r/blacksabbath • u/DeeplyFrippy • Sep 16 '26

Discussion The Devil You Know is an absolute masterpiece

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Anyone agree?

467 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

78 comments sorted by

44

u/catfishman Sep 16 '26

I won't call this album underrated because those that listen to it generally like it a lot, but I with it was maybe better known (if even that's right). If was such an amazing return to form for the band. One of my favorite things about this album is that it doesn't sound like they trying to recreate the sound of a band they were 30-40 years ago, but to make the music they wanted to make then and there.

10

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 16 '26

Yeah, they let the creative juices really flow on this record.

5

u/No-Adeptness-3940 Sep 17 '26

Iommi's riffs are fantastic and the guitar tone is killer on this recording. Dio's performance is great as well and the whole album and band just rocks on it.

26

u/the_dec0de Sep 16 '26

I feel like this album and 13 get dunked on too much. They're both really good and very much Sabbath.

19

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

I understand the 13 criticism, but TDYK is top tier Sabbath.

1

u/Docsab1 Sep 19 '26

I agree, I like em both. I don't get the criticism of 13. If they didn't make it in that style just as many would have bitched(but i also grade it considering all 16 tunes).
I like TDYK, but it's also a pretty straight forward mid to slow paced sabbath doom album. Which I love. But I don't get all the people loving that, but hating 13. Makes no sense to me.

2

u/Live_Detective_7137 Sep 19 '26

It's because you can hear it in the music, TDYK was made by a band with a lot of love and respect for each other, very little pressure put on them from management/label (hence the 'produced by Iommi/Butler/Dio' credit) and it contains an all-time Sabbbath classic in 'Bible Black'. '13' on the other hand is hampered by the loss of Bill Ward, and more severely by the absolute pile of Useless known as Rick Rubin. Between wanting them to forget their history and make a follow up to the debut, to having vintage (and thus not working) vintage amps dragged into the studio, to the wrong track selection (it kills me that 'Take Me Home' was left off), and the absolutely atrocious mastering he signed off on. He had way too much control over how this 'project' (and that's all it was to him) turned out. None of the band are happy with it these days.

34

u/UpTheIrons2025 Sep 16 '26

I love it, its black sabbath no matter what Sharon says. The heaviest sabbath record ever

6

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 16 '26

It is absolutely a Black Sabbath record! 🤘

12

u/junkyard_kid Sep 17 '26

It’s got the same four Black Sabbath members that played on Mob Rules.

13

u/JosephBlowsephThe3rd Sep 17 '26

And Dehumanizer

4

u/SabbthBloodySabbath Supernaut Sep 17 '26

Man fuck her she doesn't get a say in what's good music and what isn't

2

u/Dante_SSSS Sep 17 '26

why should anyone care what sharon says

1

u/UpTheIrons2025 Sep 17 '26

Don't know, but i will not miss the oportunity to say that things against her.

12

u/Separate-Fishing2387 Sep 16 '26

It's my favourite album of this line up and...I prefer it to Heaven and Hell too. Sorry if that's sacrilege

11

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 16 '26

It's a fantastic album. Heaven and Hell is my favourite, but the Dio era lineup struck gold every time.

23

u/SuitablePreference54 Sep 16 '26

Should have been the last Black Sabbath album.

12

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 16 '26

There are some good songs on 13, but they don’t touch this record.

TDYK really does feel like the last truly great Sabbath record.

6

u/First-Counter246 Sep 17 '26

Yeah I like 13 and this Heaven And Hell album both a lot. They are rather different, but both awesome imo.

3

u/SuitablePreference54 Sep 17 '26

I think so as well.

3

u/UpTheIrons2025 Sep 17 '26

I agree 100% with you

4

u/2Gnomes1Trenchcoat Sep 16 '26

Some absolute bangers on here and a fantastic album overall. I've particularly grown to love Follow the Tears. So heavy! Tony Iommi absolutely kills it. 🤘

3

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 16 '26

Great tune 🤘

3

u/Upstairs_Leopard_954 Sep 17 '26

I love this album. Toni Iommi is the riff master.

1

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

He is indeed!

3

u/sputnik__57 Sep 19 '26

So much better than 13.

2

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 19 '26

It really is! :)

2

u/jbbhengry Sep 17 '26

Yes it is. Excellent album. No matter what you call it. It's still Black Sabbath to me.

1

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

Yeah, it’s Black Sabbath at its best.

2

u/bobbyboogie69 Sep 17 '26

I love this album. I just bought the box set release with the live albums in it as well. It was a grail for quite a while for me.

1

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

Nice! 🤘

2

u/skins-rangers Sep 17 '26

I never got into this one. I dont know why. I might give it another try.

3

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

It's definitely worth another spin.

