Black Sabbath’s ‘Seventh Star’ album always gets hot debate going as Tony Iommi said it should have been a solo album but the record label wanted Sabbath’s name on it for selling purposes. It was the only Sabbath album to feature Glenn Hughes on vocals and is a very strong album, often overlooked.

Fast forward to 1996 where Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes record together again but the album never got released until now. Joining the two rock legends are Don Airey (Deep Purple/Rainbow/Whitesnake), Sabbath’s long time keyboard player Geoff Nicholls, plus drummer Jimmy Copley (Paul Rodgers) redid the drum parts recently as Dave Holland (Trapeze/Judas Priest) played on the original sessions and has since been convicted on child abuse charges.

Tony Iommi is one of the masters of guitar riffs and there are plenty on here like the opener ‘Gone’ which mixes the Sabbath crunch with a little funky vibe from Glenn Hughes. ‘From Another World’ slows the pace down and Iommi plays some sublime acoustic guitar. Hughes is on fine vocal form, just listen to his performance on ‘Don’t Drag The River’ or the full on rock of ‘I’m Not The Same Man’. Production wise the sound is very clear and those guitar riffs stand out crisply from the mix.

Pretty damn essential for Iommi and Hughes fans. If you enjoyed ‘Seventh Star’ then you will enjoy this harder edged follow-up but it is not a Sabbath album, bar those trademark Iommi riffs. This is one ‘lost’ album that is certainly worth releasing.

Label website

***½

Review by Jason Ritchie

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