Sound Samples available from Iommi's DEP Sessions

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:

Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 AM

Ozzy & Tony helping with cancer research

From Joe: This event has already happened, but I wanted to post it here because of the pictures, and because of the fact that it's something the mainstream press would never want to cover - a band named "Black Sabbath" doing some good charity work.

Legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne joined guitarist Tony Iommi in an all-star signing of an Epiphone Tony Iommi Signature G-400 electric guitar. All of the members of Black Sabbath, including Osbourne and Iommi seen in the photos below, signed the Epiphone guitar which will be auctioned at the Huntsman Cancer Institute Golf Classic to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah August 12-13, 2004.

Legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne with the Epiphone Tony Iommi model guitar.

Black Sabbath axeman Tony Iommi with his signature model Epiphone guitar.

All proceeds from the event are used to further Huntsman Cancer Institute's mission of expanding the understanding, treatment and prevention of cancer. Research at the Huntsman Cancer Institute ranges from sub-cellular studies of the way cells communicate with each other to populate studies that track the incidence of certain forms of cancer across large populations. Organized into specific cancer-focused teams, the Institute's physicians and scientists are able to share different perspectives on the causes, treatment and prevention of these diseases. This approach results in a more rapid translation of laboratory discoveries into improved treatments.

For more information on the Huntsman Cancer Institute, visit www.huntsmancancer.org. This news story originally appeared online here.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:00 AM

Tony Iommi on Weather, New Sabbath Album, & Guitars

Just a few hours before Black Sabbath’s Ozzfest show in Tampa (Sept. 2), guitarist Tony Iommi’s thoughts were on the weather – and it wasn’t just because hurricane Frances had caused their scheduled tour finale in Miami to be cancelled. Weather had made the entire Ozzfest tour a different experience for him. “It’s been going very, very well, much the same as all the others, really,” he said. “The only thing slightly different is the weather. We’ve had a few iffy days. It’s amazing how the fans will all stand out there when it’s raining like nothing was happening.”

As always, Tony Iommi on Ozzfest means that a new generation of heavy metal fans gets to hear some of the all-time great metal guitar riffs right from the source. “That’s another fantastic thing,” he said, “to see the younger kids come in. But I think on these type of gigs, it’s very difficult… Our original fans would like to come to a more sedate show, indoors. These things tend to get a bit wild out of doors. It tends to keep the older fans away. It’s a shame.”

Black Sabbath’s reunion on Ozzfest prompts the obvious question: Will there be a new Black Sabbath album? “We would hope so,” Tony said. “I’m hoping we will do another one. One of the major problems, of course, is Ozzy’s been doing a lot of other stuff with his MTV stuff. Hopefully within the next year we’ll be able to do something. I’m wrapped up at the minute doing my solo stuff and still writing, but I’ve got some stuff in hand if we do do another Sabbath album.”

Tony uses two guitars primarily onstage – a custom SG-style guitar tuned one step down and a 1997 Gibson Custom Shop SG tuned three steps down. The Gibson is the prototype (along with a second 1997 Custom Shop SG) for Tony’s Custom Shop signature model. “I’ve been playing the Custom one,” he said. “I’ve gotten used to it now. Love it. Love it. It’s fantastic.”

Epiphone has also just introduced an Iommi signature model. Tony has barely had a chance to try it out, but he likes what he hears. “I only got it while I was out on this tour,” he explained. “On these things, you don’t really get a sound check, and it’s hard to try things out, but I did go down one early morning and told Mike (Clement) who works for me, who does my guitar work for me, I wanted to try it. And yes, it’s really good. It’s great. I really like it.”

Both the Custom and Epi models have a 24-fret fingerboard and signature pickups – features that Tony had already incorporated into his personal SG when he and Gibson USA got together in 1998 for his first signature model. “I actually bought a guitar company in England,” he explained. “That’s when I started working on these pickups. The company’s called Jaydee, John Diggins, he used to work for me, working on my guitar, and he went into making them and I financed him. In the early days you couldn’t get people to make you things so I decided to try it myself, to try my ideas. So I tried the 24 fret thing and tried the pickup.

