Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has revealed that his good friend Brian May is the only guest musician to feature on his forthcoming solo album From the Dark.
Queen guitarist May makes his appearance playing the guitar solo on a song called Death Wake, which Iommi describes as “doom”.
In conversation with Rolling Stone, Iommi says that he didn’t want any other guests on the record, which finds him joined by vocalist Jørn Lande (Masterplan, Avantasia, etc.), bassist Becky Baldwin (Mercyful Fate) and drummer Karl Brazil (Robbie Williams) because he “wanted to keep it basically like a band”.
Asked by writer Kory Grow if May plays on any other songs on the record, Iommi replies, “No. I did say to him, Do you want to play on something else? He said, ‘No, no. Your solos are good. I don’t need to play’.”
“But it was great that he did,” he adds. “I just played him a couple of things, and he’d done it here at the studio in my house. Then of course he’d play something and go, ‘Oh, I don’t know about it’. I go, I like it.”
Iommi and May have been close friends since the early ’70s.
In 2022, the guitarist spoke to Classic Rock about rumours that the pair were set to collaborate on new material.
“We’ve talked about it for years, we really have, and the pandemic smacked everything up,” Sabbath’s guitarist revealed.”Brian came here to my house just before all that happened, and it was a lovely day, we sat outside in the courtyard and played riffs. I played him some of the stuff I’d got, and he said: ‘Oh, great, you’ve gotta do something with this.’
“And we’ve talked about it on and off. It would be nice one day to do that. He’s really busy now doing all sorts of things, and it’s great that he’s kept active. You can never say what’s gonna happen. It would be nice. I’m open for a lot of things now, really.”
Last Christmas, May gifted iommi a bespoke replica of his iconic homemade Red Special guitar.
Iommi took to Instagram to express his delight and gratitude at receiving the present from his “best friend”, posting “Christmas came early!”
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.
The first taste of the guitarist’s new record, single World Alone, was released earlier this week.
Of all the wars for the human soul being waged these days, the one over so-called artificial intelligence feels the most existential. It’s become impossible not to think about AI every fucking day, and it’s almost never by choice. Data centers are shooting up like weeds, obliterating fresh water supplies and creating psychologically torturous amounts of noise pollution. Every issue of the New Yorker these days seems to include a long, deeply reported story about how AI is sending people into psychosis, yet every time I find myself in a mixed group of civilians, someone makes an offhand comment about what they just asked ChatGPT to do for them — the grocery list, the vacation itinerary, or something else they were damn well capable of doing themselves before these tools rolled out. The global economy is currently being propped up by the bet that this objectively evil industry will become a sustained success, even as its express goal is to put people out of work by automating their jobs. The profits, if they come, will flow only upward. Things are going great.
A new, good Garry Brents album is as regular and welcome as the springtime sun. You know it’s coming eventually, but it feels just as refreshing every time. Following Sallow Moth’s tremendous 2025 album Mossbane Lantern, Brents progresses with a live drummer–his first in a while, and whose presence is apparent–and expands beyond the “Cynic but slam” concept deeper into the trees of progressive, unpredictable death metal.
After nearly 15 years of demos, EPs, and splits, Italy’s Into Darkness prepares to venture beyond the asteroid belt with its first full-length Route to the Other Side. The album pays homage to the Voyager and Cassini probes, ‘90s Dutch heavyweights like Asphyx and Phlebotomized, and perhaps even Gustav Holst, aiming to convey the splendour of the outer solar system through subtly atmospheric yet decidedly old-school death metal.
Dungeon Descent carves through a heavy metal coat of arms with a dingy, blackened knife. Torpor’s second album finds them accentuating ’80s heavy metal with occasional blast beats and carnivorous guitars. Check “Polybolos” to hear how the Polish group rides the line between epic and gloomy.
Supernova captures the imaginative spirit of folk metal while expanding Vera Lux’s musical world. The German band, led by vocalist Inara, whose expressive delivery deepens their storytelling, weaves traditional influences into modern heavy music, with violin adding an extra sense of character. Their latest offering opens the door to a realm of folklore and fantasy, where melody and atmosphere guide each track. Supernova highlights Vera Lux’s gift for blending theatrical elements with heartfelt songwriting.
Coven Japan return with Promised Land, a confident collection that further establishes the Tokyo traditional heavy metal band as one of the genre’s strongest modern torchbearers. Building on the foundation of their previous record, Earthlings, the band thrives on soaring twin-guitar melodies, energetic rhythms, and memorable choruses while drawing inspiration from classic NWOBHM without feeling derivative. Vocalist Risa Yuzuki brings a commanding presence to the album, delivering each track with power and clarity. Songs like “Samurai Rising” showcase both technical precision and anthemic songwriting, while guest appearances from Tomas “Witchfinder” Ericson (Helvetets Port) and Niels Bang (Animalize) add extra impact. Proudly rooted in heavy metal tradition, Promised Land delivers timeless riffs with energy and conviction.
