Category: news

Tony Iommi has announced From The Dark, his first solo album in 21 years, arriving October 23 via BMG. Norwegian vocalist Jorn Lande sings on the entire record and shares writing credits on every song, with Becky Baldwin on bass and Karl Brazil on drums. And in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Iommi revealed something that’s going to land hard for Sabbath fans: he wanted Geezer Butler to play bass on it, and Geezer couldn’t do it.

STREAM THE METAL BREAKDOWN DAILY NOW:

Scott Penfold breaks down the Iommi announcement on today’s Metal Breakdown Daily — the album, the Jorn Lande pairing, and the Geezer Butler story behind it. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and take the show with you.

The Album

Let’s get the facts on the table first, because there are a lot of them and they’re all good.

From The Dark lands October 23 through BMG. It’s Iommi’s third solo album, following 2000’s Iommi and 2005’s Fused — which, if you’re counting, is a 21-year wait. The lead single “World Alone” premiered at a global streaming event held in Birmingham, a stone’s throw from the Black Sabbath Bridge that the city put up as a tribute in 2019.

The standard edition runs eight tracks: “Over The Violent Sun,” “Black Times,” “World Alone,” “Beyond The Dead,” “Stormwatcher,” “Death Wake,” “Return Of The Arbalist” and “Legacy.” The 32-page deluxe media book tacks on two more — “Scent Of Dark,” the 2021 track he released alongside a cologne, and an extended cut of 2024’s “Deified.”

There’s also a limited seven-inch of “World Alone” coming September 4 with an instrumental B-side, plus a stack of deluxe vinyl and CD formats with a die-cut of Tony’s signature cross on the sleeve. He co-produced the whole thing with Mike Exeter, his longtime engineer and creative partner.

Iommi’s own summary of the record, and it’s very him: “We’re not trying to prove anything — it’s a great album, it rocks!”

Tony. You’re 78 years old. You have an MBE. You invented the genre. Nobody thinks you’re trying to prove anything.

The Geezer Story

Here’s the part that stops you.

Rolling Stone asked Iommi directly whether he’d considered getting Geezer Butler on the album. His answer: “I wanted him to play on this album, but he couldn’t do it.” Geezer was working on his own record, and something came up that meant he couldn’t get to England. Iommi wanted the album finished and out the door, so he moved on.

Think about the timing on that for a second. Black Sabbath played their final show at Villa Park in July 2025. Ozzy died weeks later. Bill Ward, Geezer and Tony put out their statements and grieved him publicly. And then Tony Iommi — the only constant member Black Sabbath ever had, the man who has been playing music with Geezer Butler since they were teenagers in Aston — sat down to make a solo record, picked up the phone to ask his oldest musical partner to play bass on it, and the answer was no. Not out of bad blood. Just life, scheduling, geography, two guys in their late seventies with their own projects.

That’s not a scandal. That’s just what happens when the band that defined your entire life finally stops.

Also Recommended – Black Sabbath’s Original 4: All 8 Albums Ranked

So He Found Someone Who Plays Like Him

And this is where it gets genuinely lovely.

Iommi hired Becky Baldwin — and he’s completely upfront about why. She lives in Birmingham. She’s a serious player. And, in his words, she’s a Geezer fan who plays in Geezer’s style. That’s exactly what he was after.

He wasn’t hiding the influence or dressing it up as a coincidence. He wanted Geezer’s sound on the record. He couldn’t get Geezer. So he went and found someone who had spent years learning to play like him, gave her the gig, and by his account she was excellent.

The drummer story is almost as good. Iommi has a place by the beach, and he was out walking the perimeter one day when a bloke came up and said hello. Tony assumed he was a fan. Turned out to be Karl Brazil — Robbie Williams’ drummer — who happened to share an engineer with him in Mike Exeter. Exeter vouched for him, Iommi used him on one of the fragrance instrumentals, and then brought him onto the album proper.

