The folks over at Sanctuary Records today made me aware of something very cool that I’m sure you’re going to want to check out.
Sanctuary’s UK site how has an online E-Card available for the album. The biggest attraction with the E-Card is that they have 1 minute sound samples available for all 8 songs on the album. Click on the cover art here to get to the E-Card and the samples. I’ve also had a few emails asking what the name is about. Well, the stuff was originally recorded in 1996, and it was done at a recording studio named “DEP Studios”; hence the name.
As someone who is very familiar with this album when it was released in it’s bootleg form, I have to say I’m really glad this album is finally seeing the light of day. From what I’ve listened to, the songs that appear on the “8th Star” version of the album haven’t changed much at all on this new version. The only song that appears on DEP Sessions slightly differenly is the song “Don’t You Tell Me”. The main guitar riff is not as pronounced as it was on the old version. However, the riff does appear in the song Black Oblivion on Tony’s “Iommi” album from 2000, so I’m pretty sure that’s why Tony modified it for it’s appearance on the DEP Sessions album. Additionally, the song “Gone” appeared on Glenn Hughes’ 2000 album “The Return of Crystal Karma“. The songs were referred to as “quite markedly different” in some internet postings I’ve seen. From what I’ve heard they sound ore polished, definitely more cleaner – but the markedly different remark (to me anyway) seems to imply that they sound VERY different. They don’t, at least not in my personal opinion. But these are the quibblings of one Internet fan. The music f’in rocks whether it’s the 1996 version or the 2004 version. Go get it. :)
For years I’ve always lamented that this album as never released, as to me it showed that Iommi has some more musical chops besides the stuff released under the Black Sabbath banner. Not that there is anything wrong with his Sabbath output, but you always have to wonder what else is brewing in that guitar. Well, now you can find out. The album is to be released on September 28th here in the US, and October 4th in the UK. You should RUSH to your store and buy one when you can, or you can order one with the links shown here:
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