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 1. Never Say Die 2. Johnny Blade 3. Juniors Eyes 4. Hard Road 5. Shock Wave 6. Air Dance 7. Over to You 8. Breakout 9. Swinging the Chain Tony Iommi - guitars Geezer Butler - bass Ozzy Osbourne - vocals Bill Ward - drums, vocals on 9 with: Don Airey - keyboards (of Colosseum, see Detailed Review) (plus some guests on various wind instruments on tracks 8 & 9) This review is dedicated to the fathers of the real metal, the pioneers of prog-metal, the most innovative band of the genre. They have at least four full-blooded works of Progressive Metal: >"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", >"Sabotage", >"Technical Ecstasy" and, of course, "Never Say Die" (1978). All of them were made long before the appearance of the now well-known term. In my opinion, Black Sabbath is the most underrated prog-band ever, while the lovers of Fates Warning, Dream Theater, and the like (not to mention piles of pseudo-metal bands; I'll come back to critisizing them later) can find the information about these bands almost anywhere in prog-resources (not only on the web), they've never read here about so important a phenomenon within the framework of prog-metal as Black Sabbath and some of the like (for example, King Diamond). Nevertheless, one of the most commercially unsuccessful BS' albums, "Never Say Die" is a revolutionary work failed to be noticed and was even ignored. This is a story about a boy who has a dream to be a test pilot. Song after song you watch him first in childhood, then at Flying School, and finally up in the sky, all to the accompaniment of such a rich music! "Side B" ends tragically. After the Shock Wave Johnny loses control of the aircraft, but before the Breakout he has a time to feel his life once more. Well, the music... in the beginning Never Say Die sounds like a strong driving straightforward hard-rock with unswerving heavy riffs, but as soon as in in the refrain you can hear unusual guitar arrangements and fast brilliant solos over Ozzy's voice leading the song toward the next part. After the second refrain, the main theme suddenly falls into an unexpected atonal piece with improvisations of the classical guitar only. This promising opener ends with a long, rapid and magnificent guitar solo nearer to the end. This one is just prelude to the conception, an optimistic hymn to life. Many years ago, after a few listenings to the second track Johnny Blade I, already a great admirer of Genesis and Yes, realized that this metal band had too intricate, composite structures to make a widely available album out of "Never Say Day". Johnny Blade is one of the most progressive tracks on album, together with Shock Wave, Air Dance, and Breakout / Swinging the Chain, both being just two parts of one composition with a united conception. Opening with a massive futuristic keyboard intro, the song rapidly moves into the heavy realm with regular changes of themes and tempos. With excellent complex arrangements, skilful playing and singing, this song has all the ingredients of the great prog-metal. The guitar seems to be a prominent instrument, but I need to say that each of the other instruments doesn't play only supporting roles, on the contrary, all the parts are different here, those of a varied and dynamic bass, teeming keyboards and strong vocals. Juniors Eyes is a pretty unusual song for Black Sabbath. Mostly led by the bass, nearer to the end it surprisingly transforms into a classic progressive jam with excellent interplays between guitar and keyboards. The drumming is virtuoso, and Ward never works with his arsenal in a straightforward manner. Hard Road is the only slightly disappointing track. With the exception of a decent guitar solo somewhere in the middle, it is the most easygoing song in the album. So that's why, of course, HR was reissued as an "A" side for the single a few weeks later. The first track on LP's side "B" Shock Wave, on the other hand, turns out to be the most complex and manifold composition consisting of about 10 various themes (read songs!), and no one of them isn't copied until the end. The rest of the album's musical material sounds symphonic rather than heavy. Air Dance is not even a prog-metal song at all, but a classical symphonic prog-piece quite successfully combined with the elements of Jazz-rock. More than half of this composition is a delightful original instrumental fusion, with jazzy guitar solos and authentic symphonic keyboards arrangements. Once again, unlike the previous track, open jazzy fine piano solos sound all over the next mid-tempo Over to You. Breakout is a long instrumental intro for Swinging the Chain with a powerful horn section finely crossed by virtuoso jazzy sax' solos. The band works effectively with the musical intervals so as to create a rich, complex and adventurous sound. Fast and quirky purely jazzy improvisation of sax lead Breakout into Swinging the Chain. With Bill Ward singing (he also sings in It's Alright in 1976's "Technical Ecstasy"), this composition takes Black Sabbath back into a heavier domain. Swinging the Chain is a true prog-metal composition with some curious arrangements. With rapid changes of various themes, so typical for Progressive in general, there are quirky guitar parts continuously crossed by improvisations of wind instruments. Ward's voice is quite pleasant. It is now well-known, that since then Bill could not do regular drumming for the band due to his illness. It's a hard job, clearly. But I suppose, it could have been possible to use Bill's talent for lead singing after Ozzy's departure? Summary. "Never Say Die" is simply a phenomenal heavy metal album, probably the most important work that has contributed to the forming of progressive metal as a separate style. I am sure, almost all the best prog-metal bands of the past and the present are no more than followers of the great innovators of Black Sabbath, I hear their influence almost others. But no one of them couldn't combine so different styles as Metal and Jazz-rock together, and such effectively anywhere! The early structures are taken by doom and extreme metal bands, and the progressive BS' period (1973-1976) showed the way to go for the bands like King Diamond, Skyclad, Threshold, and others. Tony Iommi's guitar work in "NSD" is simply incredible. Never have I heard such inventive and virtuoso solos from the "best rock guitarists" of the '70s Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page. I'm amazed, that Mastermind founds new forms of heavy progressive album after album. It's a pity, that the lack of support and the pressure on the part of the major labels stopped them after their best work.
"Never Say Die" was released on "Vertigo" lable (a division of "Phonogram") in Europe, and
by "Warner Bros" in the US. Fortunately, "Castle Records", an established independent British
label already reissued a series of BS' albums, remastered from the original mastertapes (not digitally,
and it's a good factor). Beautiful CD packages contain booklets with full lyrics, plenty of
photos, and interesting biography facts.
VM. 3.10.1998 |
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