Big Ears
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Heaven and Hell — The Devil You Know (2009)
Limited Edition with Bonuses
Onward and upward
The Devil You Know Tracklist
01. Atom And Evil
02. Fear
03. Bible Black
04. Double The Pain
05. Rock And Roll Angel
06. The Turn Of The Screw
07. Eating The Cannibals
08. Follow The Tears
09. Neverwhere
10. Breaking Into Heaven
11. Shadow Of The Wind (Bonus)
12. Ear In The Wall (Bonus)
13. The Devil Cried (Bonus)
The Heaven and Hell Lineup
Ronnie James Dio: Vocals, keyboards
Tony Iommi: Guitar
Geezer Butler: Bass guitar
Vinny Appice: Drums, percussion
Despite an illustrious past, some bands release an album which can point to an even rosier future - which they never see. An example is The Beatles with Abbey Road, on which they decided to go out on a high, but, had they decided to stay together, the next album could have been amazing. Heaven and Hell's studio album, The Devil you Know, released on 28th April 2009, is another case in point, ironically from the band regarded as The Beatles of heavy rock. Like The Beatles, Heaven and Hell's past is a chequered one. Ostensibly, they are the reformation of the Black Sabbath lineup for Mob Rules (1981) and Dehumaniser (1992) of: Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Vinny Appice on drums, Tony Iommi on guitar and Geezer Butler on bass. They were renamed Heaven and Hell, after the first Dio-with-Sabbath album, Heaven and Hell (1980), as original singer Ozzy Osbourne had filed a suit, in a New York federal court on 26th May 2009, to establish rights to the Black Sabbath name.
As if revitalised by the new name, after decades of uncertainty and instability, the band seemed to set out to make the heaviest album possible as evidenced by the opening track, Atom and Evil. With an enormous sound, H&H are here to break down your door and run off with your children. Tony Iommi adds a towering guitar solo to Ronnie James Dio's enigmatic lyrics, "Falling's easy/ Rising will never be/ So we must rise together/ Here are the changes/ Powerful harmony/ But then there's no forever." Fear is even heavier, with a great riff and Dioharmonising/multitracking his voice on the word 'fear'. Vinny Appice's drumming is excellent and, although he was in the band as Dio's friend, he works well with Iommi and they should have done more together. An Alice Cooper influence in the lyrics, brings to mind Dio's version of Welcome to My Nightmare for the Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper project (1999).
Bible Black was released as a single at the time of the album. It begins with a gentle acoustic guitar, joined by Iommi's characteristic 'in the distance' Gibson and a quiet vocal. But it soon becomes angry. Dio was never averse to a King Crimson reference, as when he used the 21st Century Schizoid Man riff for the vocal arrangement in Jesus, Mary and the Holy Ghost on Strange Highways (1993). The Devil you Know is getting heavier by degrees. Geezer Butler's fantastic bass and Iommi's solo are reminiscent of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973). With hindsight a number of songs, could relate to Dio's illness at the time the album was recorded; Double the Pain may be about his own physical pain. Dare I say it, Rock and Roll Angel is a touch cliched? "You've been wishing for the magic sign/ Here's where you will find your Rock and Roll Angel." There are references to Dio's former collaborator, Ritchie Blackmore, with, "Perfect strangers in the dark/ Waiting for their lives to start"; more of Iommi's distant-sounding guitar; and the acoustic guitar sounding a bit like David Gilmour and Pink Floyd.
We are on safer ground when the full-on heaviness of The Turn of the Screw kicks in. Could it be mere coincidence that Geezer's strident bass is a reminder of Lemmy's on Ozzy Osbourne's version of Hellraiser? Yet another excellent guitar solo shows that, unlike in the latter days of the Ozzy-era Sabbath, Iommi is inspired and has no shortage. "Here comes another," provides a link between the tracks as it refers back to the spider in Atom and Evil. Eating the Cannibals is a 'turning the tables' lyric and is fast paced, with more symbiotic work from Butler/Iommi. Follow the Tears has sinister keyboards with a fantastically heavy riff, reminiscent of Y&T's Black Tiger, and may be more about Dio's own pain. With Neverwhere, Dio reveals he is the original goth. It is instrumentally sprightly, rather like the Tony Martin-era Sabbath. Ronnie James Dio's final track with Black Sabbath is Breaking into Heaven. As the choir builds towards the end, his last line and farewell is appropriately, "And we're breaking into heaven."