And here’s the thread running through all of it: Brazil is from Birmingham. Baldwin lives in Birmingham. Iommi says flat out that he wanted to keep it local. A man who could ring literally anybody on earth and get a yes built his band out of people from his own city, and the one guy he genuinely wanted was the one he couldn’t get.

Check This Out – Black Sabbath’s Tony Martin Era Albums Ranked: The Most Underrated Sabbath Era Finally Gets Its Due

On Jorn Lande, And Why Not A Bigger Name

The Jorn connection goes back to 2010, when he sang a couple of songs with Iommi, Geezer and Vinny Appice at the Ronnie James Dio tribute at High Voltage in London. Tony liked his voice then and never forgot it.

Asked why he didn’t chase a marquee guest instead, Iommi’s reasoning was refreshingly blunt: he could go and pick some famous names, but he’s already done that. Which is fair enough — the Iommi album in 2000 had Ozzy, Dave Grohl, Billy Corgan, Henry Rollins, Serj Tankian, Phil Anselmo, Peter Steele and Ian Astbury on it. That box is thoroughly ticked.

More interesting is what he didn’t do. Iommi gave Jorn no lyrical direction at all — nothing. He explained that singers deliver better when the words are their own, and he compared it directly to working with Ronnie James Dio, who had a knack for finding the specific words he could really lean into. Coming from Iommi, being mentioned in the same breath as Dio as a lyricist is about as big a compliment as exists in this genre.

One more detail worth flagging, because plenty of outlets will get it wrong: the riffs on this album are all brand new. Iommi has famously talked about having four or five hundred unused riffs stashed on phones and cassettes, but he told Rolling Stone that by the time he goes digging for an old one, he’s already written something new. This isn’t an archive record.

What It Means

For a guy whose band invented heavy metal in a Birmingham suburb, took a farewell victory lap at Villa Park, and then lost his frontman a few weeks later, a new solo album a year on is not a small thing.

Sabbath spent a decade in that long goodbye — the reunion talk, the “would we all love it to happen” conversations, the contractual snags, the archive projects Tony keeps circling back to. Now that chapter is genuinely closed, and the man who wrote the riffs is still writing riffs.

From The Dark is out October 23 on BMG. “World Alone” is streaming now. You can check it out below.

TL;DR

• Tony Iommi has announced From The Dark, out October 23, 2026 via BMG — his first solo album in 21 years and third overall, after Iommi (2000) and Fused (2005).
• Norwegian vocalist Jorn Lande sings on the whole record and shares writing credits on every song. Becky Baldwin plays bass, Karl Brazil plays drums, and Iommi co-produced with Mike Exeter.
• Iommi told Rolling Stone he wanted Geezer Butler to play bass on the album, but Geezer couldn’t do it — he was working on his own record and couldn’t get to England.
• Iommi hired Becky Baldwin partly because she’s a Geezer Butler fan who plays in his style, and because she’s based in Birmingham. Karl Brazil is also from Birmingham; Iommi says he wanted to keep it local.
• Lead single “World Alone” is out now, with a limited seven-inch arriving September 4. The standard album runs eight tracks; the deluxe media book adds two more.
• Iommi says the riffs on the album are all new, not pulled from his famous archive of unused riffs.

FAQ

Sabbath faithful, we want to hear it — does a Tony Iommi solo record scratch the itch, or does it only make you miss Geezer on bass more? Make your case in the comments, and follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.

The post Tony Iommi Announces His First Solo Album In 21 Years — And Geezer Butler Was Asked To Play On It appeared first on Loaded Radio.

They say you learn something new every day, and today I learned that William Shatner has a heavy metal band. My colleague Tom Breihan blogged about this back in February, and it must have completely slipped my radar. Although Shatner hasn’t released any music from the project, more details about forthcoming live performances have been revealed. He’s debuting his ambitious heavy metal project at Chicago’s Riot Fest on Sunday, Sept. 20. Things only get bigger from there.

