Review by Daniel for Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy (1976)

While it’s clearly apparent that drug & alcohol abuse had started to take its toll on the band by this stage “Technical Ecstasy” isn’t a complete failure in my opinion. I’ve always quite enjoyed the opening two tracks (“Back Street Kids” & “You Won’t Change Me”) as well as the two that close out the album (“She’s Gone” & “Dirty Women”). It’s really just the four in between that let them down. “It’s Alright” was easily the weakest song the band had recorded to that time & “Rock ’n’ Roll Doctor” wasn’t far behind it to be honest. The album really lacks those couple of truly classic songs that were so apparent on each of the first six Sabbath records too. It feels like a compilation of random songs from a band that was struggling for direction which is hardly surprising given the band’s personal issues at the time. Whilst some of the material is directed towards a more traditional hard rock sound as opposed to their signature heavy metal one that's not necessarily a problem if the songs are there. Unfortunately half of the album doesn't quite reach the benchmark. Having said that, Tony Iommi really does try his best to drag the ship along & his performance is commendable.  Overall "Technical Ecstasy" is not far from being a decent Sabbath album but the highlights aren’t quite impressive enough to carry the weaker tracks.