There are three bonuses on the limited edition. Shadow of the Wind is more sludge than the sludge bands Heaven and Hell influenced. It is pervaded by familiar motifs, such as "Dark over the sun," and more spiders. We get yet another terrific guitar solo, but a slow vocal and instrumental passage at the end, replete with spooky drums, keeps the track phenomenally heavy. Dio declares, "I'm alive, I belong, I'll be back/ It's a half truth, still a whole lie." Ear in the Wall is a creepy Alice Cooper-inspired song, with a funky instrumental passage and a slick rock 'n' roll feel. Tony Iommi's solo on The Devil Cried sounds like there are ten Iommis. It is reminiscent of Rainbow's Man On the Silver Mountain, one of Dio's finest moments. The iTunes download has two live tracks, instead of the aforementioned bonuses; the first is a performance of I, on which Dio sounds more like a heavy rock Ian Gillan than his own operatic self. It possibly contains one of the best Iommi solos ever. Dio would introduce the second live track, Die Young, by saying, "We don't want this to happen to you"; his audience could not have foreseen that it would tragically happen to him. Die Young opens with a staggeringly good Iommi solo, which serves as a fitting swansong to the singer, because, in November 2009, Ronnie James Dio was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He died from the illness on 16th May 2010 at 7:45am . . .
. . . And then he was gone.
Standout tracks for me are of course the heaviest, such as Fear, Bible Black and Turn of the Screw. If I have any criticisms, and they are minor, it is that some of the material sounds a bit same-y. You could take the lyrics to Double the Pain and Follow the Tears and exchange them without too much trouble. Understandably, Dio wanted to write his own fantasy-based lyrics, but, although they are strong, some of Geezer Butler's more down to earth (if that is not an oxymoron) ideas may have provided a bit more variety. Strength also lies in the studio bonuses, but they are repetitive and whether they are essential to the balance of the album is debatable. They are certainly of interest as The Devil Cried was one of the first recorded tracks and was released as a promotional single. Credit should go to Dio, Iommi, Butler, Mike Exeter and the technical team for the production, which has clarity, sharpness and the ability to bludgeon your head. Tony Iommi told Billboard, in July 2008, that the material was "Really good, pretty powerful." He was right. He also explained, "We go onward and upward . . . Instead of going backwards in time, we're going forward and coming up with new stuff." How sad that Heaven and Hell could not have gone 'onward and upward' for a while longer.
Heaven and Hell Discography
Heaven and Hell as Black Sabbath
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil
1992 Dehumanizer
2007 The Dio Years - compilation with new tracks
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon - limited edition recorded in 1981 and 1982
2010 Mob Rules Deluxe Edition 2xCD - second disc is the above Live at Hammersmith Odeon
As Heaven and Hell
2007 Live from Radio City Music Hall
2009 The Devil You Know
2010 Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell - Live in Europe (US) Live in Wacken (Europe)
Limited Edition with Bonuses
Onward and upward
The Devil You Know Tracklist
01. Atom And Evil
02. Fear
03. Bible Black
04. Double The Pain
05. Rock And Roll Angel
06. The Turn Of The Screw
07. Eating The Cannibals
08. Follow The Tears
09. Neverwhere
10. Breaking Into Heaven
11. Shadow Of The Wind (Bonus)
12. Ear In The Wall (Bonus)
13. The Devil Cried (Bonus)
The Heaven and Hell Lineup
Ronnie James Dio: Vocals, keyboards
Tony Iommi: Guitar
Geezer Butler: Bass guitar
Vinny Appice: Drums, percussion
Despite an illustrious past, some bands release an album which can point to an even rosier future - which they never see. An example is The Beatles with Abbey Road, on which they decided to go out on a high, but, had they decided to stay together, the next album could have been amazing. Heaven and Hell's studio album, The Devil you Know, released on 28th April 2009, is another case in point, ironically from the band regarded as The Beatles of heavy rock. Like The Beatles, Heaven and Hell's past is a chequered one. Ostensibly, they are the reformation of the Black Sabbath lineup for Mob Rules (1981) and Dehumaniser (1992) of: Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Vinny Appice on drums, Tony Iommi on guitar and Geezer Butler on bass. They were renamed Heaven and Hell, after the first Dio-with-Sabbath album, Heaven and Hell (1980), as original singer Ozzy Osbourne had filed a suit, in a New York federal court on 26th May 2009, to establish rights to the Black Sabbath name.
As if revitalised by the new name, after decades of uncertainty and instability, the band seemed to set out to make the heaviest album possible as evidenced by the opening track, Atom and Evil. With an enormous sound, H&H are here to break down your door and run off with your children. Tony Iommi adds a towering guitar solo to Ronnie James Dio's enigmatic lyrics, "Falling's easy/ Rising will never be/ So we must rise together/ Here are the changes/ Powerful harmony/ But then there's no forever." Fear is even heavier, with a great riff and Dioharmonising/multitracking his voice on the word 'fear'. Vinny Appice's drumming is excellent and, although he was in the band as Dio's friend, he works well with Iommi and they should have done more together. An Alice Cooper influence in the lyrics, brings to mind Dio's version of Welcome to My Nightmare for the Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper project (1999).
