And he's suggested recording sessions could take place after the icons have wrapped up their final world tour, which includes a headline appearance at next year's Download festival.

Sabbath had originally intended to record a follow-up to 2013's chart-topping 13 to tie in with the farewell road trip, but frontman Ozzy Osbourne revealed last month that it wasn't going to happen.

Iommi tells Q: "I've got so many riffs. I wrote a whole load of stuff for another album and we met up in LA. But the others - well, Geezer - didn't particularly want to do another album. Then again, after you've just had a number one album, where do you go from there?"