Former Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin has officially confirmed that the making of his long awaited third solo album has begun. Teamed with drummer Danny Needham of Tony Martin’s Headless Cross and Venom, and American guitarist Scott McClellan, Tony says this collection of songs is currently under the working title of Thornz. It was previously going to be under the moniker Book Of Shadows but this was dropped because of other works under the same name.

Tony says this is heavier than he has attempted in the past due to the prolific writings of unknown guitarist Scott McClellan who contacted him by chance on social media some 4 years ago. He sent Tony a guitar track to check out and this chance meeting grew into a very productive writing period that has resulted in this solo release for Martin. He said “Scott really surprised me with his energy. I found that I could pull out the riffs that really work for my voice so I was more than happy to have him involved in the Tony Martin project.

The album will have 10 tracks, mostly written by Martin and McClellan and some by Martin alone. Apart from the title track of Thornz – the story of a woman struggling with being abused, there is the previously cited Book Of Shadows still in the track list along with No Shame At All, As The World Burns And Damned By You amongst others. This promises to open your ears and get your pulse racing. It is missing keyboards completely in favour of guitar based riffs which Martin says “… was hard to lose Geoff Nicholls” and felt he could not attempt to replace that part of the sound.

He says at 60 years old it is likely to be his last solo project but doesn’t rule out future embellishments to his solo career. He added that it would not affect any re connection with Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi if and when that happens.