Tony Iommi has provided details for the box set of the albums Black Sabbath recorded with vocalist Tony Martin.
In his 2024 New Year’s message – a yearly tradition the Black Sabbath guitarist has maintained since 2022 – Iommi addressed the box set of the Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath albums which was slated for release last year.
“Last year, when I did my message, I did say we’d have a box set coming out,” said Iommi after warm holiday greetings to fans. “Well, now, I’m being informed that it will be out in May. It’s been held up with paperwork and legal stuff, but anyway, it’s coming out in May now, if you’re interested. And I hope you are.”
Iommi continued by providing a summary of events which took place over the past year, including his collaboration with the Birmingham Royal Ballet for a Black Sabbath-themed dance performance, and shooting a guitar-themed documentary for Sky Arts, which saw him reunite with longtime friend, Brian May.
On the former, Iommi commended the dance troupe for the “marvellous” performance, and hinted at an international expansion. “We had a lot of Sabbath fans who really enjoyed it,” he said. “They’re talking of taking it to America and Europe, so hopefully that’ll happen and everybody can get to see it. It’s well worth watching.”
He also briefly recounted his performance of ‘Paranoid’ with the Johnny Depp and the Hollywood Vampires in July when they stopped by Birmingham, as well as ‘Deconstruction’, his collaborative single with System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, which was coordinated by Gibson Guitars to benefit Armenia Fund’s Artsakh Refugee Initiative.
Iommi then concluded with an update of his upcoming projects, stating that he was working in the studio, presumably for his long-awaited solo project, which he first revealed in his New Year’s message in 2023.
“Well, I’ve been working in the studio of course,” said Iommi. “I am writing and doing plenty of stuff, and it’s sounding really good. I’m really happy with it. I might use some orchestration, I might not. So we’ll see how it goes.”
In Iommi’s nearly eight minute-long New Year’s update in 2023, he urged fans to be patient with the upcoming reissues of older albums, including the box set of Black Sabbath’s Tony Martin-era albums.
“They wanted to see when it’s coming out, when it’s coming out,” he said. “And we’ve done ’em in succession, really, with these albums. You can’t just bring everything out together; it has to come out in [the right] times.”