Guitarist Tony Iommi certainly hasn’t been what you would call all that prolific since the original members of Black Sabbath reunited back in 1997 to tour once again (Which was documented by 1998’s double live effort Reunion), and it’s been a somewhat frustrating five year wait for Iommi to follow up on his debut solo effort 2000’s Iommi (Which featured several lead vocalists), especially given that the chances of a new Black Sabbath album is virtually non existent.

Although last year did see the long overdue legitimate release of The 1996 DEP Sessions (Which was doing the rounds in bootleg form for years under the name of Eighth Star), the recording sessions between Iommi and legendary vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (Who appeared on Black Sabbath’s album Seventh Star) in 1986, Iommi’s work on his second solo album (Which was originally supposed to feature ex-Pantera/Superjoint Ritual vocalist Phil Anselmo) looked no closer to completion since it’s initial announcement back in 2003.

But then from out of the blue (November 2004 to be exact), Iommi announced that he had once again reunited with vocalist Hughes, and after nine years since their last collaborative effort, the pair are finally back with Fused.

Joining Iommi and Hughes this time around is in-demand drummer Kenny Aronoff and keyboardist/producer/engineer/mixer and song collaborator Bob Marlette, who both helped flesh out one of this year’s most highly anticipated hard rock releases.

Big huge sounding riffs open up the pairs return in ‘Dopamine’ (A chemical produced naturally in the body), and while it’s a little more hard rock orientated that what’s commonly associated with Iommi, it’s still hard and heavy enough to work for the pair.

‘Wasted Again’ sees the return of Iommi’s distinctive Black Sabbath riff, with Hughes putting in a stunning and powerful performance that continues the substance induced hell lyrical approach of the opener, while Hughes’ approach to vocal melodies helps save the heavy ‘Saviour Of The Real’ and ‘Face Your Fear’ from being otherwise unremarkable numbers (In other words, there’s no real stand out riff to be heard).

Both ‘Resolution Song’ and ‘The Spell’ are Black Sabbath sounding songs through and through (Especially in the former where in the chorus Hughes provides some Osbourne like sing along lines), but with a modern approach to the bands classic sound, while the heavy (Yet melodic) ‘Grace’ is a stand out classic that allows Iommi to stand outside his legendary Black Sabbath shadow/tag to try something a little different, with plenty of support in Hughes’ powerful lyrics and vocals.

The blues tinged ‘Deep Inside A Shell’ doesn’t quite manage to live up to similar experiments that appeared on Seventh Star, but the driving (‘In For The Kill’ like) ‘What You’re Living For’ more than makes up for shortcomings of most listeners expectations.

The best however, is saved for last as the pair delivers an absolute classic with ‘I Go Insane’. The sweeping nine-minute epic starts out with a semi acoustic base, before Iommi allows himself a lengthy instrumental section in the middle, before leaving the last three minutes for the pair to experiment with what is as close as what they would get to modern progressive rock (Or rivalling their best on Seventh Star).

Fused doesn’t really try to compete with either Seventh Star or The 1996 DEP Sessions, but instead has the duo trying some new tricks, while ensuring that there’s a sense of cohesion with their past efforts.

Even though Fused features a couple of tracks that lack little or new ground (Instead relying on safety), it still manages to live up to the reputation that you would expect from the teaming up of Iommi and Hughes after so long, making it without a doubt one of the best classic rock albums for 2005 so far.

» iommi.com