lordfrost's Full Review: The Devil You Know by Heaven & Hell
After reuniting to headline Ozzfest for two straight summers, Black Sabbath would ultimately determine that they were unable to continue with Ozzy Osbourne leading the way. Relations had soured, Ozzy's health would become an issue, and disputes over the direction of the band would ultimately cause Ozzy to leave the band once again to focus on his solo career. It was at this point that Tony Iommi (who by all intents and purposes IS Black Sabbath) made a decision that many felt was long overdue - replace Ozzy with the man who had replaced him some 20+ years earlier by the name of Ronnie James Dio. You see, after Ozzy left the band in the 1980s, they brought along this fella from a band called Rainbow who helped the band create one of their finest albums of all time Heaven and Hell. Together they would put out a couple of very good albums (with a few Tony Martin works in between) before Dio would ultimately embark on his solo career for what seemed to be for good.
However in 2006 word got out that the Dio-era of Black Sabbath would be reuniting, only they would carry on under the moniker of "Heaven and Hell" to avoid any confusion. A greatest hits album (The Dio Years) was released, complete with three brand new studio recordings by that very lineup. A tour and live album would follow, and it soon would be decided that the band would return to the studio once again to create their first full-length album together since 1992's Dehumanizer.
There are a number of people (myself included) who feel that the Dio era of Black Sabbath was the best. Sure, the band wrote all of their classics with Ozzy, but few people will deny Dio's vocal prowess. The man can flat out sing and has one of the greatest voices in the history of heavy metal. But what amazes me the most about him is that no matter how old he gets (his age was once a huge topic of debate but most people seem to agree that he is 67), the man still sounds FANTASTIC. And he can still put on a live performance with the best of them, which was something that Ozzy has been seriously lacking in recent years. It also didn't hurt that the three songs that the band recorded for the greatest hits album were all pretty solid too.
On The Devil You Know the band has essentially dropped the "Black Sabbath" name, as if to differentiate themselves from that other lineup, but the fact remains that this album is purely Black Sabbath simply because its heart and soul lies with Tony Iommi. If you are familiar at all with the three songs that the band released in 2007 ("The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall"), then you already have an idea of what to expect from this album as the songs carry on in a similar vein. These are the usual thick, heavy, doom-laden riffs that you would expect from Iommi coupled with Ronnie James Dio's soaring vocals. Just good old fashioned heavy metal created by some of the men that built the genre itself fromo the ground up.
Although some of the Dio-era's most famous songs are of the faster type ("Neon Knights", "The Mob Rules", etc), The Devil You Know is dominated by mid-paced songs like aforementioned "The Devil Cried". Album opener "Atom and Evil" chugs along like a murky monstrosity and shows you just how doomy they can be. "Bible Black", the album's first single, builds itself up ominously with an acoustic intro that explodes into the evil sludge that is standard of an Iommi riff. The majority of this album chugs along in this way, and is extremely consistent throughout.
But not everything on The Devil You Know is a plodding cesspool of distortion - there are also some of those faster tracks that people come to expect. "Double the Pain" gallops along and may have the catchiest chorus on the entire album, and "Eating the Cannibals" jogs along at a pace similar to "Mob Rules". But regardless of tempo, the songs are all extremely consistent and feature the two things you want the most from this lineup - great singing and great riffs.
The Devil You Know may not be anywhere near as good as "Heaven and Hell" was, but few albums are. Of course that was the obvious comparison, and even though I hate cliches, I sort of felt obligated to make that statement. I will be honest - this may not be a ground-breaking, earth-shattering release. It won't change the face of metal, but it's definitely better than anything Ozzy has put out in quite some time. There is not a single throwaway track on here, and every single song on this album would definitely fit right into a standard Heaven and Hell setlist. It's truly an injustice that the Dio era of Black Sabbath has remained largely overlooked, but things seem to be changing now. Any fan of traditional heavy metal definitely needs to give this album a listen, because this is a prime example of a band that has been doing it right for ages, regardless of name or lineup.
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