TECHNICAL ECSTASY

This album was a disappointment to me after the brilliant "Sabotage" album - I expected another rung up the ladder from them as opposed to this. Perhaps that is why this album is so "disliked" by their fan base. The heaviness had gone here in favor of a more commercially flavored form of hard rock/metal. "Black Sabbath for the masses" is what I feel happened to the direction of the band. This is by no means a bad album in its own right but it isn't what I expected or what I wanted from them. The standout track on this album for me is "Dirty Women", the rest is just standard, if good, hard rock fare. Had this album been released by a band other than Black Sabbath it would have been better recieved by the public than it was. For those who enjoyed the "pop" music, Collins side of Genesis's later releases I would suggest give this Sabbath album a try. To those who enjoyed the "bite" of the older Sabbath albums I would say give it a miss. Three stars from me due to the fact that it isn't by any means a bad album, it isn't the Sabbath album that I wanted to follow their previous releases but their are still sparks of the old Sabbath that do come through the mist here at times.