Iommi has expressed ambivalence about heavy metal in the past, preferring to think of Sabbath as simply a rock band. But when he works with a certain type of singer—Dio, the underappreciated former Sabbath frontman Tony Martin, and now, the Norwegian power metal vocalist Jørn Lande—his writing adapts to fit their more flamboyantly metallic styles. (Martin also auditioned for From the Dark but was beaten out by Lande, who filled in at a Heaven & Hell gig after Dio’s death in 2010.) Where Ozzy-era Sabbath played loose and dirty, with huge amounts of swing and distortion, this version of Iommi is magisterially precise, his guitar a razor rather than a sledgehammer. He doesn’t waste a note on From the Dark, in his monolithic riffs or his gliding, silky solos. On both the doomier numbers (“Black Times,” “Beyond the Dead”) and the straight-up rockers (“World Alone,” “Return of the Arbalist”), he’s in total control—of his tone, and of the album’s.
Guitar is the core of From the Dark, but Lande gives it a beating heart. It’s a career-best performance for the former Masterplan and Beyond Twilight frontman (not that many listeners will have heard any of his other work—I recommend his 1998 album with Mundanus Imperium, The Spectral Spheres Coronation). As Lande has gotten older, his tenor range has acquired a sooty patina, which lends a little extra gravitas to From the Dark’s lyrics about death and the apocalypse. It’s true that you can hear his Dio discipleship in every note, but as imitations go, there hasn’t been one better. The rhythm section of bassist Becky Baldwin (Mercyful Fate) and journeyman session drummer Karl Brazil adds little but at least doesn’t detract from Iommi and Lande’s interplay. The only real letdown is that the guest leads from Queen’s Brian May on “Death Wake” feel anonymous. We might as well have gotten one more solo out of Iommi instead.