Black Sabbath - Never Say Die!

Never Say Die! is the eighth studio album by British rock band Black Sabbath, originally released in September 1978 via Vertigo Records in the UK and Warner Bros. Records in the US.

This was the last studio album to feature the original lineup of the band, and also the last to feature Ozzy Osbourne until 2013's 13. 

At the time of the recording of Never Say Die! the members of Black Sabbath were all heavily involved in drug and alcohol abuse. Prior to recording, vocalist Osbourne briefly quit the band and was temporarily replaced by former Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Dave Walker. In 1992, guitarist Tony Iommi explained to Guitar World, "Right before we were supposed to record Never Say Die!, Ozzy quit the band. We never wanted him to leave, and I think he wanted to come back – but no one would tell the other how they felt. So we had to bring in another singer and write all new material." The band wrote a handful of songs with replacement vocalist Walker, with that short-lived line-up even performing an early version of what would later become "Junior's Eyes" on the BBC programme Look Hear.

Osbourne eventually rejoined the band, refusing to sing any of the songs written with Walker. Iommi elaborated in the 1992 Guitar World piece, "... two days before we were finally ready to record again, Ozzy decided to come back. But he wouldn't sing any of the stuff we had written without him! Bill Ward had to sing on one track ("Swinging The Chain") because Ozzy refused to sing it. We ended up having to write in the day so we could record in the evening, and we never had time to review the tracks and make changes. As a result, the album sounds very confused."

The band booked a studio in Toronto, Canada for the album based on information they had seen in a brochure. Upon arrival they found the set up was not conducive for their sound or style of working, resulting in the sessions being very difficult and disjointed. Their continued drug and alcohol use only compounded the problems with recording the album.

The album sleeve and cover art was designed by the team at Hipgnosis, famous for their work with Pink Floyd. 

Never Say Die was released as the first single and charted strongly in the UK, reaching #21, giving the band their first opportunity to appear on the UK TV show Top of the Pops, their first since 1970. The band appeared live in the studio miming to the song. In his autobiography, Osbourne remembers the appearance fondly "'cos we got to meet Bob Marley. I'll always remember the moment he came out of his dressing room – it was next to ours – and you literally couldn't see his head through the cloud of dope smoke. He was smoking the biggest, fattest joint I'd ever seen – and believe me, I'd seen a few. I kept thinking, He's gonna have to lip-synch, no one can do a live show when they're that high. But no – he did it live. Flawlessly, too." In his autobiography, Iommi reveals that because Bill Ward had his hair in braids at the time, "everybody thought he was taking the mickey out of Bob. It wasn't like that at all; it was just the way he happened to have his hair in those days."

The second single released in the UK was Hard Road and they made a promotional film clip for the song, reaching #33 on the UK singles charts.

The album was not well received by the music critics upon its release. In recent years, 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 2013 Phil Alexander of Mojo referred to the album as "disastrous".

Despit this, the album reached #12 on the UK Albums charts and #69 on the US Billboard 200 Albums charts.

Check out a couple of tracks off the album:  Never Say Die,  Shock Wave, A Hard Road and Junior's Eyes.

This LP record is a reissue (June 2015 via Sanctuary Records) on 180 gram vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeve and CD album copy, pressed in Europe.