Tony Iommi – From The Dark
Tony Iommi – From The Dark
BMG
Release date: 23/10/26
Review by Jon Deaux
8/10
Tony Iommi’s body and, most likely, his accountant have asked Tony to retire, and he has answered with a middle finger to all three in the form of an incredibly riff-driven album.
Tony Iommi is seventy-eight years old, and his views on retiring can easily be gauged by the way I gauge a “Live Laugh Love” sign – absolutely not, and I’m slightly appalled by the thought that I even asked. Less than eighteen months ago, the members of Black Sabbath performed a send-off of monumental proportions. Eighteen months! Most people need that long to send you your borrowed cordless drill back. But what’s worse is that this isn’t him touring around for a book or performing holographic shows; he put together an entire new solo record, which of course just happens to be good, very good.
As far as the vocals go, there’s Jørn Lande – a Norwegian dude hailing from the field of European power metal, where all the songs are about dragons, and all the singers have been dipped in scalding hot wax. He came across Iommi at the time when he became the frontman for Heaven & Hell after Ronnie James Dio passed away – one of the most terrifying “your turn to step in the ring” experiences ever conceived. Can you even imagine being asked to step into the shoes of the dead rock god in front of the very people who worshipped him? Not a job; more like a kidnapping with a tour bus included. So, it comes as no surprise that From The Dark leans towards the polished stadium-doom of the Dio era more than the dirty, fuzzed-up, and apparently “the vocalist ate a bat” era of Ozzy.
But what about those riffs, oh man, those riffs. From Over The Violent Sun right at the start, you get a reminder that all heavy bands from 1970 onwards are essentially tribute acts who have not had the humility to admit it. World Alone is a proto-thrash riffing song that’s so heavy it will make it impossible for you to not raise your hands. You will find yourself headbanging in a line at Tesco, and someone will nod to you in recognition because he thinks, “Yeah, me too.” Return Of The Arbalist is a brilliantly named song, and I am proud to educate you on the fact that an Arbalist is nothing but a crossbowman from medieval times.
And the slow ones, which is when the shit hits your emotions. There’s Stormwatcher, which is as soulful as it comes, and there’s the ebb-and-flow emotions of Beyond The Dead, where you really start wondering, “Why the hell am I feeling like this at 11 pm?” But then the album finishes off with a song named Legacy. LEGACY!! Subtlety incarnate, in terms of a man realizing that this could be one or two more albums and telling us right from the get-go. There has been no more direct a title in the history of titles, and yet it works – the guitar is a man dragging 60 years’ worth of heavy music into the room and saying “Yep, we’re here, so just shut the hell up.”
But my sole gripe, and you can rest assured that there will always be at least one, because I am a professional grouch, is that it does not make any dramatic moves outside its comfort zone. It knows what it is. However, since what it is is Tony Iommi doing Tony Iommi, criticizing it would be like complaining to the sea about being wet. 8 out of 10, with the remaining two reserved due to my refusal to give full marks to an elderly man while I am around to envy him.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Over the Violent Sun
02. Black Times
03. World Alone
04. Beyond the Dead
05. Stormwatcher
06. Death Wake
07. Return Of The Arbalist
08. Legacy
LINKS:
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