Never Say Die!
Never Say Die! is the eighth studio album by the English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released on 29 September 1978. It was the last studio album with the band's original line-up and the last studio album to feature original vocalist Ozzy Osbourne until the 2013 album 13. It was certified Gold in the U.S. on 7 November 1997 and as of November 2011 has sold 133,000 copies in the United States since the SoundScan era. The album received mixed reviews, with critics calling it "unbalanced" and insisting its energy was scattered in too many directions.
Recording
At the time of recording Never Say Die!, Black Sabbath's members were struggling with heavy substance abuse. Before sessions began, vocalist Ozzy Osbourne temporarily left the band and was briefly replaced by Dave Walker, known for his work with Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac. According to guitarist Tony Iommi, although both parties likely wanted to reunite, no one communicated directly, leading to Walker's short-lived stint. The band even performed early material with him, including an early version of “Junior’s Eyes” on the BBC show Look Hear.Osbourne eventually returned, but refused to sing any of the material written during Walker’s tenure. One of those songs, “Swinging the Chain,” was sung by drummer Bill Ward instead. Because the band was often writing songs during the day and recording them at night, they had little time for revisions, resulting in an album Iommi later described as lacking cohesion.
Osbourne also declined to contribute vocals to “Breakout,” which remained instrumental. The lyrics to “Junior’s Eyes” were revised to reflect the recent passing of Osbourne’s father.
Personal issues further delayed the album’s production. Osbourne later explained that his father’s death led to a three-month hiatus for mourning and funeral arrangements. Although the band eventually regrouped in the studio, tensions lingered—especially between Osbourne and Iommi—and the sense of unity had faded.
The album was recorded at Sounds Interchange Studios in Toronto. Iommi recalled that the band chose the studio largely for tax reasons, but it proved ill-suited for their needs. To improve the studio’s acoustics, they had to remove carpeting to create a more vibrant sound, which delayed progress due to the lack of better alternatives.
In a 2001 interview, Iommi recalled that the band rehearsed in a freezing cinema during the harsh Toronto winter and recorded sessions at night, adding further discomfort to an already strained process. Bassist Geezer Butler characterized the album as a patchwork effort. He noted that despite the album's defiant title, the band sensed it might be their final collaboration. During their 10th anniversary tour with Van Halen, Butler recalled feeling doubtful about the band's future despite public optimism.
Butler also expressed frustration over Osbourne’s frequent rejection of his lyrics, revealing that last-minute rewrites became common late in their partnership. Iommi, in a 2004 retrospective, described a chaotic studio environment where the band was often too intoxicated to work effectively, with members contributing inconsistently and lacking focus.
Osbourne, in a later interview, described the band as overwhelmed and dysfunctional, plagued by addiction and interpersonal conflict. He was ultimately dismissed from the group, describing the atmosphere as toxic and unsalvageable.
Despite these challenges, Ward defended the album years later, suggesting the band did their best under the circumstances and even experimented creatively, particularly on tracks like “Johnny Blade” and “Air Dance.” Osbourne, however, criticized these jazz-influenced tracks in his memoir, particularly “Breakout,” which he found artistically incompatible with the band’s identity.
Although Ward performed vocals on “Swinging the Chain,” the lyrics were mistakenly credited to Butler when they were actually written by Ward himself.
Artwork
The album’s sleeve was designed by Storm Thorgerson’s Hipgnosis, their second collaboration with the band following Technical Ecstasy. The UK and US versions featured slight differences in background imagery, including faint silhouettes of British military pilots. The album’s inner sleeve featured consistent artwork and credits but omitted lyrics. The cover aircraft resembles a North American T-6 Texan. An alternate design featuring masked doctors was rejected by the band but later used by Rainbow for their 1981 album Difficult to Cure.Release and critical reception
In the UK the title track, released well ahead of the album as the band's first UK picture sleeve single, reached No. 21 in the chart and gave the band its first Top of the Pops appearances since 1970. In the UK the album reached No. 12, one place higher than its predecessor Technical Ecstasy. In the US it peaked at number 69 on the Billboard Pop Album chart. 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 but a video for "A Hard Road" was made during the Never Say Die! Tour to promote the single. The song marks the first and last time guitarist Tony Iommi sings backing vocals. Iommi explains in his autobiography Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell with Black Sabbath, that when he sang, bassist Geezer Butler couldn't keep a straight face.The album received mostly negative reviews; according to Terry Staunton of Uncut, "even diehard fans among the music press unsure of muddling excursions towards electronica and passages that veered worryingly close to jazz. More than one critic described the overall sound as 'murky'." It is not held in high esteem today, with AllMusic critic Eduardo Rivadavia referring to the album as "unfocused", saying it "will hold little interest to the average heavy metal fan". Rolling Stone says it was "not a blaze of glory for the original foursome" but added that it may be "better than people might remember". In his own Uncut piece, Staunton bemoaned the experiments, but believed that the "few occasions where the stars align and ducks form an orderly row" are "worth celebrating", singling out the title track for its power and "Junior's Eyes" for having a vitality and tension missing elsewhere. Rob Michaels of the Spin Alternative Record Guide writes that "the rhythm section has a spry spring in its leaden step and the songs are tough and catchy." In 2013 Phil Alexander of Mojo referred to the album as "disastrous".
