Heaven & Hell- The Devil You Know

Black Sabbath- The Devil Knows is an excellent album by one of the gretaest Heavy/Doom Metal bands of all time.

Atom And Evil is Sabbath at their finest, slow and very doomy. A great chugging riff that really makes for a very good opener that sets the tempo for the album.

Fear After the the extremely slow opener, Fear kicks off with a little faster and more up tempo riff. Dio sounds as demonic and powerful as ever. Razor sharp guitar work by Iommi.

Bible Black My personal favorite opens with some nice acoustic guitar, overlaid with soaring guitar. Dio is once again right on the mark and really makes you feel it. Then comes Iommi and the monster riff. Tony shreds like an animal during the solo. Undoubtedly this is Iommi at his best.

Double The Pain starts starts with a strange bass riff before lurching into another doomy – but more mid-tempo – sludge fest. This one sounds a lot like Dio's solo work. Again there is another fantastic solo.


Rock N Roll Angel is probably the weakest track on the album but still not bad.

The Turn Of The Screw A very doomy riff gives this one a Candlemass type sound but just a bit more uptempo.

Eating The Cannibals Pretty decent rockin riff a break from the doomy gloominess of the album. Iommi once again is satanic in his solo.

Follow The Tears is my second favorite song on the album. This song is H & H just having fun. And another wicked solo in this one.

Neverwhere Not a bad song but doesn’t conjure up quite the testosterone pace or glorified pessimism of the rest of the album.

Breaking Into Heaven The album closer is much like the beginning, and huge slow doomy riff backed by ride-bell and minimal drums.

Undoubtedly will be one of the best releases of 2009.

Great review Heat! This album fucking RULES!

This is a very sick album. Honestly, my favorite with Dio I think, haha.

Yeah dude, I am so happy it is good. I was waiting for this one for a long time.

I love this album, I really do. I had no idea what to expect but my god I'm impressed!

I had extremely high expectations and after I first listened to it, I was a bit disappointed. But fortunately, my first impression changed quickly. The Devil You Know is an absolutely awesome record with four musicians who simply act godlike. "Bible Black" is already a classic and with "Atom&Evil", "Double The Pain", "Turn Of The Screw" and "Eating The Cannibals" there a lot of other brilliant songs. "Fear", "Follow The Tears" and "Breaking Into Heaven" are bit weaker imo but still very good songs. There could have been a bit more faster songs, but I quickly appreciated the slower songs after some time. I first thought that "Atom&Evil" was a very unsuitable opener, but it`s in fact bloody brilliant I highly recommend this album to every metal fan.

Iommi is simply a GOD...

"Breaking Into Heaven" is an awesome song.... and a great closer!

I like just about every song.

I heared the album and it kicked my ass Realy good album my favorites by far are Atom & Evil, Bible Black and Follow The Tears. Arealy cool album and maybe it will be in my top 10 albums of 2009 year. The only weak thing about it is maybe the album cover... dunno I just didn't like it

Great review but I have to say that the album was a bit of dissapointment. Good album though. I also have ever not been so much into the Dio-era Sabbath.

This album really impressed me, i expected something like a medium album...
But fuck, ITS AWESOME!!!!
Some tracks reminded me even the ozzy era, Atom & Evil for me is totally Doom!!!
Until now, the best album so far of this year!!

Iommi is God !!!

People that are disappointed at this album need a reality check.

I really need to get around to listening to this album. I had good expectations when I saw them in concert, but, I was comparing them directly to Black Sabbath, so I might have been a little harsh when I thought they were "ok". I hear good things, though.

I was really disappointed. Oh well I think i was aiming too high.

I dont understand when people say they are disappointed with this album. What the fuck were you expecting?? In my opinion this album is great. The instrumentals are fantastic (especially the doomy guitar riffs) and Dio's vocals are fucking spot on..... The songs are fucking epic and memorable. What more do you fucking want???

Mash wrote:

I dont understand when people say they are disappointed with this album. What the fuck were you expecting?? In my opinion this album is great.

Notice how you wrote "in my opinion", my opinion is that The Devil you Know is boring. You know, each to their own and all that bull.

Yeah, that's why I bolded he word "opinion". I just don't understand how a Dio/Sabbath fan could not like this album..... but whatever.

I agree, the album is fantastic, Iommi is fucking amazing as always, and Dio what more can you say, the man is still a beast vocally. The songwriting is damn good lyrically.

Anyone that thinks otherwise would seem to be just someone that likes to hear themselves complain.

Heat wrote:

Anyone that thinks otherwise would seem to be just someone that likes to hear themselves complain.

No, you will find it is someone with an opinion different to yours.

Ok Slaytanic, so what were you expecting with this album? I am just curious to know...

Great review.

"Turn Of The Screw" is fucking evil!

To be honest, what the problem was I built the album up too much, I had a countdown on my blog, it was a huge topic of conversation with friends. To be honest it just bores me, its too samey the whole way through. The band does sound amazing, but I have never been a huge fan of any Dio era Sabbath, it just seems to missing any type of spark, the album sounds tired, like its been done before.

I'm just curious to know why it seems that I should automatically rate this as one of the best albums of the year? I'm not trying to start an argument here but why is it so hard to respect my opinion?

Slaytanic wrote:

I have never been a huge fan of any Dio era Sabbath, it just seems to missing any type of spark, the album sounds tired, like its been done before.

Well, this may be the problem. If you weren't much of a fan of Dio era Sabbath, why would you expect this album to be more likable?

Slaytanic wrote:

I'm just curious to know why it seems that I should automatically rate this as one of the best albums of the year? I'm not trying to start an argument here but why is it so hard to respect my opinion?

Disagreeing with an opinion and disrespecting an opinion are different things. I respect your opinion (as I do all opinions outside of sheer ridiculousness) but I just disagree with it.

The album does sound of familiarity of earlier work from the musicians involved, but that is one thing I really like about it. I'm just curious as to what you were expecting, especially since you aren't a huge fan of Dio era Sabbath?

Mash wrote:

Slaytanic wrote:

I have never been a huge fan of any Dio era Sabbath, it just seems to missing any type of spark, the album sounds tired, like its been done before.

Well, this may be the problem. If you weren't much of a fan of Dio era Sabbath, why would you expect this album to be more likable?

Slaytanic wrote:

I'm just curious to know why it seems that I should automatically rate this as one of the best albums of the year? I'm not trying to start an argument here but why is it so hard to respect my opinion?

Disagreeing with an opinion and disrespecting an opinion are different things. I respect your opinion (as I do all opinions outside of sheer ridiculousness) but I just disagree with it.

The album does sound of familiarity of earlier work from the musicians involved, but that is one thing I really like about it. I'm just curious as to what you were expecting, especially since you aren't a huge fan of Dio era Sabbath?

I was hoping the band were coming into the studio with new ideas, why reform and record a new album after so long (17 years) and do pretty much the same thing all over again? Like I said I was expecting too much, I'm not the newbie to metal anymore and Sabbath aren't the greatest band in the world (like I thought they were as a fresh faced 15 year old) haha maybe I was hoping for some Enslaved styled progression, you never know how my mind works.

I keep forgetting how old Sabbath are (they are older than my parents), they are old school in every way.

To stop any battles or arguments lets agree to disagree. All good? You never know I might come back to this album in 6 months time and praise it as the second coming. It has happened before.