“Then when I came to Gibson, I came over to Nashville. They tested the ones I had and they’d wind one and I’d try it, they’d wind another and I’d try it, until we got it.” And the pole-less pickup covers? “I like the look of that.”

Although Tony has set the standard for dark, loud, heavy music for over three decades, it wasn’t always that way. “My father used to play accordion and harmonica, not professionally, and I started on an accordion,” he revealed. “I didn’t particularly want to, but there wasn’t a lot of choice in them days. Then after accordion the first thing I wanted to play was drums, but of course I couldn’t have any drums because they wouldn’t let me play drums in the house.”

Inspired by the guitar instrumental records of the Shadows (the British equivalent of the Ventures), he took up the guitar. “It was the right thing,” he said. “Everybody said it was loud, but it wasn’t really.”

His first guitar was a Watkins, a popular, inexpensive British copy of a Fender Stratocaster. As he moved on to a Burns (another British brand) and then to a real Strat, his choices were limited by his left-handed playing style. “In England you never saw left-handed Gibsons, or Strats either,” he said. ‘I was just lucky enough to find the Strat. My first Gibson, I actually played it upside down, much like Hendrix really, because you couldn’t get a left-handed Gibson. So eventually a strange thing happened to me. I bumped into a guy who played right-handed, but he had a left-handed guitar and played it upside down. I said, ‘I play upside down, too. Do you want to swap?’ It was me old SG that we used on the second album, and the third and the fourth. I’ve retired it now and just sold it to the Hard Rock.”

Tony played in several bands as a teenager, including one called Earth, which he formed with drummer Bill Ward, bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler and singer John Osbourne, better known as “Ozzy.” His promising career as a guitarist almost didn’t happen, however, because of an accident at a sheet metal factory. “I chopped the end of my fingers off,” he recalled. “It was really ironic because the day that I did it I was going to leave that job to go professionally with this band that was going to tour Germany and Europe. I’d rehearsed with them and we were all set to go to Germany, and that totally blew it.”

A friend gave him a record by legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who had suffered a burn to his left hand that left him with only two working fingers, and that inspired Tony to start playing again. He reunited with his old band Earth and they changed their name to Black Sabbath.

Thirty-odd years later, Tony Iommi is the Number One heavy metal guitarist of all time, according to the March 2004 issue of Guitar World magazine, beating out everyone from Hendrix to Van Halen, not to mention Zakk Wylde, Randy Rhoades and Ritchie Blackmore. “I know they made a mistake there, didn’t they?” Tony said, laughing. “I feel embarrassed. It’s very nice. It’s funny – we often talk about it after all the years. It takes a lot of years to get recognized really, and a lot of years when we were really trying, you get the opposite – ‘They’ll never do any good.’ And then 30 years later it all turns around.”

This news story originally appeared over on the Gibson.com website here. There's a few pics of Tony's guitars at the Gibson.com site, check it out.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:00 AM

Black Sabbath Book Update

www.rockdetector.com executive editor Garry Sharpe-Young has been working on a leviathan account of Black Sabbath's complete recording history from the earliest demos through to the 'Reunion' album and, possibly, beyond. Already having two highly praised Sabbath related titles under his belt, 'The story of the Ozzy Osbourne band' and 'Black Sabbath - Never Say Die', Garry has spent the best part of a year researching this upcoming tome.

"For me, the fascination with the previous books was in getting all the behind the scenes detail on how the bands functioned behind the scenes. From the many letters from Sabbath fans I received, it just seemed obvious to apply that detail to the songs themselves. With 'Complete recording history' I'm tackling each album song by song. Where the ideas came from, how they were recorded, evolved and what impact they had."

