All things considered, Black Sabbath were effectively in need of a change in lineup by the time this album was released in the early fall of 1978. Lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne had actually left the group for about  6 months, following the end of the Technical Ecstasy world tour in the spring of 1977 and the remaining 3 members(Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward) hired singer Dave Walker(ex-Savoy Brown, Fleetwood Mac) for a time period. The band even went so far as to do a feature performance with him on the BBC Midlands "Look Hear!" show with an early version of the album cut, "Junior's Eyes". However, by the time management sent the band into the studio to rehearse and cut the eventual "Die" release, Ozzy had returned to the fold. Aside from "Junior's Eyes", any material the group had demoed with Mr. Walker was all but abandoned, thus resulting in a rather scrambling and haphazard fashion of writing material as they rehearsed, which explains the sometimes, disjointed and indifferent feel of the material presented here. 

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Despite the rushed result, Never Say Die is actually not a terrible album, it's just inconsistent. While the continuity is a bit unbalanced with more than a few "Sabbath-by-numbers" songs emerging such as "Over to You" and the aforementioned, "Junior's Eyes",  there are attempts of innovative or "outside of the box" moments such as "Air Dance". This track is unlike anything the band had done before or since in their long, illustrious career as it's primarily piano driven with layers of overdubbed guitars(both acoustic and electric) building a cacophony of sound to a song that is thoroughly original and melodically unique.

The title track opens the album on a rather energetic and positive note with some dynamic interplay from the musicians and Ozzy's vocal is inspired and noteworthy. "Johnny Blade" opens with a horror movie-like, cheesy organ fill, but Ward's drumming skills, along with the songs' interesting tempo changes and chord progressions, allows for an underrated and overlooked gem within the context of the album. "A Hard Road" contains an anthem-like melody riff with a wistful but inspired vocal and swinging drum beat, leading the way for its' touching, ballad-like status. Again, it is a bit against the grain of typical Sabbath territory, but retains some charm within its composition. 

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"Shock Wave" is slightly above the "middle of the road" filler as "Junior's Eyes" and "Over To You" display, with some great guitar performances from Iommi and a competent, solid vocal performance from Ozzy. "Breakout"(an instrumental) features a horn section with saxophone following in unison with Tony Iommi's doom laden riff and unfortunately, sounds like it was made up on the spot. Through the remnants of "Breakout"'s outer coda, "Swinging the Chain" fades in with a menace and swagger; although, drummer Bill Ward takes the lead vocal in a rather unsettling manner, this number unfortunately suffers the worst of the disjointed qualities that plague the general vibe and feel of the finished record. A bit of harmonica is added as the song's main theme suddenly shifts to a different tempo with some uncharacteristic background "group" vocals and it fades out rather unceremoniously, leaving a cold and uninspired close to the record. 

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The presence of keyboards continues to accentuate the majority of the songs presented as had been noticed on the previous Technical Ecstasy release, but it is that of Don Airey this time around, (as opposed to Jezz Woodruffe)  and his contributions to numbers like "Junior's Eyes","Johnny Blade", "Over to You" and specifically, "Air Dance", bring the intended texturing and coloring of sounds in strengthening the material's sonic impacts. Certainly, his presence on Ozzy's first few solo albums would be a vital asset in shaping some of the numbers written, most notably, "Mr. Crowley", but on "Never Say Die", he does a fantastic job in contributing some important parts to the existing material. The overall impact of this record is a bit of hit and miss and while I like this one a little better than the previous Technical Ecstasy release, it's certainly a far cry from the band's early days and albums like "Paranoid" and "Master of Reality". One gets the feeling that a change in personnel is in order as the band sounds tired and uninspired throughout the album's duration. 

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Rating Grade- C+