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Tony Iommi has spent more than half a century making a handful of guitar notes sound heavier than most bands manage with an entire wall of amplifiers.

At 78, he is still looking for the next riff.

The Black Sabbath guitarist will release From The Dark on October 23 through BMG, his first solo album in 21 years. Iommi officially announced the record on July 29 and released its first single, “World Alone,” at the same time. The official From The Dark announcement confirms eight songs on the standard album, two additional tracks on the deluxe CD and several vinyl editions.

Calling the record a comeback would be misleading. Iommi never really stopped making music. What changed was the pressure around it.

For perhaps the first time in a very long career, there was no Black Sabbath album that had to be delivered, no tour waiting for rehearsals and no deadline forcing him to turn every good riff into a finished song.

Iommi Made The Album On His Own Schedule

In a recent Rolling Stone interview about the album, Iommi described a much simpler working routine. He would go into his home studio and play. If nothing happened, he would leave it alone rather than force the session.

That is an unusual luxury for someone whose recording career began in the late 1960s.

Iommi also revealed that the riffs on From The Dark are new. He still has old ideas scattered across CDs, cassettes and other recordings, but by the time he starts searching through them he tends to come up with something else.

That detail matters. From The Dark is not a collection of leftovers assembled because there was finally time to empty the archive. It is a new record made by a guitarist who still enjoys sitting down and discovering what comes out of the amplifier.

Rock history has already settled the argument over his influence. Black Sabbath sits prominently among our greatest classic rock artists, but Iommi does not sound particularly interested in spending the rest of his career staring backward.

World Alone Gives Us The First Taste

“World Alone” opens the door.

The song is faster than the slowest Sabbath material, but nobody familiar with Iommi needs long to identify the guitarist. The riff is heavy, direct and placed at the center of the song rather than used as decoration.

Iommi has admitted that his natural instinct still pulls him toward darker music. He tends to begin with the doomier material and has to remind himself that an album needs some faster moments as well.

The official World Alone video also avoids the standard performance clip. Instead of simply placing the musicians in a room with dramatic lighting, the video uses a dystopian story built around a character trapped inside a violent game-like world.

Norwegian singer Jørn Lande handles the vocals and appears throughout the album. He also shares writing credits on every song.

Iommi Wanted A Band, Not Famous Guests

Past Iommi solo records have featured long lists of recognizable names. His 2000 album Iommi included singers and musicians from across rock and metal, while later records brought him together with Glenn Hughes.

From The Dark takes another route.

Lande remains behind the microphone across the record. Becky Baldwin plays bass, Karl Brazil handles drums and longtime Iommi collaborator Mike Exeter co-produces the album.

Iommi told Rolling Stone that he deliberately wanted the new record to feel like one band playing together rather than a parade of guests.

Baldwin was a particularly logical choice. She is a Birmingham musician who also plays with Mercyful Fate, and Iommi said he liked the influence of Geezer Butler that he heard in her playing.

The lineup gives From The Dark something his earlier guest-heavy solo work did not always have. There is one group carrying the songs from beginning to end.

Brian May Makes One Important Appearance

There is one very famous exception.

Queen guitarist Brian May appears on “Death Wake.”

Iommi and May have been close friends since the early 1970s, and their musical connection goes back decades. May previously played on the Black Sabbath track “When Death Calls” and later appeared on the Iommi solo song “Goodbye Lament.”

The new collaboration happened with very little ceremony. May recorded his part at the Iommi home studio. According to Guitar World coverage of the session, Iommi invited him to play on more material, but May preferred to leave the remaining solos to his friend.

That makes “Death Wake” the only track on the main album built around a major guest appearance.

From The Dark Has Eight Main Songs

The standard track list runs as follows:

1. Over The Violent Sun
2. Black Times
3. World Alone
4. Beyond The Dead
5. Stormwatcher
6. Death Wake
7. Return Of The Arbalist
8. Legacy

The deluxe CD adds “Scent Of Dark” and an extended version of “Deified.”

“Scent Of Dark” first appeared in 2021 and marked the first rock song Iommi had released since the Black Sabbath album 13. “Deified” followed in 2024.

The new album also appears ready to move around within the Iommi sound rather than repeat one tempo eight times. The official description points to orchestration on “Beyond The Dead,” darker imagery on “Stormwatcher” and a large closing piece in “Legacy.”

Iommi has even recorded an acoustic section for “Legacy,” despite openly admitting that acoustic guitar is not exactly his favorite instrument.

The Record Arrives After The Final Black Sabbath Chapter

There is no way to separate the timing of From The Dark from what happened around Black Sabbath.

The original lineup reunited for the Back To The Beginning event in Birmingham in July 2025. It became the final Black Sabbath performance, with Ozzy Osbourne, Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward sharing the stage one last time.

Ozzy died later that month.

Iommi has spoken openly since then about how strange the loss still feels, particularly because old performances and clips keep Ozzy constantly visible online.

A recent revelation made the line between the old band and the new solo album even clearer. Producer Andrew Watt had approached Iommi about making another Black Sabbath record with the original lineup. Iommi declined. According to his comments about another Sabbath album, he did not believe the band needed to force another studio record after 13.

Instead of manufacturing one more ending, Iommi moved on.

Fans looking back at the less celebrated parts of the Sabbath catalog can also revisit our feature on albums that became cult classics, which includes the divisive 1976 record Technical Ecstasy.

Tony Iommi Is Still Writing

The easiest version of the From The Dark story is that one of heavy metal history most important guitarists has returned with another album.

The reality is better than that.

Iommi never stopped looking for riffs. He simply reached a point where he could make a record without having to prove anything with it.

He has also made clear that he is not treating From The Dark as a final statement. He still has unreleased instrumental material and told Rolling Stone that he intends to keep writing because creating music is what he knows and what he enjoys doing.

At 78, after Black Sabbath has played its final show and the history books have already given him permanent residence, Iommi is still going into the studio to see what happens when he picks up a guitar.

From The Dark arrives October 23, 2026.

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Electro pop with the ground moving underneath.

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