Garry's previous works received unanimous glowing praise from the Sabbath community. "Even Tony Iommi rang me to say he thought I'd done a good job!" Exclusive interviews included more than 50 related musicians including, amongst many others, Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler, Ian Gillan, Tony Martin, Glenn Hughes, Rob Halford, Geoff Nicholls, David Donato, Eric Singer, Rudy Sarzo, Bob Daisley, Lee Kerslake, Carmine Appice, Tommy Aldridge, Bobby Rondinelli, Dave Spitz, Bernie Torme, Brad Gillis, Phil Soussan, Jo Burt, Terry Chimes and the late Cozy Powell, Randy Castillo and Ray Gillen.

"Right now I'm looking for comments from other musicians on these classic songs. I'm asking well known Rockers about their favourite Sabbath tracks, what they mean to them, how these songs impacted upon them as musicians and their own musical analysis of the songs themselves. I think its befitting that Black Sabbath's legacy should be honoured by those prominent in the Heavy Metal community. After all, which Metal guitarist has not at some stage played a Tony Iommi riff? Even my 12 year old son is blasting out 'Symptom of the universe'!"

'Black Sabbath - The Complete Recording History' is slated for a late 2005 publication. Any musicians wishing to contribute should contact Garry through the Rockdetector website.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 2:00 AM

More Book Stuff

It's also been brought to my attention that I have not posted a review of the book "How Black was our Sabbath: A View from the Crew".

One of the authors (David Tangye) was kind enough to send me a copy of his book awhile back, and I read it. And loved it. It's a really REALLY detailed listing of the early days of Sabbath.

My problem is that I totally neglected to write a review of it. I was totally embarrased by this. This book is totally badass, and you should buy it right now.

I will still do a full review of it in the next week or so, but before I do that, I wanted to drop a quick line and say that this book comes highly recommended. You will enjoy it, I guarantee it. Click on the book cover to order yourself a copy from Amazon.com. I just looked, and Amazon.com currently has the book listed for $35. You can also order it from Amazon's UK site which has it for £11.89. That's about $21 in US money, so it might actually be cheaper to import it yourself from Amazon's UK site to the US.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 AM

Master of the Moon Availability Problems

The new album from Dio (Master of the Moon) is out now. It came out about 3 weeks ago. However, I've been getting some emails from folks saying it's hard to find. I personally went and looked for it on the day of release. My first visit was to Best Buy in Mesquite Texas (I live in the next town over, Garland). They had no copies at all. I walked next door to the Borders Books who had one copy (but for $18.98 - gack!). So I tried the Circuit City that's there, and they didn't have it either. I then went to Wal-Mart, where I NEVER buy music from. And they had one lone copy (which I bought).

But this amazed me. All of these retailers are major retailers. And they had either one copy or no copies at all! This is quite frankly amazing to me. Now I know that Dio doesn't sell as well as a lot of the garbage that's out these days (Nelly, Christina Aguilera), but I would expect a little more respect than to have zero or one copy in the store. This is Dio's first album on Sanctuary, and I would hope it's not the record label doing this. I know Sanctuary is generally better than that - for example, I looked on day of release for Megadeth's new album (The System has Failed) this past Tuesday, and there was a pretty decent quantity of copies.

I mentioned this on my mailing list a couple of days ago and got this feedback from one of my members who runs a Dio site, and he had this to say..

I was at the local record store [not a chain store] and they didnt have it for the first 4 days; the guy said that sancuary records was always late with coming out with cds. then i went to circuit city, i didnt see one on the shelf so i asked the guy at the counter, he said 'whos dio' i walked out. best buy didnt have it, and best buy still doesnt have it, but i have it. i feel sorry for dio, cos if it was usher or any of that crap music, it would have been out the day it was supposed too.

Is there anyone else out there who has had a similar problem with finding this CD in the local stores? If so, drop me a line and let me know about it, please. If you want to order Master of the Moon, you can do so via these links below.

Amazon.com
Amazon UK

Posted by Joe Siegler at 12:30 AM