Heavy Song of the Week: Tony Iommi Delivers Dark Sabbathian Majesty with “Stormwatcher”

Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal, punk, and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, we highlight the new single “Stormwatcher” from Tony Iommi. An interesting historical and critical question is when precisely did heavy metal begin? The minute you know to look for it, traces of it appear all over the place, from blues to early psychedelic rock to proto-prog to the more theatrical and dark rock and roll acts of the ’50s. It’s interesting, in part, because the credited founders Black Sabbath and especially the riff lord himself Tony Iommi have almost transcended time in a sense. It feels thinking of him less like contemplating a mortal man but instead a god walking amongst us, so great his only real peers become people like Miles Davis or Prince for how much came out of him. “Stormwatcher” is both an affirmation of that legacy, proof that he can pull out true heavy metal magic with seemingly anyone, as well as an affirmation of his ear as a band leader. Iommi, despite his lordly presence, chooses not to overshadow the rest of the band. They swing in unity, calling to mind the underrated releases of ’80s Sabbath li...