There is nothing I can write in this introduction that can completely capture the legacy and impact of Tony Iommi. It is no exaggeration to say that none of the music that Rampage covers would exist in the form it does without him. As such, when I got the chance to listen to his first solo offering in over two decades, I simply couldn’t resist.

The moment the nimble, snaking intro riff to Over The Violent Sun comes in with that unmistakable guitar tone, I started grinning. The best riff writer in the history of heavy music is back at it. As expected, that’s the fore of this album, the riffs. Over The Violent Sun’s opening is a little more agile than one tends to expect from Iommi but it’s pleasantly off kilter, dropping into simpler territory when the vocals come in, giving Jorn Lande space to show off his impressive pipes. The twisty descending riff on this track before the solo is great here too. This is a hell of an opener for a record.

Black Times hits us with a colossal, slow riff that very much typical of Iommi’s style. The song settles into the classic Sabbath-esque structure of the loud version of the riff, before dropping down to a quieter version for the vocals. There’s a temptation as with every album Iommi’s ever recorded to just go track by track and riff by riff talking about how great it is, and I’ll try and reign myself in a little here. But before I do that, the stompy, faster riff at the end of Black Times is a wonderful way to roar out of a slower, cleaner section.

Let’s loop back to Lande for a moment. While the man who’s name is on the album is obviously the star of the show here, Lande is a close second. It’s easy to see why Iommi was drawn to working with him. Lande’s vocals are very clearly influenced by Ronnie James Dio in style, but he does inject enough of his own personality to save him from sounding like a pale imitation. There’s just a hint of extra rasp to his tone that’s very pleasant. The closing “Aaah-aaah!” on World Alone is so Dio coded, it’s brilliant. The more mournful tone he conjures over another monolithic slow riff on Beyond The Dead is incredible, and it’s theatrical, jaw dropping chorus is a vocal line that should be as revered as any of the classic Dio-era Sabbath material.

Stormwatcher’s vocal line feels a tad more Bruce Dickinson to me however, which is no bad thing and the hook here is incredible. That’s another running theme here actually, combined with the eerie riff, the soaring vocals on Death Wake hold space in my brain hours after the song ends. Frankly, Death Wake is the true pinnacle of what Lande delivers on this record.

What of the other instrumentalists on the record though? Bassist Becky Baldwin gets a little lost in the mix, but when the guitars give her space to be heard, she’s filling the space admirably with nimble little bass lines that never steal the spotlight but are very much appreciated. As the guitars sing in call and response with Lande on Return Of The Arbalist, she’s able to strut her stuff a little and it’s very welcome. Drummer Karl Brazil is probably the weakest link on the record however. He’s really solid, clearly an accomplished musician but I’ve always been of the opinion that Iommi’s riffs are best accompanied by drummers who can really swing, and Brazil plays things just a little too straight throughout the record. Whether this is a decision made to avoid overshadowing Iommi’s excellent work, I don’t know, but it lacks a little bit of the shading that could really elevate the material.

The day before I got access to From The Dark, I happened to be listening to Black Sabbath’s Lonely Is The Word and thinking about how Iommi is an underrated soloist – the way his solo on that track conveys so much emotion is breathtaking. It was such a delight to find that this remains true even to this day. Every guitar solo on this record is great, leaning into Iommi’s roots as a lover of blues and jazz. The first solo on the towering epic closer Legacy is incredible, but it’s the move into a second, cleaner toned solo that really hits me right in the feelings. It’s moments like this that make this The album to listen to for Iommi’s best solos.

It may be perfect that From The Dark closes on a track titled Legacy. Given the inevitability of time, it’s very possible that this is the last record we get from Tony Iommi. If it is, this is a great way to close a brilliant career. Is it his best record ever? Of course not – Master of Reality came out over fifty five years ago, and the fact that there are other records he’s been part of that I would entertain as being on the same level as that is a testament to his brilliance. From The Dark isn’t quite on that level, it’s not even his best album of the twenty first century (Heaven & Hell’s The Devil You Know is amazing if you’ve never checked it out) but it’s still really good. The more I’ve listened to and thought about this record, the more I’ve liked it. That’s all I could ask for from one of the men who invented heavy metal at this stage in his career.