BLACK SABBATH — Never Say Die! (review)

BLACK SABBATH — Never Say Die! album cover Album · 1978 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Time Signature
A hard road...

Genre: hard rock / metal

I agree with some of the other reviews of this album that "Never Say Die" is an underrated album, but I must admit that I think it is the weakest album of the Ozzy era, and I think that the band soundd very tired on this album.

That doesn't mean the it's a bad album at all. There are a number of nice tracks on it such as the Beatles-light slightly boogying "A Hard Road", the progressively inclined ballady "Air Dance" and the jazzy/funky "Break Out" with its effective use of saxophones, sounding like a darker "Twentieth Century Schizoid Man" - and "Break Out" is probably my favorite track on this record. "Johnny Blade" with its spacy keyboards also works well.

But, I think that many of the straight hard rocking tracks sound bland and uninspired compared to Sabbath's early works. And tracks like "Never Say Die", "Junior's Eyes", "Shock Wave" and "Over to You" don't really do that much for me. I do like the main riff of the latter though, and the former is kind of ahead of its time, sounding more like typical 80s metal than 70s hard rock.

The weakest Ozzy era album, for my money, but still an underrated album, and I think that fans of hard rock and early metal will find something on this album that they like, as I did.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Caedes Animarum Deathcore
INVISIBLE SPHERE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Empty Doom Metal
BONGRIPPER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Shadowflame Deathcore
BREATH OF SINDRAGOSA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Iniquitous Deathcore
SINISTER SECTOR
Buy this album from MMA partners
Untoward Perpetuity Deathcore
AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 2 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed