Tony Iommi has shared behind-the-scenes footage from the “World Alone” video, the first single from From The Dark.
Tony Iommi has released footage from the making of the “World Alone” video, the first single from From The Dark, which BMG puts out on 23 October. It is the guitarist’s first solo album in 21 years.
The clip is set in a retrofuture dystopia, where a character called The Believer is dropped into a hostile video game and has to fight his way out. The song itself runs on stacked riffs and solos over a hard rhythm section, with Norwegian singer Jorn Lande on vocals.
“World Alone” premiered on 29 July at a global streaming event staged in Birmingham, a short walk from the Black Sabbath Bridge, the canal crossing named in the band’s honour by the city in 2019.
From The Dark is Iommi‘s first solo album since Fused in 2005, and his first full-length studio release of any kind since Black Sabbath‘s 13 in 2013.
“It’s an album we’ve really enjoyed making. We’re not trying to prove anything – it’s a great album, it rocks!” Iommi said when it was announced.
It arrives a little over a year after Black Sabbath‘s farewell concert, “Back To The Beginning“, held in Birmingham in July 2025. Ozzy Osbourne died 17 days later.
Jorn Lande, known for his work with Masterplan and Avantasia, sings on every track and shares writing credits across the album. Becky Baldwin of Mercyful Fate plays bass and Karl Brazil, a longtime Robbie Williams drummer, is behind the kit. Iommi co-produced with Mike Exeter, his engineer and collaborator of many years.
Lande has worked with Iommi before. He sang at the 2010 High Voltage festival at Victoria Park in London, at a tribute to Ronnie James Dio alongside surviving Heaven & Hell members Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice, with Glenn Hughes also taking part.
The standard album runs to eight songs, with the deluxe CD adding two more:
- “Over The Violent Sun”
- “Black Times”
- “World Alone”
- “Beyond The Dead”
- “Stormwatcher”
- “Death Wake”
- “Return Of The Arbalist”
- “Legacy”
- “Scent Of Dark” (deluxe bonus track)
- “Deified” (extended version, deluxe bonus track)
Lande‘s lyrics deal with dystopian imagery and mortality, with “Stormwatcher” built on nautical metaphors and “Death Wake” on the cruelty of a life without love.
A limited seven-inch of “World Alone” is out on 4 September, backed with an instrumental version in a foiled sleeve. The song is also going onto Gibson’s learn-to-play guitar app.
The album comes in several vinyl and CD editions. The double LP is cut at 45rpm across two discs and pressed in four colours, each tied to a different retailer, in a gatefold sleeve of black card with a die cut of Iommi‘s signature cross that reveals the full artwork as the inner sleeve is pulled out. An Amazon-exclusive CD uses the same die-cut design, and there is a 32-page media book edition carrying both bonus tracks.
Iommi founded Black Sabbath with Osbourne, Butler and Bill Ward, and wrote the bulk of the band’s material. He lost the tips of two fingers in a factory accident as a teenager, and the adaptations he made to keep playing shaped the tone that defined the band.
He has multiple Grammy Awards, a place in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, a doctorate from Coventry University, a Lord Mayor’s Award and the Freedom of the City of Birmingham. In June he was appointed MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to music and charity.
He has stayed busy without a solo record, playing on Osbourne‘s Patient Number 9, working with Birmingham Royal Ballet on Black Sabbath: The Ballet, and appearing on Robbie Williams‘ 2025 single “Rocket“.
