BLACK SABBATH — Never Say Die! (review)

BLACK SABBATH — Never Say Die! album cover

Album · 1978 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2014-09-03
aglasshouse

After two great SABBATH hits, SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH and SABOTAGE, the band seemed to want to take a temporary different direction with their music, by going at it with a more jazzy feel then the former. They released TECHNICAL ECSTASY to horrible reviews. The album shocked many people that BLACK SABBATH would release such a mediocre recording such as this (seeing as they hadn't before now). BLACK SABBATH did definitely get a generally bad rep in that year.

Two years later, however, they decided to come back with their 8th studio album, NEVER SAY DIE. The album certainly did better than it's earlier sister album, but definitely not by much.

The album still had pop-like notes and composition, however it was obvious they were trying to make a comeback from the last album. They concentrated more on putting heavy chords into the composition to make it sound more like their old music, yet also combining it with this new found feel Ozzy and the band discovered. To be honest, it doesn't sound bad. Yes, there are some slower parts that definitely don't hold much water, but it other circumstances they can retain some enjoyability. A lot of the time, Ozzy's vocals and lyrics support the album through some rough patches, and seem to give new light to the said medium, allowing for it to come back with a much more solid and steadfast feel.

Many people say that this was a poor way for Ozzy to leave the band to let Dio take his place for a few albums, which may be true. However, it is true that many people expect too much out of these early perfect-record bands such as DIO, or BLACK SABBATH. To that, I say give it a chance, and you may happen to like the faster SABBATH.

more than 2 years ago
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Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Late Response, but I also really like 'Born Again'. I've never understood why it gets such a bad rep.

Kingcrimsonprog wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I absolutely love "Junior's Eyes."

Bosh66 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Anyway, that's off topic.
Thatcher, I may have rated this album lower, but I enjoyed the review!

Bosh66 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Ok I concede Seventh Star is a little insipid but Born Again is great sludgy doomy metal. It's just that there's only a handful of us globally who recognise this :-)

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Totally out of sync, you are right about that LO´L :-). OK Technical Ecstacy is alright, but the two others are horrible albums in my book :-).

Bosh66 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm out of sync with most people but I actually think Technical Ecstacy is the better of the two albums at the tail-end of BS mk 1. Then again, I also really like Born Again and think Seventh Star is a pretty good melodic album, so maybe it's me who really is out of line ;-)

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I like a few tracks off this album, like the title track, but it´s overall not that great an album IMO.

aglasshouse wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I think you would like the song Shock Wave.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

This album certainly does get a bad rep, I haven't heard the entire album but the title track is really good :)