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IOMMI
From The Dark

BMG (2026)
Rating: 8.5/10

Standing aloft and aloof as some timeless, ageless messiah adorned in black, the mighty riff lord Tony Iommi reveals another thunderous chapter to his disciples in the dark shape of From The Dark. With stormy claps reverberating around the pallid heavens, a rainstorm of striking chords descends, clattering the church bells and battering castle walls. Ancient stone is eroded, window panes are hammered, and foreboding shadows slither from sodden, sunken graveyards.

Iommi strides as the warlock, armed with only a colossal axe, but accompanied by Jørn Lande (vocals, Jorn), Becky Baldwin (bass, Mercyful Fate) and Karl Brazil (drums) – a formidable formation which transports the audience, rather surprisingly, to the Dehumanizer (1992) era of Black Sabbath. Jørn’s vocal presence is undoubtedly akin to the masterful tones of Ronnie James Dio, so here’s a tag team to guide you through the landscape of doom.

This is by no means a nostalgia outing, From The Dark comes fresh and clean but naturally boasts a layer of suffocating fog as epic riffs lumber and churn. There are moments of bluster to blow away the cloying cobwebs, all packed in to eight prime cuts that present themselves as ominous black, well-oiled machines.

Iommi and company always maintains that thick air of doom, but more so on the majestic ‘Black Times’ and the monolithic ‘Beyond The Dead’, although once again we must credit the musical variety that Tony has always mustered; at once clambering forth with true metalized fury in the form of ‘Stormwatcher’, a heavy set of Dio masterclass where Jørn’s throat work literally sizzle and smokes over a monstrous riff.

‘Return Of The Arbalist’ is similarly electrifying, although far more buoyant than ‘Stormwatcher’. The drums pound with a grandiose cacophony and coupled with such bone shuddering bass, it’s a tumultuous tandem which coats even the sprightliest passages in thick charcoal. Meanwhile, ‘Death Wake’ (featuring Queen’s Brian May) is as doomy as it gets, although Jørn’s grit and soul threads and weaves such traipsing into epic metal territory as one envisages Gothic architecture bleeding sullen drops of heavy rain. Jørn does however remain the constant roaring bonfire on the horizon, a warm orange glow standing strong against the sheets of rain and ashen clouds.

Opening track ‘Over The Violet Sun’ is an expansive, sprawling masterclass of contemporary metal. While the lumber of the riff remains evident, there’s a crispness and exuberance about the construction, harkening back to the Heaven & Hell project album The Devil You Know from 2009. Closer ‘Legacy’ is Iommi at his heaviest and slowest, somehow still able to craft archaic Sabbath-esque soundtracks that shake corpses from their graves. If I was forced to be picky about the opus then maybe I’d have preferred Tony to have worked with a less familiar set of vocal pipes, but Jørn’s scorching soars and organic snarls provide warmth even though the Dio comparisons are so strong.

As the founder of metal and godfather of the ghoulish riff, Iommi remains high and mighty on his throne; an immovable, immortal ironclad entity by which all that drift by must be judged against. From the dark maybe, but with each passing riff, Tony Iommi’s halo gets brighter. We are not worthy.

Neil Arnold

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