Tony Iommi, the founder of heavy metal guitar playing, will release his first solo album since 2005 this October.
The Black Sabbath axeman – whose pioneering band retired at a blockbuster show last July, two weeks before vocalist Ozzy Osbourne died – has returned with the song World Alone and announced that the eight-track effort From The Dark will come out on October 23 via BMG.
Watch the dystopian video for the single and see the album art and tracklisting below.
World Alone features Norwegian singer Jørn Lande (Masterplan, Avantasia, etc.), with Becky Baldwin (Mercyful Fate) on bass and Karl Brazil (Robbie Williams) on drums. The lineup performs every song on the new album, with Iommi and longtime collaborator Mike Exeter co-producing.
Iommi comments: “It’s an album we’ve really enjoyed making. We’re not trying to prove anything – it’s a great album, it rocks!”
Iommi screened the World Alone video and unveiled album details at a special event in his hometown of Birmingham this afternoon (July 29), where he took part in a Q&A with stand-up comedian Frank Skinner.
The new songs feature Iommi’s signature, down-tuned sound, which he innovated during the early days of Sabbath in the 1960s. It’s been widely reported that he pioneered the approach because he chopped the tips of his fingers off in an industrial accident, although he disputed this in a 2016 Classic Rock interview.
“I would have liked to have not chopped the ends of my fingers off,” he said. “It became a burden. Some people say it helped me invent the kind of music I play, but I don’t know whether it did.”
Sabbath’s 1970 self-titled debut album is generally regarded as the first metal album, due to its heavy, distorted guitars and unsettling lyrics inspired by horror films. Although it was a critical dud at the time of its release, it was a commercial success, reaching number eight on the UK charts.
Follow-up album Paranoid, also released in 1970, consolidated the band’s success when it topped the UK charts. Its songs Iron Man and Paranoid are now seen as classics, with Paranoid having amassed more than one billion streams on Spotify.
Iommi attempted to launch a solo career in 1986 with the album Seventh Star, although record label obligations led to it being released under the banner of “Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi”. He went solo in earnest with 2000’s Iommi, which featured a large cast of guest musicians including Ozzy Osbourne, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Type O Negative’s Peter Steele.
His second and thus-far latest solo outing, 2005’s Fused, featured the more concrete lineup of Iommi, Deep Purple and former Sabbath singer/bassist Glenn Hughes and drummer Kenny Aronoff.
In 2021, Iommi released the instrumental solo single Scent Of Dark, promoting his essence of the same name, which he made in collaboration with perfumer Xerjoff. He put out a second single/scent combo, both called Deified, in 2024. The two songs will be bonus tracks on the CD edition of From The Dark.
Last month, the guitarist was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) as part of King Charles’ birthday honours. He received the honour for his services to music and charity across his near-six-decade career.
Tony Iommi: From The Dark tracklisting
- Over The Violent Sun
- Black Times
- World Alone
- Beyond The Dead
- Stormwatcher
- Death Wake
- Return Of The Arbalist
- Legacy
- Scent Of Dark (CD-only bonus track)
- Deified (CD-only bonus track)
