English pop singer Robbie Williams (who was famously depicted as a CGI monkey in his acclaimed biopic, Better Man) has shared the first track from his upcoming album – and in a move that no one saw coming, it features the Godfather of Heavy Metal himself, Tony Iommi.
The electric guitar legend and Gibson SG loyalist can be heard all over the track, hurtling first into an energetic riff before providing a gritted undercurrent for Williams to deliver a fairly snarling vocal performance. Heck, there’s even space for the odd lead guitar flurry.
Clocking in under three minutes, it’s a straightforward song that never tires and feels like the natural sum of its parts. The outro is particularly fun, too, a hint of Queen swinging into the fray.
Williams’ 13th album, BRITPOP, is due for release in the Autumn. Iommi won’t be the only guest.
“I set out to create the album that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995,” Williams said of the album in an Instagram post. “It was the peak of Britpop and a golden age for British Music. I’ve worked with some of my heroes on this album; it’s raw, there are more guitars and it’s an album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual.”
It’s certainly a pairing that will surprise both sets of fans, but it’s one they make work. Admittedly, Williams does have a history of rock-laced pop bangers – see Let Me Entertain You and Rock DJ as evidence – so it will be interesting to see who else guests on the record, and how heavy he pushes proceedings.
Iommi’s guest spot follows two singles that dropped in collaboration with luxury Italian perfume house Xerjoff and Sergio Momo. The tracks, Scent of the Dark and Deified, found Iommi at his doom-mongering best and stood as his first electric guitar-charged offerings since Black Sabbath’s 2013 album, 13 – save for his part on Ozzy Osbourne’s Patient Number 9.
Elsewhere, Iommi continues to work on a new solo album, which he says will feature plenty of epic orchestras, and that has encouraged him to experiment with digital modeling for the first time.
The guitarist is also busy preparing for Black Sabbath’s final show which, alongside a stacked bill, is set to feature a Tool, Rage Against the Machine, and Smashing Pumpkins supergroup.
Other notable 2025 collaborations so far include Plini and Tosin Abasi writing a song together in a day, modern metal maestros Connor Kaminski and Keyan joining forces for a new EP, and, stranger still, Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, and Dave Grohl writing a driving anthem together for a new Brad Pitt movie.
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