NEVER SAY DIE!

Fans and critics alike believed Black Sabbath was down for the count after 1978`s Never Say Die album. Ozzy Osbourne had all but lost interest in the group by this time partially because of drug problems and Tony Iommi was going in more ambitious musical directions. Shortly after the release of the album in September Osbourne was sacked leaving Black Sabbath`s future up in the air.

In actual fact, Never Say Die has it`s own qualities and distinct sound which sets it apart from all previous Black Sabbath albums and doesn`t even sound like the Sabs at times!|Perhaps the most glaring example of this is the instrumental Breakout which sounds more like the Stan Kenton Orchestra than the kings of metal. Air Dance touches on other jazzy progressions which had lalways been subetly present on even ther heaviest of Sabbath numbers as a result of guitarist Iommi`s early influences from musicians like Django Rienhard. As much as Osbourne has constantly loathed the album over the years his voice is suprisingly powerful and enthusiastic. Bill Ward has a refined drum sound which is clear and right up front and in your face. Junior`s Eyes which was written and performed under a different name with ex- Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Dave Walker while Osbourne had briefly quit the band in late 1977. After some soul searching he returned and the song re-emerged as a reqium to his father`s death. The reason for the change in title a reworked lyrics came as a result of Osbourne`s refusal to sing any of Walker`s lyrics. At least one bootleg exists of a Walker performance as well as archival footage from a perfornace on the BBC. The rythmical Hard Road features vocal harmonies by bassist Geezer Butler and Guitarist Iommi for the first time while Johnny Bade gets as Dark as the Sabs ever were. Shock Wave is a straight rocker with some cool wah wahed out guitar. Over to you let`s the listener know how effective phantom member keyboardist Don Airy is where the Hammond organ is brought into the fore. Drummer Bill Ward takes over vocals on Swinging The Chain which makes one wonder why we never heard any more from him in this respect although it was almost certainly because of Osbourne not showing up for the session. The whole work begins with the the pop metal title track Never Say Die and even though it was lip synced on Top Of The pops it put the Sabs on the charts for the first time since 1970`s Paranoid. It was also the only song from the album which was ever performed live.

Some anamolies can be found on the cover art which was produced by the Hipgnosis art studio. The reason why the song sequence differs from the actual sequence found on the record is because the artwork( as with the Paranoid album ) was completed before the album. Also there are differeces in the sky back ground between the UK and North American releases perhaps due to production problems.

However tongue-in-cheek Never Say Die might be it is an interesting record which should be taken on it`s own rather than compared to the Sab`s earlier material including the previous not-so-successful Technical Ecstacy. This album gets thrown on my turntable more frequently than Volume Four or even Paranoid. Have to give this one a 3½. Seriously folks.

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