Technical Ecstasy  by Black Sabbath

In 1976, Tony Iommi consciously decided to change the sound of his band, believing that those who had listened to the band all these years had grown tired of their heavy, slow sound. Thus, Technical Ecstasy presents an album with a more cheerful tone compared to the previous ones.

Another change is the cover. After the cover of Sabotage comes the cover by Hipgnosis, which one might find difficult to understand what it intends to convey. Its creators have said that the main idea of the cover was to present two robots "having sex" on an escalator, which would suggest the "technical" ecstasy claimed by the album's title (!)

The album can be considered the band's first failure. Songs like It's Alright or Gypsy hardly remind one of Black Sabbath, while All Moving Parts (Stand Still) or Rock 'N' Roll Doctor could have been good choices for B-Sides of Lynyrd Skynyrd at the same time. The No.13 in Black Sabbath's homeland, Britain, and the No.51 in the USA indicate the album's inability to stand alongside their previous albums.