Speaking in October 1978 of the new album, Osbourne said, "It's a combination of what we've all been through in the last 10 years. It's a very varied album. Like, we started out playing in blues clubs, because British blues – like John Mayall and early Fleetwood Mac – was the thing at the time. We were into a twelve-bar trip and early Ten Years After-style stuff. So it's part of that sort of trip. Then there's the heavy thing and the rock thing. It's not just steamhammer headbanging stuff all the way through ... We got rid of all our inner frustrations: what each of us individually wanted to put down over the years but couldn't because of the pressures of work. So we put a lot of painstaking hours into developing this album." However, Osbourne quickly soured on the LP, telling After Hours in a 1981 interview "The last album I did with Sabbath was Never Say Die! and it was the worst piece of work that I've ever had anything to do with. I'm ashamed of that album. I think it's disgusting". He went on to claim that the band flew to Toronto in January during sub-zero temperature "purely because the Rolling Stones had recorded a live album there." In 2013, Osbourne told Mojo, "I'd go down to the studio and I heard what sounded like a jazz band playing. Is this really Black Sabbath? I'd just fuck off." Osbourne was fired by the band eight months later.
Wil Malone, who oversaw the jazz-inflected horns arrangements on the album, is a British music producer and arranger, who, besides working with Black Sabbath, went on to work with Iron Maiden, Todd Rundgren, The Verve, Massive Attack, and Depeche Mode.
Jon Elstar, who was recruited to play harmonica on "Swinging the Chain," had also played on releases by R & B proto-punk band The Pretty Things, as well as appearing on reggae releases on Trojan Records label.
Despite the negative reception, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil cited Never Say Die! as one of his favourite Black Sabbath albums. Megadeth covered the title track for the 2000 tribute album Nativity In Black II, with singer Dave Mustaine telling Nick Bowcott in 2008, "The simplicity of Iommi's style makes this rhythm progression one of my all-time favorites: fast, classic English riff-stylings with a climactic arrangement." Andy LaRocque, guitarist for King Diamond, was influenced by the album in the making of the melodic guitar part of "Sleepless Nights", from the Conspiracy album.
In March 2017, Jon Hadusek of Consequence of Sound ranked Never Say Die! 10th out of 19 Black Sabbath studio albums. He called it "straight-up pop rock, primed for heavy rotation", but felt it had merits, complimenting Osbourne's confident vocals and Iommi's guitar for " buried like it was on Technical Ecstasy, and the rigid melodies force his playing to be concise and punchy." Among other similar lists, Kerrang! ranked it 15th, praising the choice of a punky opening track but panning the inclusion of a Ward-song sung and noting a lack of creative enthusiasm throughout. Ultimate Classic Rock ranked it 12th, praising the energetic title track, "Johnny Blade" and "A Hard Road", but believing they and the abundance of weaker songs "paled next to the colossal metal anthems recorded just a few years earlier". Classic Rock ranked it 10th, believing both it and Technical Ecstasy to be the band's most underrated albums. Also ranking it 10th, The Guardian comments that the album "has a terrible reputation, but it's a quirky and enjoyable record, as long as you don't expect Sabbath Even Bloodier Sabbath. The title track has garage-band rawness; Air Dance is – dare one say it – oddly beautiful. It’s hit and miss, but it’s still better than almost everything from 1981 onwards."
Geezer Butler told Metal Edge that Never Say Die! is easily the worst album that the band made. He explained, "The reason for that is we tried to manage ourselves and produce the record ourselves. We wanted to do it on our own, but in truth, not one of us had a single clue about what to do. By that point, we were spending more time with lawyers and in court rather than being in the studio writing. It was just too much pressure on us, and the writing suffered."