Bible Black was released as a single at the time of the album. It begins with a gentle acoustic guitar, joined by Iommi's characteristic 'in the distance' Gibson and a quiet vocal. But it soon becomes angry. Dio was never averse to a King Crimson reference, as when he used the 21st Century Schizoid Man riff for the vocal arrangement in Jesus, Mary and the Holy Ghost on Strange Highways (1993). The Devil you Know is getting heavier by degrees. Geezer Butler's fantastic bass and Iommi's solo are reminiscent of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973). With hindsight a number of songs, could relate to Dio's illness at the time the album was recorded; Double the Pain may be about his own physical pain. Dare I say it, Rock and Roll Angel is a touch cliched? "You've been wishing for the magic sign/ Here's where you will find your Rock and Roll Angel." There are references to Dio's former collaborator, Ritchie Blackmore, with, "Perfect strangers in the dark/ Waiting for their lives to start"; more of Iommi's distant-sounding guitar; and the acoustic guitar sounding a bit like David Gilmour and Pink Floyd.
We are on safer ground when the full-on heaviness of The Turn of the Screw kicks in. Could it be mere coincidence that Geezer's strident bass is a reminder of Lemmy's on Ozzy Osbourne's version of Hellraiser? Yet another excellent guitar solo shows that, unlike in the latter days of the Ozzy-era Sabbath, Iommi is inspired and has no shortage. "Here comes another," provides a link between the tracks as it refers back to the spider in Atom and Evil. Eating the Cannibals is a 'turning the tables' lyric and is fast paced, with more symbiotic work from Butler/Iommi. Follow the Tears has sinister keyboards with a fantastically heavy riff, reminiscent of Y&T's Black Tiger, and may be more about Dio's own pain. With Neverwhere, Dio reveals he is the original goth. It is instrumentally sprightly, rather like the Tony Martin-era Sabbath. Ronnie James Dio's final track with Black Sabbath is Breaking into Heaven. As the choir builds towards the end, his last line and farewell is appropriately, "And we're breaking into heaven."
There are three bonuses on the limited edition. Shadow of the Wind is more sludge than the sludge bands Heaven and Hell influenced. It is pervaded by familiar motifs, such as "Dark over the sun," and more spiders. We get yet another terrific guitar solo, but a slow vocal and instrumental passage at the end, replete with spooky drums, keeps the track phenomenally heavy. Dio declares, "I'm alive, I belong, I'll be back/ It's a half truth, still a whole lie." Ear in the Wall is a creepy Alice Cooper-inspired song, with a funky instrumental passage and a slick rock 'n' roll feel. Tony Iommi's solo on The Devil Cried sounds like there are ten Iommis. It is reminiscent of Rainbow's Man On the Silver Mountain, one of Dio's finest moments. The iTunes download has two live tracks, instead of the aforementioned bonuses; the first is a performance of I, on which Dio sounds more like a heavy rock Ian Gillan than his own operatic self. It possibly contains one of the best Iommi solos ever. Dio would introduce the second live track, Die Young, by saying, "We don't want this to happen to you"; his audience could not have foreseen that it would tragically happen to him. Die Young opens with a staggeringly good Iommi solo, which serves as a fitting swansong to the singer, because, in November 2009, Ronnie James Dio was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He died from the illness on 16th May 2010 at 7:45am . . .
. . . And then he was gone.
Standout tracks for me are of course the heaviest, such as Fear, Bible Black and Turn of the Screw. If I have any criticisms, and they are minor, it is that some of the material sounds a bit same-y. You could take the lyrics to Double the Pain and Follow the Tears and exchange them without too much trouble. Understandably, Dio wanted to write his own fantasy-based lyrics, but, although they are strong, some of Geezer Butler's more down to earth (if that is not an oxymoron) ideas may have provided a bit more variety. Strength also lies in the studio bonuses, but they are repetitive and whether they are essential to the balance of the album is debatable. They are certainly of interest as The Devil Cried was one of the first recorded tracks and was released as a promotional single. Credit should go to Dio, Iommi, Butler, Mike Exeter and the technical team for the production, which has clarity, sharpness and the ability to bludgeon your head. Tony Iommi told Billboard, in July 2008, that the material was "Really good, pretty powerful." He was right. He also explained, "We go onward and upward . . . Instead of going backwards in time, we're going forward and coming up with new stuff." How sad that Heaven and Hell could not have gone 'onward and upward' for a while longer.
Heaven and Hell Discography
Heaven and Hell as Black Sabbath
1980 Heaven and Hell
1981 Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil
1992 Dehumanizer
2007 The Dio Years - compilation with new tracks
2007 Live at Hammersmith Odeon - limited edition recorded in 1981 and 1982
2010 Mob Rules Deluxe Edition 2xCD - second disc is the above Live at Hammersmith Odeon
As Heaven and Hell
2007 Live from Radio City Music Hall
2009 The Devil You Know
2010 Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell - Live in Europe (US) Live in Wacken (Europe)
