Tony Iommi Confirms Third Solo Album Arriving in 2026

BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi has confirmed his long-awaited third solo album will arrive sometime in 2026, ending years of intense speculation from the metal community about whether the project would ever see the light of day. The follow-up to 2000's "Iommi," which featured an impressive and eclectic roster of guest vocalists including Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Corgan, Dave Grohl, Phil Anselmo, Peter Steele, and Billy Idol, has been in development for several years, with Iommi recording patiently alongside various guest musicians whose identities remain closely guarded secrets for the time being. Few concrete details have been revealed about the tracklist, collaborators, or label arrangements, but Iommi has hinted in recent interviews at a significantly heavier direction than his previous solo work, suggesting the album may lean much closer to the crushing doom and primal darkness that defined BLACK SABBATH's most iconic and genre-defining material from the early 1970s. The guitar legend has been working methodically at his home studio in Birmingham, England, crafting monumental riffs and intricate arrangements at his own deliberate pace without the pressure of label deadlines or commercial expectations weighing on his creative process. The announcement caps years of eager anticipation from the global metal community, which has hungered for new material from the man widely credited as the inventor of heavy metal guitar and the single most important architect of the genre's foundational sound. Iommi's pioneering use of down-tuned, thick, heavy guitar tones on BLACK SABBATH's groundbreaking early albums fundamentally shaped the sound of an entire musical genre, influencing everything from doom metal and stoner rock to death metal, grindcore, and sludge metal across five decades. Iommi, now 78, remains one of the most revered and universally respected figures in heavy metal history. Despite losing the tips of two fingers on his fretting hand in a factory accident at age 17, he went on to create the most recognizable riffs in music history.