Oh man, what blasphemous statements! It still amazes me that to this day Technical Ecstasy and also Never Say Die gets bashed as being weak. Just because the band decided to expand their boundaries musically on those two albums they have been neglected over the years. And the when the later albums of their catalogue are considered the true meaning of neglect is all too apparent, not to mention out right scorn. Hell, most people don't even seem to be aware of the existence of such releases as The Eternal Idol or Cross Purposes which is a damn shame because the musicianship on those are excellent and quite dark in nature, Eternal Idol in particular.
I have always believed that if people would give these album's half a chance then they might just like them or at least would have a bit of a time to grow on them.
Just because anything from 1980 on didn't contain all of the "original" members is no valid reason to deny yourself of some damn fine heavy metal.
On the other hand I must play devil's advocate and agree in wondering what the hell they were thinking when they invited Ice-T to do some vocals on the track Illusion of Power. It doesn't make me despise the track but I agree it does not quite fit. That album, Forbidden, does have some good tracks though even though it's almost universally rated as the all time worse release.