Band:	Iommi
Album:	The 1996 Dep Sessions
Style:	Hard rock, Heavy metal
Release date:	2004

01. Gone
02. From Another World
03. Don't You Tell Me
04. Don't Drag the River
05. Fine
06. Time Is The Healer
07. I'm Not The Same Man
08. It Falls Through Me

When the name Tony Iommi comes up, it's always means that something special is on it's way, and this time is no exception.
This time it's a record that was recorded back in 1996 together with ex- Deep Purple & Black Sabbath vocalist Glenn Hughes.
Unfortunately for the fans back then, this was never released in its original shape and was soon forgotten.
But some time back, Tony discovered theses songs again, and started to mix them, and now, 8 years after it was recorded, it's finally released.

To talk about the history of these two guys it just a waste of time and paper, but I'll tell you some about the project itself.
10 years after the collaboration on the "Seventh Star" project (that thanks to Black Sabbath's label which released it as a Black Sabbath album and not as a solo album, that was Tony's intention), Tony and Glenn once again worked on a project, the location was DEP-studio in London, but it was, as already mentioned, forgotten and never released, until now, when Tony found the tapes and decided to mix it (together with technician Mike Exeter). He invited drummer Jimmy Copley get a better audio picture.
Back in 1996 Tony and Glenn worked on these songs with both Don Airey (Deep Purple, ex-Rainbow, ex-Ozzy Osbourne) and Geoff Nichols (ex-Black Sabbath), so they should be mentioned as well, even it this is Tony's and Glenn's project.

But now let's get back to the music, that can be described in a easy way as Doomy hard rock, with touches of both Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, but not more of any of them.
It's not Doomy enough to be a Sabbath album (and Glenn is no Ozzy) and it's not hard rock enough to be a Purple album, it's just a good mix of them both.
Personally I never heard the "Seventh Star" project, so I can't compare it with that one (it's true; I haven't heard all Black Sabbath records).

As an old hard rock fan, I like both the mentioned bands, and I would lie if I said that I didn't like this. It's a very well done album, and I'm very surprised that Tony hasn't released this before, because songs are very good.
And one thing is for sure, this is thousand times better than the other Iommi album that was released in 2000, with different singers on every song, some of the Nu-Metal singers, that wasn't a good album (just one good song, the song with Ozzy).
So if I shall compare with that, this is a super album, but to be more realistic, it's good, but it's no killer, just a good album with good music and musicians, I really enjoy listening to it.

A perfect gift from Tony and Glenn to us fans, thank you very much guys.

Check Out: "From Another World", "Time is the Healer" & "It Falls Through Me