The post William Shatner Says His Metal Band Is Booked For Coachella 2027 appeared first on Stereogum.

Way back in 1991, Guns N’ Roses ended Use Your Illusion II with “My World,” a quasi-rap freakout that only lasted a minute and a half before dissolving into sex noises and chaos. The beat kind of sounded like “Army Of Me,” but four years before that song came out. Most Guns N’ Roses fans hate it. Guns N’ Roses “My World” probably doesn’t have anything to do with UK producer Jam City’s new song “My World” or his decision to use it as the title track on his upcoming album, but it’s the first thing I thought of.

The post Jam City Announces New Album <em>My World</em>: Hear The Title Track appeared first on Stereogum.

A couple years ago, Rachel Chinouriri released her tour de force debut album What A Devastating Turn Of Events. Since then, she’s toured with Sabrina Carpenter and Florence + The Machine, released the Little House EP, appeared on Pinkpantheress’ remix album Fancy Some More?, and joined the lineup for Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields. Last night, she announced her next album. I think I spoke too soon is out Oct. 16 and was announced with the lead single “One song away from crying.”

The post Rachel Chinouriri Announces New Album <em>I think I spoke too soon</em>: Hear “One song away from crying” appeared first on Stereogum.

(Andy Synn is back with a recommendation from the Indonesian underground today) It’s perhaps not entirely surprising to note that the majority of bands we write about tend to be located on one of two continents, Europe or North America. That’s not to say we don’t try our best to cover bands from other locales – […]

The post SABERTOOTH – BLESSING RAGE appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.

Last month, post-punk group Do Nothing announced their sophomore album Friend World with the lead single “Stars.” It’s eerie and a bit corroded, leaning into squirmy electronic blemishes, and sounding nothing like what Do Nothing showcased on 2023’s Snake Sideways. Today, they’ve returned with another peak at the forthcoming album via the single “Act Natural,” which is also very weird and comes with a ridiculous video.

The post Do Nothing – “Act Natural” appeared first on Stereogum.

What comes to mind when you hear of a band called Rectal Wench, and that they are from China? For most people, the answer comes in two layers. The first is the name itself. “Rectal Wench” triggers a reaction before any context has time to form. It sounds provocative, even confrontational, in a way that suggests parody or shock value. For some listeners, that is enough to file the band away as a joke, or at least as something not meant to be taken seriously. The second layer is the country. China carries its own set of assumptions that sit on top of the music before anyone has heard it. For many outside observers, China is not automatically associated with underground metal scenes in the same way that parts of Europe or North America might be. Instead, it is often imagined through broader political and cultural frameworks first, and artistic subcultures second.

Now, pretend you are me, first arriving in China in 2013 after a long flight from Canada. Alone, suffering from major culture shock, I searched for a sense of familiarity–punk and metal shows. At a nearby venue, 13 Club, I scanned the upcoming shows on their website. I saw the name then for the first time, “Rectal Wench.” It instantly excited me. I knew of some bands in China. Torturing Nurse–the noise artist from Shanghai who wore a strange mask. Suffocated, the thrash band who played Wacken. Ritual Day – black metal. I knew these things could exist here. So what was Rectal Wench? Something gory. Something sexual. Maybe goregrind, pornogrind. Who knows? The band was playing something called the Gore Feast. I got more excited. This was my sphere of interest–gore, possibly metal, rectums, wenches. My imagination went crazy thinking of what would happen.

Backed by an inhuman drum machine, men in ski masks and butcher outfits took the stage at the Gore Feast. The songs were as I had expected: goregrind. They, along with the band Cave Have Rod (who also appeared on the Gore Feast and organized it with Rectal Wench), became representative of true underground metal to me in China. It wasn’t that these bands were heavy and had strange, sexual names and wore dresses or maxi pads on their faces on stage. It’s that they created, organized, and brought together bands and fans for this mini-festival, which in its small way, represented a form of artistic freedom. You didn’t need a VPN to see Rectal Wench. It came uncensored and explicitly in your face.

