Geezer Butler has named the Black Sabbath album he believes to be the "worst" one they ever made.
In a recent interview with Metal Edge to promote his forthcoming autobiography, Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath and Beyond, the bassist ranked the British heavy metal band's efforts over the years, revealing both his favourite and least favourite album.
While unsurprisingly declaring to have an appreciation for Black Sabbath's earlier material, such as 1970's Paranoid, he reveals that he harbours a particular dislike for 1978's Never Say Die.
Black Sabbath's eighth studio set, Never Say Die was their final album with Ozzy Osbourne until the arrival of 2013's 13, and featured songs such as Shock Wave, Swinging The Chain and Johnny Blade, alongside the (rather excellent, actually) title-track.
Speaking of the record, Butler says: "I will say that Never Say Die! is easily the worst album we did. The reason for that is we tried to manage ourselves and produce the record ourselves. We wanted to do it on our own, but in truth, not one of us had a single clue about what to do. By that point, we were spending more time with lawyers and in court rather than being in the studio writing. It was just too much pressure on us, and the writing suffered."
Of the various difficulties Sabbath endured at the time, particularly with Ozzy, he says: "The thing is, we were trying to progress too much musically. We completely lost the plot, I think. We stopped doing the things that made Sabbath what it was and began going from more melodic stuff, which was a mistake looking back.
"Ozzy always wanted to still sound like the old version of Sabbath, while Tony and I wanted to expand musically. Looking back, Ozzy was probably right because our expansion caused us to lose what Sabbath was supposed to be about."
Geezer Butler's autobiography Into The Void From Birth to Black Sabbath and Beyond, has been given a June 6 release date.
Posting on Instagram in March, the bassist commented, "After spending my entire life creating memories, to eventually set aside how reserved I am, I have put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). The recollection of my life (thus far) is coming out 6/6/23. Yes, I know that 2×3=6. Although unintentional, having that as a release date suits me fine."
The synopsis for the book reads: "Into the Void sees Geezer tell his side of the Sabbath story for the first time, from early days as a scrappy blues quartet through to the many lineup changes, the record-breaking tours and the international hell-raising with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. Featuring Geezer’s candid reflections on his working-class childhood in Luftwaffe-battered Birmingham, his almost-life as an accountant and his fascination with horror, religion and the occult, Into the Void will also include 30 photos from Geezer’s personal collection – some never-before-published.”