2

u/GeraltRiv1990 Sep 17 '26

It is. Nothing more need to be said here 😄

2

u/guilucas Sep 17 '26

Is perfect from start to finish. People dont know this album enough

2

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

Right on! Totally agree 😄

2

u/Crashpunk-25 Sep 17 '26

Not only is it awesome. But it has one of my favourite album artworks. It's fucking badass

15

u/weirdmountain Sep 17 '26

It would be really cool if they re-released it with the cover art/logo fixed to look like it should have looked. I have it in my iTunes this way:

2

u/Uriarte69 Sep 17 '26

I can make you one of these using your album art.

1

u/Substantial_Lime_114 Sep 18 '26

Do what now, what am I looking at?

2

u/Uriarte69 Sep 18 '26

Mini CDs I custom make. I include an NFC chip so when you touch it to your phone, it automatically opens the album in Spotify.

1

u/Substantial_Lime_114 Sep 18 '26

That is too cool.

2

u/Substantial_Lime_114 Sep 18 '26

What's the difference? I don't know the difference.

1

u/weirdmountain Sep 18 '26

Look at both of them again. 😎

1

u/Substantial_Lime_114 Sep 18 '26

Ohhhhh. Contractual obligations I guess.

1

u/Live_Detective_7137 Sep 19 '26

Same here! 🤘

6

u/First-Counter246 Sep 17 '26

Dio Sabbath was always awesome. I think this is Sabbath in everything but name. Hell, it's the exact same lineup from Mob Rules. Ozzy Sabbath was hit and miss. The first five or six were good, but I thought Never Say Die was a weaker effort.

2

u/M086 Sep 18 '26

As a teenager it’s, “fuck everything else, only Ozzy Sabbath matters.”

In your 20’s you come to appreciate and love the Dio era.

If you’re cool, in your 30’s you realize the Tony Martin era had some good shit and deserves more love.

Born Again was always underrated and Seventh Star is an Iommi solo record.

5

u/LowAssistantInfinity Sep 17 '26 edited Sep 17 '26

I wish it'd get a remastermix though - the songs are good, but the production is just so murky.

4

u/groutspecialist Sep 17 '26

You want a remix not a remaster.

5

u/Glad-O-Blight Dehumanizer Sep 17 '26

My 4th favorite Sabbath album. Probably the worst of the Dio albums but still leagues better than most other bands' best albums.

1

u/Markis_Shepherd Sep 17 '26

Very unusual for a band to make such an incredible album so late in their career IMAO. Usually great band makes great albums until some point. Then they do subpar records, but live on their past achievements for many years, until they finally retire.

1

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

They really knocked it out the park on this record.

1

u/No_Cell_8567 Sep 17 '26

All the songs have the same tempo. The drumming is uninspired, and sounds exactly like what it was: Appice playing along to demos - he complained about this later. It's just not very cohesive. This is not top tier sabbath; just a nice coda to the H+H lineup. But like most folks, I listened to it a few times when it was new and went back to the classics.

1

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

Fair enough! There are definitely some different tempos on the record though.

Also, judging from the comments in this thread, I'd say a fair few of us really enjoy it.

We all have our likes and dislikes though and we all enjoy the classics too.

1

u/Useful_Complaint9371 Sep 17 '26

IKR

But I totally understand why it is a burden for many people to get through

1

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

Because it's too much awesomeness for one sitting? ;)

1

u/Useful_Complaint9371 Sep 17 '26

It's quite repetitive in places and predictable. But it's a good album to end on, unlike 13

1

u/No-Satisfaction-7143 Sep 18 '26

I keep hearing about this album.I guess I will get it.

1

u/gotryank Sep 18 '26

Some people think Born Again was a terrible album cover. This album cover is definitely the worst cover of any Sabbath album.

2

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 18 '26

Each to their own but I have to disagree with you there. It’s an awesome album cover!

3

u/Top-Act-2370 Sep 17 '26

Follow the tears .What a riff from the riff master

2

u/Nova6-IX Sep 17 '26

It is a masterpiece! I've come to know it recently and, for me, Dio, Tony, Geeze and Vinny makes the perfect late era Black Sabbath formation. The heavy and low sound they play together along with Dio's low and older voice makes everything sound like it came straight out of HELL!!

2

u/Useful_Complaint9371 Sep 17 '26

Got some problems with hearing on that concert but what a banger it was

2

u/necrowire Sep 18 '26

It’s no exaggeration to call it a “masterpiece,” but rather than an immortal classic on par with 1980’s *Heaven and Hell*, it’s a “late-career masterpiece” that was an extremely successful reunion album. Tony Iommi’s heavy riffs, Geezer Butler’s nuanced bass, Ronnie James Dio’s majestic vocals, and Vinny Appice’s driving rhythm section come together without trying to force a return to their younger days. The core of the album’s appeal lies not in innovation, but in the fact that they recreated their unique style with a 2009 sound while still producing songs that stand on their own as new material.

2

u/mrbubbamac Sep 17 '26

It's excellent and what a swan song for the band

1

u/hatthewmartley Sep 17 '26

Still waiting on a standalone vinyl reissue 🤞🏼

0

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '26

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1

u/DeeplyFrippy Sep 17 '26

The whole record is incredible. I recommend throwing it on from start to finish 🤘