Nine years ago, Viscera/// were tearing through walls to capture you and smash your head in on their last album, 3 | Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals. The neocrust beast that it was showed the band could excel in various forms of metal: black metal, hardcore, sludge, post-metal, all pumped into a meat grinder that made every song exciting and unpredictable. With handfuls of the gathered genres and ideas, Viscera/// maintained a ferocity regardless of what pocket they were reaching in.
“Radiant”, the lead single for their new album, boldly stated that the edge had been softened – but not dulled. The song is a slow, sludgey departure into stoner metal that occasionally grips a dissonance but prioritizes melody. The repetition at the end of sung lines allows for a sing-along crowd who will assuredly pogo to the big arena rock guitar solo. The second single, “Autobeserk,” is a melodic hardcore anthem, delivering an even catchier chorus, repeatedly screaming, “I surrender!” Instead of throwing handfuls of ideas into the mix, Viscera/// are composing each song around one pleasant genre and getting the most out of it. The shift from the blistering fury of their last album to melodic crowd pleasers may turn off career-long fans, but for those who loved seeing them blend genres, you’ll be excited by the expansion of their musical expertise.
On their third record, Athens-based Ceremonial Worship do not reference Rotting Christ or Necromantia, much as you would expect a group with such a title to do. If anything, they herald lesser-known acts from the Hellenic scene (such as Kawir) for an earthy, less-melodic approach.
Despite the dense mixing and fracture-inducing riffs, The Salt Pale Collective envelope rather than overwhelm. They are tactful in their approach, knowing that too much could oversaturate. It’s all the more interesting considering how colorful their synths are and how heavy …and God said nothing is. All this makes the album a readily absorbable slab of post-metal.
With a fondness for simplicity and tradition, Tabernakel holds second-wave black metal close on their sophomore album. Scheintaufe is a product of its influences, thriving in the shadow of melodic Norwegian acts and dismantling the noise that often flavors the genre. Synths and fuzzy production would only water down Scheintaufe, so Tabernakel left them on the cutting room floor in what was an intelligent decision.
Yeah, these guys are definitely from Florida. Beyond serving a buffet tray of their home state’s finest death metal tastings (including frantic thrash and quixotic guitar solos), Hexorcist sneer similarly to the regional forefathers, playing as if they’re rebelling against commercial forces.
Fractal Sun explore themes of contrast, choice, and the moments that change a story’s direction on the concept album Divergent Paradox. The Costa Rican band weave harp and piano into their 8-string guitar-driven sound. “Blooming Regrets” captures a defining moment within the record, moving from intimate textures into a powerful vocal performance. Divergent Paradox reveals a band drawn to storytelling, using atmosphere and shifting arrangements to bring its narrative to life while incorporating both clean and harsh vocals.
From Resuscitation to Reincarnation is a long-awaited archival release by OG Finnish death metal gang, Convulse. The record collects the band’s 1990 Resuscitation of Evilness demo and 1992’s Lost Equilibrium EP. After a placid intro, “Putrified Intercourse” erupts into a murky barbaric avalanche of pure Finnish death metal. If you like that kind of thing, and you should, then this is for you. The Lost Equilibrium material sees the band add more conventional rock stylings into the mix. Mileage may vary there.
Punch someone as hard as you can and see if you can push your fist through their skull. There is a hatred toward mankind brewing in all of us and the burning anger found in Nothingness’ Godslaughter boils it to the top. The Minnesotan death metal act wants you to form that fist but aim it at someone meaningful. The rich, the powerful, those who grovel on their knees for them – they are who keep regular classes at odds with each other. As stated over frantic and dissonant chords, squealing as they’re strummed, “The gears of the sleepless beasts churn and break the will of all who oppose.” Godslaughter is a perfect vessel for this message: a sinister and heavy album that makes you want to destroy everything in sight. The music is guided by drums with three varieties: fast, super fast, or slowed for your muscles to overtake you. Vicious guitars, shrieks, and gutturals sit atop these patterns with brutality that orders you around. Run, run faster, and when it slows down, kill.
Norwegian melodic black metal veterans ISKALD return with “Curse of the Mind”, their sixth full-length album and the band’s first-ever concept record, set for release […]
Norwegian black metal bringers Deathcult will unleash their next full length offering, Cult Of The Dog, on October 2nd 2026 through Soulseller Records. Additional details and first single will be released on August 7th. Stay tuned. Read more…
Last year, Cardi B finally released Am I The Drama?, the sophomore album that once seemed like it might never arrive. In the time since then, Cardi toured arenas, made a brief cameo during Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, performed on SNL episode 1,000, and assisted in Zohran Mamdani’s free NYC childcare reachout. Now, Cardi is back to talking her shit again.
