the US and is now regarded as a cult classic. If you liked all of the Ozzy era Sabbath, this is for you. The version of this album on the Black Box boxed set buries the original album by a longshot!

This album is amazingly good and diverse. Sadly, it came out after Sabotage, probably their best album, which explains why is it so underrated. But songs like Dirty Women, Gypsy, You won't change Me, Backstreet Kids, All Moving Parts make this album unique and memorable. It's a classic for me.

Not Black Sabbath's finest hour, but as a stand alone album it is not bad. People tend to deride it because it doesn't live up to the standard that the band set with their previous work. Having said that, anyone beginning to listen to Black Sabbath should leave this purchase until they've listened to all that went before. If you think all the previous albums are 5-star material, you'll at least find this one interesting...