HEAVEN & HELL — The Devil You Know (review)

HEAVEN & HELL — The Devil You Know album cover Album · 2009 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Warthur
Even if you set aside the fact that it was Dio's final studio album, Heaven and Hell's sole studio release is still a significant metal album as one of the most important Black Sabbath side projects either. (Indeed, either this is a Black Sabbath album under another name - or some really great Sabbath albums from the 80s were actually Heaven and Hell pieces).

Dio, Iommi, Butler and Applice are back together and in much finer form than the disappointing Dehumaniser, making this my favourite album any of these luminaries have appeared on since Mob Rules - and doom metal fans will be ecstatic to know that their musical direction often cleaves a bit slower and doomier than was typical for Dio-era Sabbath, drawing both on the Ozzy era and the slow dirges of songs like Sign of the Southern Cross.

However, rather than entirely committing to that direction, the band haver a bit, sometimes flirting with shifting gear to the more energetic sound of tracks like Neon Knights but not quite getting there. It's not an embarrassment, but it still doesn't quite hit the heights of Dio's original stint as Sabbath's vocalist.
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