In a recent interview with Revolver magazine, Ronnie James Dio described the material on the HEAVEN AND HELL album as "a real cross-section of everything we've done, from 'Heaven and Hell' through 'Mob Rules' and 'Dehumanizer'. I think there's a lot of 'Dehumanizer' in it, but a lot of other things, too, a real good blend of what this band has represented." It took less than three weeks to finish the album, with most of the songs only needing a couple of takes. “It was good to play them live in the studio. It keeps you on edge,” Iommi says. “I mean, somewhere along the line we were gonna have to play them live; might as well start in the studio.” Butler adds: “We’ve learned from the past that you can kill a song doing it over and over. The first Sabbath albums were done in two or three days. Technically they weren’t great, but vibe-wise they were great. If you capture that feeling, that’s all you need.”

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.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). I like how the album has a song about fear itself, describing it as a mark that was left on us all despite humanity taking control of fire and light with no more need of fearing the dark. And yes, yes, yes. Dio. Of course, I'll talk about him. But we can't forget Vinny. He is a little bit under-appreciated in my opinion, but he is a solid drummer. He fills the spaces and remembers us constantly what's about drumming in heavy metal. He actually beat the irons. In "Fear", "Eating the Cannibals" and "Breaking into Heaven" he get his best.

Geezer's time to shine on this album came on the song 'Double The Pain' where he starts the song off with a nice little bass solo and his bass is very audible throughout the song including a break in the middle of the song for another small bass solo. Geezer is on the ball on this album as he usually is. Geezer! Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDFed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p.126. 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 ] 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.

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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.

Ultratop.be – Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 10 October 2021. iTunes will offer an exclusive version with previously unreleased live recordings of “Die Young” and “I” from the band’s 2007 European tour. LOS ANGELES — After finishing several heralded world tours as Heaven & Hell last summer, Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice were tighter than ever before, both musically and personally. Agreeing that it would be a shame to stop making music together at tour’s end, the quartet began writing, first in England at Iommi’s home studio and later in Los Angeles at Dio’s studio. “The band had gotten too good to just walk away,” Dio says. “We wanted to show people that we were still capable of giving them new music that measured up to what we’d done in the past.” Heaven & Hell: New Audio Interview With Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler Available – Mar. 27, 2009". blabbermouth.net. Archived from the original on 7 May 2012 . Retrieved 30 March 2009. 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).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. As for the other members, Geezer can be heard well in the mix, and he has plenty of sweet bass fills and great rhythm lines. I wonder how much of a hand he had in coming up with riffs for this album, since I know he was more involved with this writing process than he said he would be if it was Ozzy-fronted. I do know he came up with the album title, at least, as well as the 25:41 on the cover (a very pointed reference to Matthew 25:41 from The New Testament of The Holy Bible). And as for Vinny, his drumming is fine. It sets a good rhythm, is in time, and I actually like his fills (I don't understand why he gets ragged on so much). I'm not a big fan of overly complicated drumming, I just like it to fit the music and hold everything together. Austriancharts.at – Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 22 April 2018. 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. When all the euphoria over the fact that the CD has actually happened eventually dies down, the cold light of day will reveal that it is not a classic, but that is not to say there is anything disappointing about it. The Dio-fronted Sabbath always set the bar very high, and the fact they have not quite managed to match the amazing quality of their previous works 15 years after their last collaboration is nothing to be ashamed of. Seeking this one out is mandatory.Second question, how good is it? Well, I don't think anyone really expected these guys to re-invent the wheel (despite this reviewer's smidgen of hope that they would do something surprising), and they pretty much didn't. I mean, after doing metal for so many years, there are only so many ways a band can take their musical limits, and Iommi, Dio, Butler and Appice are just doing what they do best. That's pretty admirable from my point. No sell-out, no pussifying their sound, just Heavy Metal as solid as a goddamned anvil. And considering the minds at work here, I don't think I have to say that this is just pure magic from a musical and songwriting standpoint.