Black Sabbath Technical Ecstasy Super Deluxe Edition 180g 5LP Box Set

Black Sabbath embraced change in 1976 when the heavy metal innovators started managing themselves and began exploring different sounds on the band's seventh studio album, Technical Ecstasy. The record reached #13 in the U.K. and was certified gold in the U.S.

Rhino is honoring this daring album with a collection that includes a newly remastered version of the original, a brand-new mix by Steven Wilson, plus more than 90 minutes of previously unreleased outtakes, alternative mixes and live tracks.

In the summer of 1976, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward headed to Miami to record Technical Ecstasy at the famed Criteria Studios. The band was coming off a world tour for their previous album, Sabotage, that had found their live performances evolving to include keyboards and synthesizers. These newly incorporated instruments and sounds were then introduced into the recording process on Technical Ecstasy. The new songs encompassed a wide range of styles from the hard charging "Back Street Kids" and ballad "It's Alright," to the funky "All Moving Parts (Stand Still)" and progressive "Gypsy." The album also featured the single "It's Alright," which was the first Sabbath song to feature lead vocals by Ward. The Deluxe Edition presents a newly remastered version of the eight-track album, along with an entirely new mix of the album created by Steven Wilson using the original analog tapes.

Technical Ecstasy: Super Deluxe Edition comes with eight previously unreleased outtakes and alternative mixes. Among those are different mixes of "You Won't Change Me" and "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor," as well as both outtake and instrumental versions for "She's Gone." The collection concludes with 10 previously unreleased live tracks recorded during the 1976-77 Technical Ecstasy World Tour. The songs touch on different eras of the band's history with early tracks like "Black Sabbath" and "War Pigs" alongside new songs "Gypsy" and "Dirty Women."

The collection comes with an extensive booklet featuring artwork, liner notes, rare memorabilia and photos from the era, plus a replica of the 1976-77 world tour concert book and a large color poster.

According to bassist Geezer Butler, 1978's Technical Ecstasy was 'the beginning of the end' for Black Sabbath as the band struggled to deal with a legal battle between their former manager, the shifting tides of rock music and their own demons. Out of that entropy came one of Sabbath's most fascinating albums. Recorded in Miami, Ecstasy found the band further steering out of the darkness of their previous work with the help of a keyboardist and an openness to softer textures. It has become one of the more divisive entries in the Sabbath catalog, a feeling that is not going to change with the release of this massive boxed set. It's an interesting collection that includes a remix of the album by Steven Wilson that gives the quieter material some breathing room and tightens up the heavier tunes. Start there and then move onto the live album. Sabbath continued to bring the fury in concert and this set is a great example of that. The more tempered approach to the music on Ecstasy bleeds over onto classics like 'War Pigs' and 'Children of the Grave' with eye-opening results.