The year was 1978, Black Sabbath had to comeback with a strong album after last years somewhat 'Dissapointing' album "Technical Ecstacy."
The question is, did they do it? In my opinion, yes.
This album is the last Black Sabbath album featuring Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals, and it's a great album. It contains a lot of "Softer" Black Sabbath songs too, well, soft compared to their earlier stuff anywho.
The tracks:
1.) Never Say Die!
This is a great tune, really upbeat, fun, and the lyrics have no real warning, only a sort of poke at superstition, "Don't you ever say die!". It contains some great instrumental work, and Ozzie's vocals are top notch. This is a great way to open an album, as it is packed with fast attitude and it grabs the listener.
4/5.
2.) Johnny Blade.
This one is a toughie, on one hand, I love it, on the other hand, it's a slight cheesey knock-off of some other songs. Sure, it starts off with a cheesey as hell keyboard riff, but it soon kicks in to a completely rocking tune. With some funny imagery too "One look and he will put you doooooown!". One thing I love about this song, however, is Bill Ward's drumming, especially on the intro were he follows up with some incredibly fast drum rolls. An excellent way to carry on an album.
4/5.
3.) Junior's Eyes.
Now, I'm not going to go over the top here, but I absolutley love this song, 100%, it's fantastic, starts off with some of the punchiest bass playing, with some phased drumming inter-looped. Then, Iomi's guitar, wah and all (!) come in, this song is deffinitley the best song off this album, and it holds dear to my heart, as it was one of the first Sabbath songs I ever heard.
5/5.
4.) Hard Road.
This is a nice song, but you get the impression that, well, to be brutally honest, it isn't going anywhere, it's deffinitley a nice laid back song, after the bombastics of the last three anyway, it's a cool song, and it has some great vocals, not really one to be taken seriously in terms of lyrics though, as all I can figure out from these is "Life's tough, deal with it" a cool song.
3.5/5.
5.) Shock Wave.
Now, don't get me wrong, this is a half decent song, but I just get an immediate whiff of filler, there was no real need for this song to be on the album, quite frankly, as it has no dirrection at all. Sure, if you like generic knock-offs of previous Sabbath songs, go ahead. But I'm not a fan.
3/5.
6.) Air Dance.
Two words, "THE DARKNESS!" but seriouslym this sounds like something off Permission To Land. It's an OK song, but the lyrics are ridiculous, something like "dancing her way up" very silly. Instrumentally, it's pretty cheesey, with piano (JAZZ PIANO!) scores drifiting in an out of the verse. Nuh-uh.
3/5.
7.) Over To You.
Again, like Shock Wave, this is pretty much filler in the middle of the album, but I don't mind it, that said. The instrumentation is good, and the vocals are cool I guess, other than that, I don't really have anything else to say about it. Just read the disection of Shock Wave.
3/5.
8.) Break Out.
Now, we all remember Miles Davis, he was cool, but it seems Sabbath had been listening to a lot of him when they recorded this instrumental, it is bassically just Iomi and Butler banging out a riff on the E string, while some jazz musicians improvise, don't get me wrong, musically this is excellent, but you can't help ask yourself "Why is this on here..?"
3/5.
9.)Swinging The Chain.
The last song on this album, is very nearly one of Sabbath's best, it also, unusually, includes Bill Ward (excellently) on lead vocals and percussion, while Ozzy gives it a god blast on Harmonica. I like this song alot, and while it's not much more than a 12 bar blues, with amusing lyrics, it's deffinitley a stand out.
5/5.