Even though I hadn’t seen Torturing Nurse yet, I imagined the scene at his shows would be similar: the performance itself being an expression of musical freedom through noise with the crowd being like-minded individuals. I would eventually investigate the Shanghai scene, and these Torturing Nurse shows at a later time.

After the Gore Feast, I contacted Rectal Wench and Cave Have Rod, along with The Dark Prison Massacre, who also played the show, doing interviews with all three of them. I used these interviews and the show as a real basis for what would eventually become The Underground in China: Metal, Punk, Hardcore and Noise (2013-2021). The event and these bands pried open my perception and expectations about the Chinese underground music scene, and I couldn’t have asked for a better set of ushers than the Rod, the Wench and the Massacre.

Within the interviews, I learned that the name Rectal Wench came from the Lividity song of the same name. Rex (guitar) explained how he first encountered pornogrind after reading an article describing Lividity as “the most niubi (Chinese word for fucking awesome) brutal death/pornogrind band on the planet.” The first song he heard, “Pussy Lover,” became a reference point in itself, “which made me aware of the many colors of pussy.” The name “Rectal Wench” arose directly from that early listening: “Rectal Wench was my favorite song. This name is very appropriate – the implications, style, everything that we want to represent, so we took the name.” At the time, I wanted to understand whether this kind of extreme sexual imagery was simply part of the aesthetic of the genre, or whether it connected in any way to the environment these bands were actually living in. I also wanted to know if pornography itself played any role in how these ideas circulated.

Linkfy (vocals) and Rex (guitar) both spoke about pornography in the same matter-of-fact register as the music. Linkfy described interests in “fetish, rape, foreign addiction and Bang Bros.” Rex described having to look across different countries’ sites depending on access, preferring “the United States or Russia or South America, where the women are more wild.” Rex also described his influences in the same direct way, naming German goregrind bands like Gut and Cock and Ball Torture, and stating simply: “Impetigo is our God.”

Across the interview, nothing is softened for an outside reader. Even when the conversation shifts away from porn or gore, the tone stays the same: “I don’t care. Human nature. Working every day is torture.” What came through is the consistency of how they speak. There is a bluntness, a passion for the bands and style that influenced Rectal Wench, and an awareness of the rather absurd concoction that the band is. With Rex himself being a teacher, there is also the notion of living a double life – working during the day and putting on a butcher’s apron to perform goregrind at night.

Cave Have Rod, whom have a more absurd, friendly, often stupid aesthetic compared to the other bands, performed at Obscene Extreme in 2013, which spotlighted China in the extreme music world somewhat. I caught the bands once again at another Gore Feast on New Year’s Eve that year. Both Wench and Rod would go in and out of hiatuses in the years thereafter, though the return of this scene became official in 2019 with Rectal Wench making a huge return with an updated form of the Gore Feast, the Filthy Party. Their album Judgement Of Whore Labia From The Sewer Throne was announced as a 73-minute goregrind record, described by the band as an extreme step even within their own genre. “We all knew that doing a 73-minute album was so fucking extreme for goregrind music, because goregrind songs are usually short,” says guitarist Rex.“It’s like a toilet–it’s only exciting when the shit overflows.”

Alongside the album came a continuation of the live format they had built years earlier, now referred to as the Filthy Party. The same visual language remained in place — lucha masks, inflatable dolls, gore imagery–but it was now attached to a more defined release and touring cycle. What surprised me in this later phase was not just the scale of the release, but the way Rex began to describe the band’s intent. In earlier interviews, Rectal Wench spoke almost entirely in the language of goregrind, porn, humour, and influence. “We want to use music to save humanity. We want to be the heroes of mankind. For humanity!” In the same material, the album’s story frames the band as figures inside its own fiction, fighting against inflatable beings in a world overtaken by them. The imagery is consistent with what had already been established on stage and in earlier Gore Feast performances, but it now extends into a kind of internal mythology where the band occupies a central role. Even the production process is described with the same mix of absurdity and seriousness. Recorded at S.A.G. Studio in Beijing with producer Zhao Xiaodong, the band describe sending reference material from groups like GUT and Satan’s Revenge On Mankind in order to shape the sound. “Then we attempted to imitate their production effects from a professional perspective.” 

