Anyhow, Iommi’s self-titled debut was pretty solid. Most songs seemed tailored to the guest vocalist: Anselmo’s song sounded quite like Pantera while Peter Steele’s track was reminiscent of Type O Negative and so on. Sir Tony later got back in touch with Glenn Hughes, no stranger to love (ahem) or working with Mr. Metal Riff himself (in ’86 and ’96), and “Fused” was put together. [Note: In ’96 Iommi and Hughes recorded material that was ultimately re-recorded for the 2000 album. This was released as “The 1996 DEP Sessions ” in 2004.]

Back to the present. “Fused” is decidedly more Hard Rock than anything Metal. A few heavy riffs are present, but this album is mostly Rock with some melodic and even catchy parts. A few uptempo numbers provide the strongest songs on the album early on while a quartet of slower songs in a row greatly lessens that effect. Some of the riffs are derivative of Iommi’s back catalog, specifically songs from his self-titled album, but this can be forgiven since it is as Rob Zombie pontificated back in ~1994: “Everybody knows that Black Sabbath started everything. [Iommi] wrote every single good riff... ever.”

This album has crystal clear production and displays no real weakness in that way. The drumming is rather good, especially for someone associated with John Cougar Mellencamp (haha), and Hughes’ bass work is fine. My biggest complaint regards the vocals. Hughes seems to channel the unlikely trio of Living Colour, Faith No More, and Dub War (!) for much of the album and Soundgarden (especially on #2 and late in #8 and #10) and even Nickelback (#8) elsewhere. Does that seem strange to you? It does to me.

Iommi just does what he does and it seems that he makes a point to not sound very Sabbath on this record. Sometimes he fails in that regard -- but then he succeeds. To wit, the opening riff on “The Spell” (#9) is greatness and quite Sabbath sounding. It is easily the best on the album. A close second is the massive riff 66.6% of the way through the final song. Just like always, you’ll keep coming back for Iommi’s guitar if nothing else. After all, it’s his name on the product (with Hughes’ on there, too).

written by Tony Belcher

Playing time: 49.27