Artist: BLACK SABBATH
Album: NEVER SAY DIE! REMASTERED (DIGI)

Year: 1978/ 2009
EAN/UPS: 0602527165332
Media type: CD

Never Say Die! is an album by heavy metal band Black Sabbath. The band's eighth album, it was released in September 1978. This was the last Black Sabbath studio album with Ozzy Osbourne. The album shows a departure from the glossy synth-laden period, to a more basic rock approach, though not in the vein of their original doom and gloom style.

Before this album was recorded, Ozzy Osbourne was fired from the band and was breifly replaced by former Savoy Brown & Fleetwood Mac vocalist Dave Walker. Some songs were written with Walker, and the new group even performed an early version of "Junior's Eyes" with different lyrics on the BBC programme, "Look Hear". Osbourne eventually rejoined the band, refusing to sing any of the songs written with Walker. These particular songs were rewritten, including "Junior's Eyes" (rewritten to be about the then-recent death of Ozzy's father). All four band members sing on "A Hard Road".

The album was recorded at Sounds Interchange Studios in, Toronto, as were parts of Technical Ecstasy. The sleeve was another by Hipgnosis and the US and UK releases differed slightly in the faint images seen in the sky. The inner-bag featured graphics in keeping with the sleeve and credits, but no lyrics.

In the UK the title-track, released well-ahead of the album and the band's first UK picture-sleeve single, reached #21 in the chart and gave the band its first Top Of The Pops appearances since 1970. The band twice appeared live in the studio, miming to the song. One of these appearances was included on the official The Black Sabbath Story Volume 1[3]video release, in a poor b/w transfer from a fan's off-air archive. This irked Sabbath fans since the original colour footage is held in the BBC archives, as evidenced by inclusion of one of the performances in the compilation TV show TOTP2 (or Top of the Pops 2).

In the UK the album reached #12, one place higher than Technical Ecstasy. Arguably the album may have sold better in the UK had it been available at the time of the single's release, rather than four months later.

In the UK 'Hard Road' was released as the second single from the album and reached the UK Top 40, 25,000 copies being pressed in a limited-edition purple-vinyl. There was no picture-sleeve release.

Video from this period, professionally recorded on the UK tour at the Hammersmith Odeon in June 1978, can be seen on the Sanctuary Visual Entertainment DVD, also entitled, "Never Say Die". On the tour the band played only one new track ("Never Say Die" itself), probably because the album had yet to be released. "Shock Wave" would be added on future dates of the world tour.

All songs by Butler, Iommi, Osbourne, Ward.

TRACKLIST:

"Never Say Die" – 3:50
"Johnny Blade" – 6:28
"Junior's Eyes" – 6:43
"A Hard Road" – 6:05
"Shock Wave" – 5:15
"Air Dance" – 5:17
"Over to You" – 5:24
"Breakout" – 2:35
"Swinging the Chain" – 4:05

LINE-UP:

Ozzy Osbourne – lead vocals
Tony Iommi – guitar, backing vocals on "A Hard Road"
Geezer Butler – bass guitar, backing vocals on "A Hard Road"
Bill Ward – drums, lead vocals on "Swinging the Chain", backing vocals on "A Hard Road"
Don Airey – keyboards
John Elstar – harmonica
Will Malone – brass arrangements