#371 Black Sabbath — Technical Ecstasy Album Review: 50 Years of the Most Divisive Sabbath Record

“Was it as good as The First Six? No…”

Released on September 25, 1976 (exactly 4 years to the day after the release of Vol. 4), TECHNICAL ECSTASY, the 7th album by the mighty BLACK SABBATH, is one of the most mysterious, polarizing, and perhaps confusing albums from the legendary Ozzy Osbourne era of the band.

First of all, the album cover depicts two robots having a fling and exchanging “lubricants” with each other on an escalator; a pretty massive departure from the darker album art featured on any of The First Six albums.

And then there’s the track listing, which is almost as bizarre and mysterious as the album art. Depending on which version of the album you have, Side 2 might actually be Side 1…or it might not be. So, if this feels like a Mandela Effect moment to you, then you’re not wrong.

“Does it need to be part of the Sabbath canon? Yes.”

Sonically, TECHNICAL ECSTASY is a far more experimental and rock and roll version of Sabbath than any other album in their discography, and yet somehow seems strangely out of sequence relative to The First Six. In fact, the more experimental, progressive sound found on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (which, in and of itself, is quite a departure from the darker, heavier sound of The First Four) almost seems like a more natural predecessor to TECHNICAL ECSTASY than Sabotage.

Either way, it IS part of Black Sabbath & Ozzy Osbourne history and given the 50th anniversary of its release (and, ironically, the 5th anniversary of the Steven Wilson Remix which was released on October 1, 2021), we felt it necessary to give this album another spin and see if we could figure out what we’ve been missing all these years.

“That’s a perfect name for that song…they could have called it “It’s Not Bad” …”

Get ready for a spicy “hot take” that we did not see coming, understand what’s about to happen whenever you hear the “kung fu flute” from out of nowhere, remember to “write it down, so it’s in writing”, and just know that “when he says ‘I mean, come on’…you know” it’s time to JOIN US as we revisit BLACK SABBATH’s enigmatic 7th album: TECHNICAL ECSTASY.

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