It is great to see this MK II lineup of Black Sabbath with Ronnie Dio on vocals, Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), and Vinny Appice poundin on the drums, making new music. It’s been too long since 1992’s “Dehumanizer”.

What does Sabbath in 09 sound like?  “The Devil You Know” is less of the “Heaven and Hell” album, more “Mob Rules” and very much an extension of “Dehumanizer” as ‘Atom And Evil’ opens the doors of doom like a herd of lumbering Brontosaur.  Instead, I would have had ‘Fear’ kick things off as there is more movement in Tony’s riffs and tasty soloing piggy backed by Geezer’s bass (which is waayy up in the mix).  ‘Double The Pain’ also has a solid up beat tempo with Tony, Geezer, and Vinny gelling as one tight as hell rhythm section. ‘Bible Black’ (the first single/video), is a monster Sabbath gem. Starting slow with acoustic guitars and Ronnie’s somber melody, increasingly building momentum towards the crescendo where all four members come together. Nicely done! 

There are just a few weak moments on the album. The opening riff progression for ‘Rock n Roll Angel’ is just a bore and thankfully the arrangement improves for the chorus and closing.  ‘Turn of the Screw’ (which does become better for the movement into the solo), also gave me the feeling Sabbath’s creative pool was drying up. At this point I thought, “Is Iommi running out of ideas or recycling some riffs, or is it me?”  This is one of the few times in the history of Sabbath’s music I consciously heard the repetition in some of Tony’s playing.  Really, I think a good amount of his work during the Tony Martin years (“The Eternal Idol”, “Headless Cross”, “TYR”) could be stronger in comparison to parts of “The Devil You Know”.  But then again, I think that period of the band is grossly underappreciated to begin with. 

‘Eating The Cannibals’ is the most aggressive song and gets things back on track, ‘Follow The Tears’ dark accenting keys with the classic Dio-era Sabbath melody post chorus are excellent. Too bad other arrangements on the album weren’t written with a similar stroke of the pen.

Understandably formulated yet satisfying return from the metal godfathers. Wonder if they got another album in em. 

Best Buy exclusive bonus DVD features 25 minutes of all four members talking about their reformation and recording the album, plus some clips of the band recording the songs.