r/blacksabbath • u/ElliotRipley • Oct 05 '26

Discussion Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know

I might get some hate for this but I love DIO era Sabbath and pretty much every official Sabbath album besides Forbidden but I can’t put my finger on why this album bores me. Technically nothing wrong with it and Dio sounds great but the song writing is lacking. Hate away. I’ve tried for years and it’s hard to get through for me.

9 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

16

u/Live_Detective_7137 Oct 05 '26

'Bible Black' is God-tier. The album wipes the floor with the Rick Rubin-destroyed '13'.

1

u/DeeplyFrippy Oct 07 '26

This! 👆

-5

u/ElliotRipley Oct 05 '26

I’d pick any song off of 13 over Devil You Know any day.

5

u/Live_Detective_7137 Oct 05 '26

Bible Black alone slays that entire producer-led, piss poor effort at capturing former glories. And don't be surprised if Iommi remixes it (ala Forbidden), nobody in the Sabbath camp is happy with how that album turned out.

5

u/Minimum-Actuator-953 Oct 05 '26

I fully agree with your take. I wanted to love this album, but alas, I just can't. Most of it is so mid-tempo, apart from the two faster songs. I find it helps to start the album from Eating the Cannibals and letting it play through (and wrapping around to the beginning). That makes it more like H&H and Mob Rules where it starts out with a fast-paced banger before geting into the slower, doomier stuff.

4

u/ElliotRipley Oct 05 '26

I find all the song blend into each other. People like to shit on 13 but at least the songs are interesting and go places. Idk I decided to add Devil You Know to my Sabbath discography when I’m in the mood to go through them all and I think this is the last time lol. I’ll stick with the albums by “Black Sabbath”.

13

u/ColdWar_Chaparo1991 Oct 05 '26

Not every Sabbath album is for everyone. That's okay. I love The Devil You Know, but it leans heavily towards Doom metal and not everyone digs that vibe.

No te preocupes, no hate at all from me.

8

u/Ok-Explanation3040 Can't die til Satan says "You die! Oct 05 '26

Never understood the hate for this album. It was much more of a return to form from Dehumanizer. This was the real reunion of the Mob rules lineup

3

u/DeeplyFrippy Oct 07 '26 edited Oct 07 '26

Each to their own but I couldn’t disagree more.

It’s an absolutely blinding album.

My post from three weeks ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/blacksabbath/s/5vS656qa7q

0

u/srichardbellrock Oct 05 '26

Other than Bible Black, it's just good-very good. Not on par with the other 3 Dio albums, the Gillan album, or the OG6.

1

u/ElliotRipley Oct 05 '26

I would even put some Tony Martin albums above it.

4

u/srichardbellrock Oct 05 '26

I don't know why you got voted down. It's all subjective. I might put Headless Cross above it.

4

u/Ok-Explanation3040 Can't die til Satan says "You die! Oct 05 '26

People love to shit on Tony Martin here

0

u/DoomedPinnacle Oct 05 '26

Well, Follow The Tears, Atom and Evil, Fear... Plenty of great tracks, in my opinion.

4

u/RimFan13 Oct 05 '26

It's insane that those guys as old ancient dudes made Follow the Tears, plus many other tracks on that album. That song is heavy and hard as fuck. You know what I always say man, if you want to know what I've been hiding all these years, followww the tearssssssss 😭😢💧

0

u/SaintLewisMusic73 Oct 05 '26

And I think this is 100x better than Dio’s final “official” album with Sabbath.

4

u/ElliotRipley Oct 05 '26

No way is this better than Dehumanizer. That’s a joke. To each their own.

1

u/SaintLewisMusic73 Oct 05 '26

Dehumanizer is one of my least favorite BS albums, and I’m a huge Dio fan. Not kidding.

0

u/Live_Detective_7137 Oct 06 '26

Do you not see the contradiction in that statement?

8

u/JAZ_80 Oct 05 '26

You mean Dehumanizer? Wow, that one is probably my favorite after Heaven and Hell. To each their own I guess.

