[Album artwork / art direction by Joseph Niet / The Creative Corporation]
Offering up a textbook definition of “holy crap, time flies,” Black Sabbath’s swan song, 13, was released 13 years ago, on June 7th, 2013. In a curious move, Sabbath opted to tour for the record before its street date, from April 20th to July 4th, thus making it a fairly busy year for a bunch of guys in their 60s with nearly 50 years of walloping in their shared repertoire.
With that in mind, the following represents the TONY IOMMI timeline thereafter—a way of showing just how busy the Godfather of Heavy Metal has been post coda, and how eclectic those operations have been:
- 2013 – The Gibson Band is announced: “A revolving collective of Gibson artists” whose purpose it is to release singles that benefit charitable causes. The first single back in December of 2013, “Deconstruction,” featured Tony Iommi, Serj Tankian (System of a Down) and Cesar Gueikian (CEO of Gibson Guitars).
- 2014 & 2015 – The bad: Iommi addresses ongoing issues with lymphoma. The good news: His treatments go very well, and he also receives numerous prestigious awards and honorable positions, including a Grammy for Best Metal Performance, an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award, and a visiting Professor of Music position at Coventry University.
- 2016 – Instead of releasing a follow-up to 13, Sabbath decides to begin the final chapter and release an EP titled The End, featuring extra tracks from the 13 sessions and some live tracks from the tour, thus launching the final Sabbath tour from January 20th, 2016 to February 4th, 2017.
- 2017 – On January 5th, Tony Iommi releases a song with the Birmingham Cathedral Boys & Girls Choir called “How Good It Is,” with cellist George Schilling. The song is based on Psalm 133 and intended to “celebrate peace and community, and a way for Iommi to give back to his hometown of Birmingham.”
- 2017 – On November 17th, the release of February 4th, 2017 The End show from Birmingham hits streets.
- 2019 – Tony provides the solo on “Astorolus – The Great Octopus” from Candlemass’s The Door to Doom.
- 2021 – Iommi teams up with Sergio Momo, the founder of Italian fragrance company Xerjoff to create a collaborative scent called (hold onto your hats) ‘Monkey Special’. They release a track called “Scent of Dark” to commemorate the pairing, and Momo plays additional guitar.
- 2022 – Iommi provides guitars and songwriting on “No Escape from Now” and guitars on “Degradation Rules” from Ozzy’s thirteenth and final solo record, Patient Number 9.
- 2024 – Collaborative effort number two with Momo / Xerjoff fragrances. The track “Deified” launches the announcement, providing a slightly more medieval feel, thanks in part to Tony’s first collaboration with composer / musician Ben Andrew, who provides the orchestration.
- 2024 – Tony helps long-time studio associate / sound engineer Mike Exeter to (finally) remix 1995’s oft-maligned Forbidden for the Anno Domini 1989-1995 box set.
What the hell does this have to do with Tony Iommi’s fifth* solo full-length? Well, beyond showcasing just how much he refuses to become someone who just putters around in a garden in his golden years, it validates the following mind-blowingly curious factoid: We have Tony Iommi’s penchant for body fragrances to thank for the release of From the Dark.
Wait, what?
So, yes, From the Dark has been in the works for yeeeeaaaars, and surprising to absolutely no one at all, the album didn’t even need to drop before scads of ancients were ready to crown it ALBUM OF THE YEAR. Is it actually worthy of that title? You know, the fact that a 78 year old man can still command doominess like this is a rather remarkable feat, so I ain’t exactly planning on rolling my eyes upon seeing From the Dark top a bunch of lists as 2026 gets ready to shut its doors.
Like many of you, I jumped into the record the moment I woke up on release day, and I voluntarily admit that my first couple spins left me sort of surprised by its straightforwardness. No, I wasn’t exactly expecting a lot of boundary pushing, but maybe… a medieval element or two? A couple more covert guest appearances? Instead, each song essentially delivers a fundamental riff beginning to end, plus a skosh of elbow room left open for some atmospheric trim, a modest lead or some form of vocal hook. The good news: these are classic Iommi Sabbathian riffs, especially compared to the Iommi (2000) / The DEP Sessions (2004) / Fused (2005) years, so the impact is suitably and wonderfully H E A V Y. Admittedly, the solos aren’t quite as swift as they were a decade ago, but they’re still unmistakably him and therefore lovable. Also an immediate upside: Given the overall directness, the record gets in and out the door in a very tidy 42 minutes, which a lot of bands could learn from in the modern age.
With a little more than a week of listening now under the belt, I can state two things with confidence: 1) From the Dark has grown on me significantly, certainly aided by listening through quality speakers or good headphones. The straightforwardness is indeed blunt, but it’s a largely DOOMY knock to the chiclets with some relatively furtive prettiness coloring the edges, which is always welcome under my roof. 2) As much as I dig the riffs—big honkin’ riffs that could knock the gallon of Eau de Toilette off Steven Seagal from 50 paces—it’s actually Jørn’s contribution that stands out as my favorite element. I’ve been in Jørn’s corner dating back to his ARK and Masterplan days, and he really doesn’t sound as if the years have stripped any of his grit or power. When the vocal hook is notably melodic here—“Beyond the Dead,” “Return of the Arbalist” and especially the wonderful “World Alone”—I find myself fully smitten.
A couple of relatively minor quibbles to mull over:
- I wish more room was afforded to bassist Becky Baldwin (Mercyful Fate, Fury). It would obviously be quite noticeable if she weren’t here at all, but I would have appreciated some added breakout bubbling.
- I was hoping the guest spots would be more pronounced. The above-mentioned composer Ben Andrew returns to co-write and provide orchestration on “Beyond the Dead,” but I actually feel said orchestration could be even more bombastic. Also, THEE Sir Brian May (Queen) provides ‘additional’ guitar on “Death Wake,” but hell if I can tell where he actually jumps in.
In the end, now that the dust as settled, I’ve come to realize that any initial objections regarding the straightforwardness of From the Dark largely resulted from an overly pronounced gear shift from metal tagged ‘progressive’, ’technical’ or ‘what the hell even is this’ into something that was perfectly comfortable just belting me in the solar plexus for 40 minutes. So, where previous Iommi sidebars seemed mostly concerned with exploring hard rock and even alt rock, From the Dark does the wonderfully dirty work of reaffirming Tony Iommi’s status not only as the Godfather of Heavy Metal, but the OG sculptor of MOUNT DOOM. Album of the year material? For more than just a few, I’m sure, but beyond that it’s just great to hear Iommi still walloping like a champion.
Can you smell what the Godfather is cooking? Seriously, you can if you’re into BIG Sabbathian riffs and… cologne.
