As I mentioned I had just reviewed and listened to "13" so when I popped this in I was immediately reminded (already knew) what a difference there is between Ozzy Osbourne and Dio. Even on the slow, sludgy opener "Atom And Evil" Dio's voice makes the song alive, especially compared to the crushingly dull performance of Ozzy on "13. That album would have been 10x better with Dio at the mic. Now that we have all that all cleared up, we can move on to the actual record itself. To begin, this one cannot be judged on the merit of your typical debut album. The guitar and bass work have that Sabbath ring, and Dio brings his voice and words to the mix. The Devil You Know could be held up to the standard set by Heaven & Hell, the album. But that’s where, like Mob Rules and 1992’s Dehumanizer, it doesn’t have a fighting chance. The songs were written during late spring, early Summer 2008. None were recorded until after the 2008 Metal Masters tour was over. iTunes will offer an exclusive version with previously unreleased live recordings of “Die Young” and “I” from the band’s 2007 European tour.

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. Kaz, Jim (29 April 2009). "Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know". IGN. Archived from the original on 14 April 2010 . Retrieved 26 April 2012. Also, for those of you fortunate enough to get the Best Buy Exclusive version with the bonus DVD, I hope you enjoy it. I did not get a copy with it, but usually such bonus content is rare with Sabbath-releases. There's usually not a lot of extra frills on their stuff. So I'll take what you can get.

As a goof, I had a friend of mine who’s good with pixels, uh “fix” the cover art after it was announced. Here’s my “fixed” version. See if you can see what’s different. :) The mix is powerful and expansive. Everything sounds enormous! The bass is nice and growly. Dio’s vocs are right out front like they should be. I dig the drums on “TDYK” way more than on “Dehumanizer”. If it were me, I’d boost the guitar two or three decibels at 400-500 Hz to give it more bite (it sounds fine as it is, but it’s quite polished).

Follow the Tears

On the cover art are the numbers 25 & 41. This is a reference to the Bible passage Matthew 25:41, which says “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Heaven & Hell is ramping up for the April 28 release of THE DEVIL YOU KNOW with a vast array of physical and digital retail exclusive versions, listed below. The album will also be released as double vinyl LP featuring a laser etched design and exclusive poster on May 12. generally very strong and memorable. I don't ask for more and a 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.