Black Sabbath
Never Say Die

THE REVIEW

I know, I know, there are already two reviews on "Never Say Die!", and both slap a solid 4 stars on this disc!! 4 stars for "Never Say Die," are we out of our minds?!!?!

"Never Say Die" is one of the lowest points in the career of the Tony Iommi Band. Only the cover, truly stunning, deserves to be among the best, while the rest of the album is a confused and patchy mishmash of easy rock sounds with progressive elements and even jazz-swing (!!!!!!). Its predecessor, Technical Ecstasy, while not being a masterpiece, was at least catchy, fun, and contained some truly beautiful riffs and melodies that held up even with repeated listens. In many parts (a lot of parts), "Never Say Die" verges on the utterly ridiculous, and in others, it is simply boring, but let's delve into the details.

NEVER SAY DIE: an easy rock tune to hum in the shower, "Back Street Kids" had a fairly original pace and an intriguing melody, here there's nothing at all, it could easily be on a Scissor Sisters album, even vocally, we're not that far off, RATING 5

JOHNNY BLADE: now this is truly a great track, one of the top 10, if not top 5 Black Sabbath pre-RJD. Beautiful keyboard intro by Don Airey and great work on guitar and synths that make this song a real evolution in a heavier direction of the already excellent "You Won't Change Me". Perhaps if it were one minute shorter it would be even more incisive, but it's fine as is, RATING 8.5

JUNIOR'S EYES: awful, awful, awful! This song is total garbage: slow and soporific bass play, not to mention Tony Iommi as incisive as a toothpick and especially an Ozzy Osbourne interpreting the tear-jerking lyrics with the same passion as a dishwasher. A pointless drag that goes on for almost seven minutes, enough to make anyone lose the desire to listen to the album. RATING 3

A HARD ROAD: cute, it picks up the mood of the title track in a more elaborate way. The initial riff is nice and the melody is pleasant, certainly not a masterpiece but not to be thrown away either, it's unclear why it's six minutes long, four would have been sufficient. RATING 6

SHOCK WAVE: the attempt to insert a "doom" lyric on a cheerful melody had already been done with "Gypsy" with excellent results, this instead is just a very banal easy rock song totally devoid of charm. RATING 5.5

AIR DANCE: and finally! this is a really nice song, a kind of slightly more baroque and jazzy "Solitude", still very original and ecstatic, especially for the interplay between piano and acoustic guitar. RATING 7.5

OVER TO YOU: the happy interlude of "Air Dance" ends and we are plunged back into total darkness: apart from that kind of background music box in the chorus, this song communicates absolutely nothing. RATING 5

BREAKOUT: it is said that Ozzy left the band after seeing the saxophones for this instrumental: given the total absurdity of these 2 minutes of pseudo-jazz I can't help but agree, for once, with the bat eater. RATING 4

SWINGING THE CHAIN: but is it really Bill Ward singing!? the same Bill Ward who performed the beautiful "It's Alright" with such intensity and passion? Here judging by the slurred voice he must have been extremely drunk, and after all, you would really have to be drunk to have the courage to sing this horrid imitation of third-rate uninspired Doors. RATING 4

In conclusion, an album born badly (also due to the personal situations of the band members, Ozzy first and foremost) and developed even worse. Apart from "Johnny Blade" and "Air Dance", it is the classic album to use as a coaster. Such a beautiful cover definitely deserved better. Thankfully, in 2 years, a certain Ronnie James Dio would arrive, and from there the epic of "my" Black Sabbath would begin.