Tony Iommi Animates a Doom-Metal Tempest in New ‘Stormwatcher’ Video

In “Stormwatcher,” a heavy new song off Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi‘s upcoming solo album, From the Dark, vocalist Jørn Lande sings metaphors of storms plaguing a turbulent life amid Iommi’s own typically tempestuous metal riffage. “It channels something from within, something real,” Lande said of his lyrics in the statement. “We are the captain of our own vessel, a ship crashing through unknown and sometimes challenging waters, always navigating forward, steering steady through every storm, driven by dreams of new horizons and longing for something new.” It’s one of the doomier songs on the album, due out Oct. 23.

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A new video for the song animates the lyrics. In the black and white clip, which looks like a woodcutting, a man is stranded in a boat, a rat his only companion at sea, as he looks back on how he got there. But of course where there’s one rat, there are usually more, and swarms of rats and an angry sea soon become the man’s antagonists.

The song follows the release of “World Alone,” From the Dark’s first single. In an interview with Rolling Stone around the time of that single’s release, Iommi said he’s been enjoying making new music as a solo artist now that he closed the door on Black Sabbath with the Back to the Beginning concert, Ozzy Osbourne’s final concert. “I’m not into just retiring and sitting back and doing nothing,” the guitarist said. “I have to do something, and music is the only thing I know what to do. I like creating it. I think it’s good for your mind, as well, to be able to make things up and come up with ideas.”