Ian Gillan & Tony Iommi – Who Cares
Armoury Records
www.eaglerockent.com

Rating: C

This is a project that Deep Purple vocalist and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi have put together to raise money to build a music school in Armenia, a cause very dear to their heart.

The double CD is for charity and has some great moments, mostly the tune “Holy Water” that Gillan and Iommi created for this project. The tune also features Nico McBrain and Jason Newsted and the late Jon Lord.

Much of the release is a collection of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, solo Ian Gillan songs and Tony Iommi collaborations with people like Glenn Hughes. The best of the bunch are “Smoke on the Water” featuring Ronnie James Dio on vocals with the London Symphony and a live version of “When a Blindman Cries.” The unreleased jam “Dick Pimple” is actually pretty damn interesting to listen to and the name is just damn awesome.

There is a great remake of the Black Sabbath tune “Trashed” and it is cool to hear Sabbath’s “Zero the Hero” again. However, as a total album this one is all over the map. In some ways cool but the overall effect makes one wish Gillan and Iommi would have just written a batch of new tunes as the two new ones on here are really good.

Still, this one is for a great cause so show your support and buy the album, mostly for the cause but there are also some great musical moments here.

By Jeb Wright