Heaven & Hell (AKA the real Black Sabbath) released their debut (AKA the 19th Black Sabbath album), ‘The Devil you Know’ in 2009. Originally formed after a Black Sabbath compilation titled, ‘The Dio Years,’ which consisted of songs from the three Black Sabbath albums Ronnie James Dio sang lead vocals on, Heaven & Hell was established shortly thereafter. Of course when the idea first sprang to mind to do an album I’m fairly positive Tony Iommi was set to release it under the BS moniker, except for the fact that a doddering elderly phony whose family you may have caught on MTV during the past decade somehow owns an undeserving portion of the band’s name, and as such his people told Tony's people that it isn’t happening. So the band took the titled of their 1980 masterpiece, ‘Heaven and Hell’ instead. You may have also heard how that greedy old fool threatened to sue Tony Iommi because he was selling Black Sabbath merchandise at Heaven & Hell concerts? Truly amazing it is how degenerates and has-beens cling to their past glories in a lame attempt to remain relevant in modern times. Seriously now, go fuck yourself, Ozzy.
Anyway, Heaven & Hell is a regrouping of the classic Black Sabbath line-up that recorded, ‘Mob Rules’ in 1981 and ‘Dehumanizer’ in 1992, although as previously stated the band is named after the first BS album with Dio at vocals, which was also the last album Bill Ward played drums on and before Vinnie Appice joined for Mob Rules.
At any rate The Devil you Know is an absolutely stunning release that has elements of all three of the albums Dio did with Sabbath, though for the most part it sounds closest to Dehumanizer. Basically the result is a mixture of classic hard rocking heavy metal with some heavy traditional doom parts. Let me tell ya, Dio hit age 67 last year, but the man sounds as fantastic as he ever did. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better vocalist then this guy and he proves that age isn’t about to slow him down one bit. Tony Iommi isn’t young at age 61 either, but seriously this guy is rocking just as hard as he was forty years ago when the first Black Sabbath album came out. Some of these riffs and solos are absolutely colossal and it’s just astonishing how much he puts to shame other aged rockers like David Gilmour or the aforementioned, Ozzy.
By and large this is an enormous release; timeless, memorable, commanding, heavy and just pure metal awesomeness all the way. If you have any love for those three old Sabbath albums with Dio, buy this album, or if you missed those then check this album out and see firsthand a bunch of guys in their sixties rocking harder and playing better than most others in their 20’s.
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