The 1996 DEP Sessions - Iommi, Tony

Back in 1996, Tony Iommi was trying to put together some solo material after deciding to take a break from Black Sabbath in 1995. The album he recorded was with an old friend, Glenn Hughes, who had previously been on a psuedo-Black Sabbath album "Seventh Star". Seventh Star was OK, but it didn't feel like a Black Sabbath record - it wasn't supposed to be, it was supposed to be Tony's first solo album, but record company pressure forced it to be Black Sabbath. Well, 11 years after Seventh Star, Tony & Glenn got together to write some more material. They recorded it with Dave Holland & Don Airey, and then it got shelved. It turned up a year or so later as a bootleg named "Eighth Star". I've had that bootleg for then, and to me, it was better than the already released "Iommi" album, as it showed that Tony can do more than just Black Sabbath.

So early in 2004 I find out that Tony has finally decided to dust off the old 8th Star material and properly clean it up and finally release it. This was a great moment for me, as I so much loved the material. In addition to that, there was one track that was not on the original bootleg version, so we'd get a "new" track as well. The songs on here are of a uniformly high quality. There isn't one clunker here - it's brilliant from start to end. If you have ever been a fan of Black Sabbath, you should like this. Glenn Hughes fans should also like this as well.

There were a few minor changes from the bootleg version - the track "Don't you Tell Me" had it's main riff appear on the song "Black Oblivion" on Iommi's 2000 record. It's apperance here has the riff altered slightly, so it's not directly the same. Additionally, some of the vocals have additional lyrics on "I'm Not The Same Man", and there is the aforementioned extra track. Additionally, these aren't the original drum tracks - the original drummer (Dave Holland) was removed in favor of Jimmy Copley, but it's nothing like the bastardization that Ozzy did to his first two albums - the new drums here sound more or less the same as the original to me.

This album is brilliant folks - you will really enjoy it. The best part of this is that in late 2004, Tony & Glenn have said they're working on another album to be released in 2005 - I can't wait - if it's half as good as this, it'll be spectacular!