NEVER SAY DIE!

It is fair to say that the most unfairly overlooked Black Sabbath album from the seventies is 'Never Say Die!', which is of course the final album released by the classic lineup of Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler in the twentieth century, and their eighth consecutive studio offering. An interesting album by itself, 'Never Say Die!' concludes the monumental first stage of the British heavy metal progenitors' evolution, and in many ways it does so in a beautiful way. After the experimental, flowery and not-so-consistent 'Technical Ecstasy', we have a return to a more discernible heavy sound here, all while the band still dares to play around with some new ideas and experiment with new genres. Sabbath are joined by guest musician Don Airey, who handles all the pianos and keyboards on the album; and yes, much like its predecessor, this record has a lot of piano playing.

Unlike the group's preceding studio album, 'Never Say Die!' has stronger riffs and a more compelling, guitar-driven sound, topped by the really solid vocal performance of Ozzy. Some of the heavier numbers on here and really effective and the pop-sided experiments of preceding releases are neglected for the sake of a harder, punchier sound, and yet this release has several weak spots, which have necessarily contributed to it being seen as patchy and inconsistent over the years. The title track comes first here and is a more standard hard-rocking number with a lot of commercial potential (maybe Sabbath were indeed trying to land a hit song), while their more sophisticated and exciting writing is reserved for the following tracks 'Johnny Blade' and 'Junior's Eyes', the latter being absolutely brilliant, melancholic and richly emotive. We have a return to the progressive ambition of albums like 'Sabotage' or 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath', and this is later on confirmed by the jazz-influenced 'Air Dance', a very interesting and really rewarding experiment, and the instrumental 'Breakout', both unusual Sabbath pieces but welcome on this otherwise fascinating album. Other good songs on here include 'Shock Wave' and 'Over to You', where we have a really discernible heavy metal leaning with clean, straightforward sounds and playing.

The entire album is quite good, the cover design by Hipgnosis is excellent, and while the music can get really exciting and unusual, it is true that this is far from the best-sounding Black Sabbath album, with occasional weak moments still present. As an album completely ignored by the band members and later on by many music fans, 'Never Say Die!' has been unfairly treated as the odd one out, while in reality it has several daring moments that redeem its bad reputation.

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