Old School Heavy Metal fans are eager in anticipation for the new "Black Sabbath" CD that comes out on April 28. Fans of Black Sabbath know that the Mob Rules lineup of the band, with Ronnie James Dio on vocals and Vinny Appice on drums, has been playing together for the past couple of years as "Heaven & Hell" (the title of the first Dio-fronted Sabbath album, which saw Appice take over the drums during its touring). The 2007 and 2008 tours went so well that the Heaven & Hell guys decided to record an album of new material, which they titled "The Devil You Know" since fans know it really is Black Sabbath (why not simply call themselves Black Sabbath? Well, the Ozzy-fronted lineup is in the R&R Hall of Fame, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler might play with Ozzy again someday, and Butler was never happy with various non-Ozzy lineups using the Black Sabbath name, so this works out all around, and fans don't expect to hear Ozzy-era songs in concert).
I've indicated numerous times on various Metal boards that I "worship at the altar of Dio" and that I greatly dislike Ozzy's voice. I respect the legacy of the early Black Sabbath albums, but my full interest begins with 1980's Heaven & Hell. I like almost all of the band's work that follows, whether with Dio, Ian Gillan, or the massively underrated Tony Martin. Only the last album, 1995's Forbidden, falls short.
I was quite excited to get 2007's Black Sabbath - The Dio Years because it had three new songs recorded in the autumn of 2006. The songs were written by Iommi and Dio, and Butler and Appice then joined them for the recording. I found the songs quite worthy, and it was a good sign that Black Sabbath fans couldn't decide on which was the best of them.
This is happening again with The Devil You Know. Most Black Sabbath fans have probably heard the album by now. This isn't from illegal dowloading, at least not necessarily so, because the full album has been streaming on various sites (one for the USA, another for Europe). Lots of reviews and opinions are appearing, and many listeners are slightly underwhelmed. Few state that the album is poor, but "mediocre" seems to be common. There is no consensus on which songs are good and which are lousy, and again this is a good thing. It means the music holds a wide appeal, "saying" different things to different listeners. And the lukewarm praise indicates that the album hasn't fully sunk in yet for most.
I'd be more concerned with widespread adulation. Since at least 1992's Dehumanizer album, anything by Black Sabbath (or solo projects by its members) has required numerous listens for the quality to truly emerge. I expect that in a few months, The Devil You Know will start to be regarded as a masterpiece, at least among Sabbath and Dio fans. As I listen to the stream for perhaps the fourth time, I hear bludgeoning power, fantastic guitar, and Dio's voice in fine form. There's doom, a bit of speed, and an overall sense of darkness, and the songs are slightly better than the new Dio Years tracks because they were written as more of a full band effort. As another commentator indicated, the 1970 Black Sabbath album Paranoid was perfect for its troubled time, and The Devil You Know is perfect for our current troubled time.
If you are interested in The Devil You Know, and somehow haven't heard a stream of it yet, check out USA or Europe. You'll find an album with song structures rather like those on Dehumanizer, with playing and singing often reminiscent of Mob Rules. I am delighted with it, and can hardly wait to own it on CD in roughly 48 hours. I expect it will ultimately please all fans of Dio-fronted Black Sabbath!
5 comments:
This album is good all around. I don't agree that it is better than the three songs on Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, although some of the songs are certainly their equals. There are no songs here that are bad in any way, but nothing that reaches out to grab you like "Falling Off the Edge of the World", for instance. The best songs seem to be, after a few full listens, "Double the Pain", "Eating the Cannibals", "Follow the Tears" which sounds particularly "Sabbath", and the final cut, "Breaking into Heaven". I haven't had the chance to watch the companion special edition DVD, but I look forward to doing so soon.
I think it is interesting that few people seem able to agree on what are the best songs of The Devil You know. Posters on the Black-Sabbath.com forum are starting to notice this, and I've been pointing it out on the Braveboard. Breaking into Heaven is particularly divisive, people tend to think it is the best or worse song on the album (I feel like one of the few in the middle about it). This variety of opinion suggests that all the songs are pretty good, overall, since all are finding fans.
FWIW, my favorites are Double the Pain, Bible Black, and Turn of the Screw, with props to Rock and Roll Angel and Eating the Cannibals for having cool guitar solos.
It figures--2 you like, Rock and Roll Angel and Turning the Screw are the two I think are the least good. Notice I didn't say bad, but least good. A friend here I played the album for also agreed that those two weren't as good as the others. Bible Black I like more each time I hear it.
Odin(n), you're out of your mind ;-) (in case anyone besides Russ and I are reading this, Russ = Odin). Dio's diction on Turn of the Screw is what mostly makes the song for me, just the way he pronounces the chorus, with the thing that puts the song over the top being the little guitar melody after the 2nd chorus.
As to Rock and Roll Angel, the first half of the song is no better than ok, but the solo is great, and then Iommi bases the acoustic outro on the same melody. Considering how much you like the outro to the song Heaven & Hell, I figured you'd like this one too.
But I do agree the whole album is pretty good, and doesn't suck! (Odin and I have a long history of liking the same albums/artists, but different songs by those performers.) Cheers mate!
Yeah, I'll listen again then, but I probably got bored by then...
Maybe incognito for awhile, the computer is trying to crash and then I am off to Michigan Thors-day.
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