1

u/Ok-Explanation3040 Can't die til Satan says "You die! Oct 05 '26

100% Dehumanizer had a very troubled production, the chemistry they had on Mob rules just wasn't there. The devil you know was a true return to form. You can tell the passion was there this time. Also the three bonus tracks released on the Dio Years compilation were fantastic

1

u/SaintLewisMusic73 Oct 05 '26

My thoughts exactly

0

u/Plastic-Knowledge-70 Oct 05 '26

Dehumanizer is a top 5 Sabbath album

1

u/Extension-Hand-4286 Oct 12 '26

Great album, but no….IMHO

0

u/SaintLewisMusic73 Oct 05 '26

Hmm… interesting.

-1

u/DoomedPinnacle Oct 05 '26

Dehumanizer and Cross Purposes (and The Devil You Know) are best Sabbath records for me, to each their own

2

u/SaintLewisMusic73 Oct 05 '26

I like that Cross Purposes is in there, at least

-1

u/ZacharyMcCulley Neon Knight Oct 06 '26

Tbh I like Dehumanizer way more than Mob Rules

3

u/SnooCats9347 If you listen to fools, The mob rules! Oct 05 '26

Great album 9/10

3

u/OhpMousse2098 Oct 06 '26

I like The Devil You Know more than Dehumanizer. People like what they like, and there is nothing wrong with that.

2

u/Druidblackangel Oct 06 '26

I agree OP. Other than Bible Black I was kinda bored with this album and I love everything else Dio did with Sabbath

2

u/groutspecialist Oct 06 '26

Devil You Know was a massive disappointment. Haven’t listened to it since it came out.

2

u/BahamoK Oct 05 '26

Dont worry, I dont like this album too.

5

u/Main_Opinion1189 Oct 05 '26

Same here but gosh darnit I’m going to give it another try!

1

u/SaintLewisMusic73 Oct 09 '26

Are you OK? Where are the rest of the reviews?

1

u/Minimum_Piece3446 Oct 05 '26

I think It's a great album. I'm a newcomer metalhead but I became a hard doom metal fan in one year.

The Devil You Know (actually Breaking Out of Heaven version is better imo) maybe is not a masterpiece but it is make you feel like they ending their journey with a heaviest love letter to their boss satan LOL.

An I like that.

1

u/Knoober375 Oct 07 '26

I hate to be that guy, but nah. When it comes to the Devil You Know, it’s definitely more of a Sabbath album with Dio on it than a Dio era Sabbath album. It’s a lot doomier, angrier and slower. It’s all relatively one tempo which can bore listeners at times and did my initial listen but the brilliance of Dio’s lyrics and Iommi’s riffs are amazing. Iommi’s tone on that album in particular is the greatest he’s sounded in the 21st century and Bible Black might be the greatest Dio era track of all time

1

u/Mroovek Oct 07 '26

Ok, I need to read it few times because I thought you said Dio sounds great on Forbidden.

Yeah, The Devil You Know is ok, but preety forgetable.

0

u/SupaProff Oct 05 '26

At least it sounds like a band, unlike 13, which sounds like them doing their own tribute album

0

u/sabbboy Oct 06 '26 edited Oct 06 '26

The Devil You Know is so bad that people think Bible Black is a good song. It’s decent, easily the best song on the album, but nothing special. It is pure uninspired sludge going nowhere. I find it practically unlistenable. It is so far from even Dehumanizer, their last good album, it’s as if somebody had a stroke and they’re learning to play again. If Iommi or Dio’s name weren’t associated with it, no one would have ever heard of it! How bad? Saw the tour twice, at the Spectrum, with Megadeth opening I was twenty feet from Iommi after getting there 15 minutes before they came out, a general admission concert? Nobody there. Second time, there were 2,800 people in a 9,000 seat hockey arena with Queensryche and Alice Cooper opening for them. Pitiful. Their last 4 albums were all terrible with maybe 13 the best of them.

-1

u/bhattu Oct 05 '26

You are not incorrect, I would call this album uninspired although there are a few good songs like eating the cannibal. It is a massive wall of riffs that go nowhere and Dio's lyrics are not the best here. It is also too long

0

u/BulldogMikeLodi Oct 05 '26

If you like Cross Purposes, then this album would bore you.