Turin has historically provided heavy music characterized by a sense of architecture, drama, and subterranean grandeur, while Ponte del Diavolo has constructed its own imposing structure using those same elements. Formed during the winter of 2020 through a jam involving members of Feralia, Inchiuvatu, Abjura, and Askesis, the group developed a concentrated fusion of doom, black metal, post-punk, and wave that they describe as “blackened post-punk.” Its force comes from an arrangement as unusual as it is imposing: two bass guitars form the low, dense foundation, while Nerium’s guitar cuts across the rhythm with sharp economy and Segale Cornuta’s drums keep the music tense, physical, and unpredictable.
At the center stands vocalist Erba del Diavolo, whose wave-informed delivery gives the band’s esoteric language its commanding presence. Alongside bassists Krhura Abro and Kratom, she helps turn the group’s old-school metal roots toward colder, stranger terrain, where doom’s mass meets post-punk’s disciplined motion and black metal’s feral edge. The contrast between these elements produces music that feels ceremonial without losing momentum, vast without surrendering detail.
After issuing three EPs, Ponte del Diavolo signed with Season of Mist and released their debut album, Fire Blades from the Tomb. Two years of touring followed, including appearances at major European festivals such as Roadburn and Inferno, where the band’s uncommon instrumentation and theatrical intensity found a wider audience.
They now return with De Venom Natura, an album that pushes their established language into more expansive and intricate forms. The record sharpens the interplay between voice, bass, guitar, and drums while deepening the ominous atmosphere that has defined the group from the beginning. Ponte del Diavolo enter this next chapter with greater control, broader reach, and a clear sense of their singular place between metal’s ancient foundations and post-punk’s austere pulse in the European underground and far beyond.
Ponte del Diavolo spoke with Post-Punk.com about the album:
Ponte Del Diavolo draws from doom and black metal as well as post-punk, deathrock, and gothic rock. Which post-punk artists first made a lasting impression on each of you, and what elements of their work eventually entered the band’s music?
KRATOM: The first artists that come to my mind are Bauhaus, early Christian Death, Virgin Prunes, Burning Image, and Killing Joke. The most obvious thing they brought to our music is, of course, the pulsating, driving bass lines, but also the melodies that are creepy, unsettling, and romantic at the same time. Most of the recordings by the artists I mentioned are also raw in terms of sound quality, which is something I find very appealing too. You can feel a visceral passion, in a similar fashion to old black metal recordings.
Kratom, the band’s dual-bass configuration gives Ponte Del Diavolo an unusual foundation. How do the two bass parts divide their roles, and how has post-punk’s emphasis on the bass guitar shaped your approach to rhythm, melody, and atmosphere?
KRATOM: Having two basses in the mix is both a big challenge and a big creative outlet. As you said, the post-punk genre is famous for having the bass as the driving force of the compositions, and this is in stark contrast with the black metal approach, where the bass is most of the time completely buried in the background or almost non-existent. It was certainly a bold move on our part to double down and mix these very different approaches with an additional bass, but I have to say we really love the end result.
That being said, managing two basses in the mix is no easy task, and with each record we try to improve the chemistry between them and get a better overall blend.
Erba, gothic rock frequently treats the voice as both a storytelling instrument and a physical presence. Which vocalists or performers helped shape your delivery, and how do you adapt that theatrical tradition to Ponte Del Diavolo’s own identity?
Erba: That’s a tough question for me, mostly because it’s never a deliberate choice. Instead, it’s the result of a lifelong alchemy, a mix of every concert I’ve ever witnessed, the bands I’ve listened to until exhaustion, and the gothic musical aesthetic, which is simply what resonates most naturally within me.
I’m certain that the towering, luciferian presence of Diamanda Galás, the elegant, punk vampire prince movements of Peter Murphy, and the melancholic sweetness of Robert Smith have all shaped me. So too have the liminality of silent cinema (Cinema Strange embody this perfectly), the esoteric and magical depth of The Mission and Fields of the Nephilim, the ethereal spirit of Dead Can Dance, the unsettling sensuality of Rozz Williams, and the ritualistic commanding presence of Siouxsie.
All of these elements have filled my own personal Pandora’s box, and it is a box I gladly empty in front of everyone, every time I step onto the stage.
Il Veleno della Natura, from Ponte del Diavolo’s latest album, De Venom Natura, brings the band’s melodic post-punk and gothic-rock qualities particularly close to the surface. Could you take us through how the song developed, including its basslines, guitar melody, vocals, and lyrics? What does “the poison of nature” signify within the song, and how did the video’s alchemical laboratory setting extend those ideas?
