TECHNICAL ECSTASY

"Technical Ecstasy" remarked Black Sabbath major shift in music direction. The album adopted some of Iommi's innovations, was another good - but not great - seller, and Osbourne's frustration eventually led to his quitting the band in November 1977. Well, as you might have expected when the struggle started, the band members worked hand in hand to find solution. But when the band reached commercial success and widely known by public, usually tense started to occur. It's typical in any development of a band, isn't it? This album represented the demise of one of pioneers of heavy metal music. Not that the music is bad, but it's more on how the soul of Black Sabbath had "lost" a bit. You will find the opening track "Back Street Kids" (3:46) lacks typical riffs that Iommi usually delivered in previous albums, even though this opening track is not bad at all, actually. The next song "You Won't Change Me" (6:34) tries to present the soul of power chords but with more modern sounds. It works fine for me but not for most of Black Sabbath's fans. The composition had become simpler. Fortunately, Ozzy's voice was still quite unique and made it as Black Sabbath's sound. "It's Alright" (3:58) is definitely NOT the kind of music you would expect Black Sabbath to perform, it's too poppy.

Let met tell you, despite a lot of lackings this album has, one song had become very popular and major hit in my country, i.e. "She's Gone". The music and lyrics are very simple, but most pop listeners in my country love the melody this song has and also how Iommi played his acoustic guitar backed with nice string section.

This is not a good album to start with Black Sabbath.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW