Heaven & Hell: The Devil You Know" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 22 April 2018.

Heaven & Hell Official North American Tour Dates Confirmed". KNAC. 4 May 2009 . Retrieved 10 May 2009. The Devil You Know reached the top 10 in its first week of release, debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart, with 30,000 copies sold. [5] It was awarded Best Album at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. [6] Conception [ edit ]

The Turn of the Screw

I’m going to echo the sentiment I have heard around here: not enough tempo variation. This was a problem for about the first two-to-three listens, but after I got to know the songs it’s not that big of a deal. Still, a little more variation could have boosted this in my eyes.

The songs are generally big, staid tanks of lead, built on Vinny Appice's plodding 4/4 pound and loaded with a stately majesty that recalls this lineup's classics — the atmosphere of "Heaven and Hell" (the song) and "Children of the Sea", brought into the modern day and made just a little darker and more weighty. Some are decrying the sheer metric tonnage of doom on "The Devil You Know", but I submit that HEAVEN & HELL are at their brooding best on this more ponderous, epic material. The more uptempo "Double the Pain", for instance, is one of the few less-than-stellar cuts on the record, seeming like a castoff from Iommi's late-Eighties riff tapes (though even here, the band's effortless conviction comes pretty damn close to selling it). As for Ronnie, his lyrics are fine. It sounds more in the vein of Dehumanizer, with more 'occult' style lyrics and staying away from rainbows and things of that nature. I like the story-through-song approach we have going on, where a song is like a whole concept. Reminds me a lot of Dio's solo effort Magica and maybe even Strange Highways. “Atom & Evil” and “Breaking Into Heaven” seem to have the best lyrics, from what I understand of the songs so far, and they make a good opener and closer. One thing I will say about this album, is that I did not “get it” the first time around. And by that, I mean for the first couple of listens, I was kind of ambivalent towards it. Much the same way I was with Fused. However, after about four listens, I think this may be one of the highlights of the entire Sabbath band catalog and it's solo band offshoots. It's nice to hear Iommi play an acoustic guitar again, which he only has done sparingly for Sabbath songs like “Children of the Sea” and “Nightwing” (the latter is from Headless Cross).

Breaking into Heaven

Best Buy will offer an exclusive version featuring a DVD with unreleased video of the band recording the album including studio performances, interviews, and other behind-the-scenes content. Heaven & Hell's Geezer Butler Discusses 'The Devil You Know' ". blabbermouth.net. Archived from the original on 7 May 2012 . Retrieved 21 April 2009. Atom and Evil is a smart word play, a song that warns us from the danger that might come from the discovery of the atom power, as it can be easily misused and be our demise. It's implying that the discovery of this power was like the serpent giving Adam and Eve the forbidden fruit. You seriously wouldn’t know that this was the bands first album in, hell, how many years? They really are as tight as they were in the hey-day. Each member steps up to the plate and delivers with all their balls. I think Iommi gets MVP for this album though, because the riffs here are definitely on par with his old classics. My personal favourite is Double The Pain, but they’re all fair game. Being a big Dio fan, I was glad to hear that his angelic vocal chords are still in mint condition. The drums and bass are pretty standard, but shine here and there. Offiziellecharts.de – Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 22 April 2018.

Honestly, it’s something of a letdown. It is a perfectly good album, but it was a victim of its own hype. The interest in the album had risen to a fever pitch and very few albums could have adequately lived up to that hype. That is not to suggest that it was a bad album, very far from it. It just was not as good as everyone hoped it would be. Heaven & Hell's 'The Devil You Know' Lands in U.S. Top 10". Blabbermouth.net. Roadrunner Records. 6 May 2009 . Retrieved 6 May 2009.a b Cohen, Jonathan (10 February 2009). "Heaven & Hell Feeling Devilish on New Album". Billboard . Retrieved 11 February 2009. Ultratop.be – Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 10 October 2021. Everyone had so much fun playing together that we didn't want it to end," says the group in a press release. "We started writing together and the songs started flowing like we never stopped. We wound up writing and recording an album that stands up to anything we've ever done. We're really proud of the music and excited for people to hear it." The songs were written during late spring, early Summer 2008. None were recorded until after the 2008 Metal Masters tour was over. If there’s one take I have about the Sabbath discography that’s extremely unpopular, it’s that The Devil You Know under the Heaven & Hell title is the single most overrated album they ever did. Note: not the worst, but the most overrated. I’m obviously a huge fan of the band, I love Ronnie James with all my heart, and doom metal is something that I can dive into from time to time (obviously). But man, I really do not see the huge appeal in this. It’s not bad, but it really is not that great, and I have to wonder how much of it was hype-based on such a massive lineup reuniting in 2009.