HEAVEN & HELL - THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

It was never meant to be a serious project after being asked to record three songs for a compilation about SABBATH during the DIO years, but Tommy Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinnie Appice had such an easy time writing new songs that they decided to release a whole album's worth. Although this is the exact same line-up as the BLACK SABBATH albums MOB RULES and DEHUMANIZER, they decided to name the band after the first album DIO did with SABBATH in order to differentiate it from the Ozzy era of the band.

This album is everything you could possibly want from a SABBATH album of the DIO era. The songs are catchy traditional doom metal and the production is modernly recorded but the fuzzed out metal sound makes these feel nice and dirty as well. DIO's vocals are as good as ever and the songs are very well written showing that the band really had some music makin' mojo left in them after years of mediocre albums apart from each other. The result of this reunion is more than just a nostalgic trip into the past, but this album succeeds in sounding very good in a modern sense as well being not just a carbon copy of their previous releases together.

This is my favorite album by SABBATH since the album HEAVEN AND HELL and in my humble opinion the best DIO album since his debut HOLY DIVER and if you count this as a side-project (which I don't) then it is my favorite in that department. A very welcome blast from the past and that album cover has to rate amongst my very favorite in all of metal with that totally wicked beast in the depths of hell brandishing its three-forked tongues. Sadly this was DIO's last album he performed on before he passed away from stomach cancer. RIP Ronnie James. What a great way to go out with this one.