What felt, in 2013, like a shock-value entry point into a small underground scene now appeared again in a more structured form–still extreme, but also more self-defined, with its own mythology, scale, and way of describing what it was doing. The string of Filthy Party shows saw Rectal Wench team up with Impure Injection, a one-man grindcore unit started by Gore Geng, the “Godfather of Chinese Grind.” These shows saw a toilet on stage, those blow up dolls as described in their album being tossed around the audience along with various toys and objects. The crowd dressed or undressed as they pleased, making these shows feel like mini Obscene Extreme concerts within China.

In 2024, Rex described a further continuation of the project with the album Alliance of Anal Surfers, recorded largely live and framed as part of an ongoing series that began with Judgement Of Whore Labia From The Sewer Throne. The title, he explained, carried a personal cultural residue rather than a direct musical reference. “When we were young in China, around 2002… there was a book that almost every kid who liked rock and roll had read, and this book was called the Rock Bible.” He recalled seeing references to bands like Slayer, but being struck by the name Butthole Surfers: “The name was very impressive… Maybe when I grew up I wanted to be a Butthole Surfer, but I had never heard the band’s music.” He described the album title as something shaped by that early impression rather than actual influence: “Of course we’re a little more fucked up…it is likely that it is a memory of not escaping the shadow of childhood.”

He also reiterated that the releases now exist within a continuous narrative framework, extending the fictional world introduced in earlier albums. In his description, the story has moved deeper into the sewer concept: “This album is the official entry of humanity into the world of the sewer, and the human sewer is the asshole.” Alongside this fictional continuity, Rex repeatedly returned to the physical reality of performance as the central motivation. Recording in a studio, he said, often felt detached from the energy of live music: “I really like the feeling of playing with passion… recording is like doing fucking homework or going to work.” The album, in that sense, becomes less a fixed object than an excuse to generate the conditions for performance. He also reflects more directly on the structure of his working life outside the band. “Of course, you may know that I am a lecturer. My job is to give lectures every day, but I have no chance to perform music. People pay to see me perform, so I have to perform well. Thank you so much for paying to see our shit.”

The communal feeling brought by the Gore Feast and refined through the Filthy Party remains in the world of Rectal Wench. In recent years, fellow anal surfer Andrew Lee, with his Houkago Grind Time project, played with the band across China, further bridging the connection to potential sewer throne sitters in the West. Rectal Wench doesn’t really resolve into a clean conclusion. The shock is obvious at first, but what stays is the fact that they built something that people actually gathered around. Rex being a lecturer during the week and a guitarist at night isn’t framed as a contradiction in his own words, it’s just how things are. The Filthy Party, the sewer mythology, even the talk of “saving humanity,” all sit inside the same ongoing structure: a reason to keep playing, keep performing, keep pulling people into the same room. And that’s where the phrase starts to mean something beyond irony. In a scene this small and this specific, “saving humanity” reads less like a statement and more like what happens when people who think the same way finally meet.

…

Purchase Ryan Dyer’s book, The Underground in China: Metal, Punk, Hardcore and Noise 2013-2021, here.

Facebook Paulie Boy is on a mission to spread the blues, but is this album of six songs recorded rough, ready and live, the blues, or is it psychedelic rock? It’s certainly channelling Hendrix, and it’s certainly covering classic blues … Continue reading →

The post Album review: PAULIE BOY BLUES – Back from the Dead Live in Brooklyn New York appeared first on Get Ready to ROCK!.