KRATOM: The song particularly stands out in terms of the dual basslines accompanying the groovy verses. The main bass riff comes from Abro (the other bassist), who is a big fan of The Cure, and I think you can hear the influence in the melody. I also think the synths (played by our dear friend Lucynine) play a major role in giving the song its “electro-wave”, eerie feel.
Erba: The poison of nature’ speaks of transformation of nature’s movement as a perpetual cycle of life, death, and rebirth. That poison can carry various meanings, depending entirely on the listener. I don’t really like to dissect or over-explain my lyrics because it strips away the poetry; it almost robs the audience of their right to give the song their own personal meaning. I believe art should be exactly like that: taking shape and living a different life inside whoever experiences it. Once it is fed to the public, it must have a life of its own.
In any case, that poison acts differently depending on the eyes of the beholder, or how it manifests in the lives of those who endure it, whether actively or passively. It is a fermenting agent that can either become your personal creative spark or the very cause of your death. And we aren’t necessarily talking about drugs here, in this case, I might be referring to the magical power of humankind. Or perhaps not. Who knows?
Lunga vita alla necrosi, another song from De Venom Natura, takes the album’s post-punk current into heavier territory more closely aligned with deathrock. What inspired the song’s central rhythm and escalating intensity? Please also discuss the meaning of its title and lyrics, and how the video’s changing procession of occult and psychedelic images reflects the music.
Erba: Lunga Vita alla Necrosi is the flip side of the coin to Demone, a track from our previous album Fire Blades From The Tomb. It represents what happens to the human soul when, paralyzed by the fear of change or the desperate need to cling to a fragile illusion of security, one fails to follow their own inspiration, their true nature, their inner demon.
As for the video? It’s a relentless procession of decay and putrefaction. It mirrors the state of a soul that refuses to be honest with itself.
KRATOM: You’re right, this is the song on De Venom Natura that definitely has the most deathrock vibes. It’s an upbeat song, but dark and heavy as well. I channeled my punk influences for the main bassline, and when Nerium added his black metal guitar riff on top of that, it really clicked for us.
Covenant, from Ponte del Diavolo’s 2024 debut album, Fire Blades from the Tomb, moves at a slower, more ominous pace, allowing tension to accumulate gradually. How did you construct that sense of weight and expectation? What kind of covenant is invoked in the lyrics, and why did you choose Turin’s ancient, monastery-like monuments and a cemetery as settings for the video?
Erba: We didn’t want any religious undertones. In fact, I think I can speak for the whole band when I say that religions disgust us, every single one of them.
What we actually wanted was to use the ancient monuments of the city we grew up in. To us, they don’t feel religious; they feel imposing, ancient, weathered by time, filthy, and deathly. And because of that, they are incredibly beautiful, just like the cemetery where the entire second half of the video was filmed.
As for Covenant, it represents a gathering of natural elements. While I was writing the lyrics, I fantasized about them organizing themselves to break free and sweep humanity away completely.
Your cover of Bauhaus’s In the Flat Field appears on De Venom Natura. Why did you choose this particular song, and what does it mean to you personally? Your interpretation feels icier and more theatrical than the original. How did you decide which recognizable features to preserve and which elements to reshape in Ponte del Diavolo’s image?
Erba: Choosing In the Flat Field came from pure love for Bauhaus; I’ve always dreamed of singing one of their tracks, though I’m deeply aware of the sheer greatness of the artists I’m covering.
The song’s core resonates with me on a deeply personal level. I suffer terribly from boredom, and I completely reject the suffocating routine of everyday life; that sense of existential frustration is practically a reflection of my own personality.
When it came to the music, we didn’t overthink it. The truth is, when we play together, that heavy theatrical sound is just what comes out of us completely naturally. It’s still Bauhaus, but dragged through our own darkness.
Looking across these four recordings—Covenant from Fire Blades from the Tomb, followed by Il Veleno della Natura, Lunga vita alla necrosi, and your cover of In the Flat Field from De Venom Natura—how has Ponte del Diavolo’s relationship with post-punk changed between the two albums? Has that influence become more pronounced, or have you found new ways of integrating it with the band’s heavier foundations?
KRATOM: I would say both. The influences were always there, but throughout these years of live shows and records we have grown as musicians and as a band, and we have become more aware and conscious of our sound, which we have decided to label “blackened post-punk”. It’s a term that could really mean everything and nothing, but I feel it’s the most correct way to define our music. We have definitely learned how to integrate different elements better, and as a band we find it very appealing to push our sonic boundaries. We would love to expand them further in the future.
Ponte del Diavolo’s latest album De Venom Natura is out now. Listen below, and order it here.
Black/death metal formation Kanonenfieber have launched a Kevin Opitz-created lyric video for a new single called “Meine Lieben”. Check it out. Read more…
