When Black Sabbath 3.0 got back together to record new material for
2007 anthology The Dio Years, the three resulting songs were
shockingly good. The band must have thought so as well, embarking on
two years of worldwide touring to large, hungry audiences —
billing themselves as “Heaven & Hell” freed them from Ozzy-era
baggage — and emitting a live CD/DVD. Unfortunately, those three
tracks would have risen to the top on The Devil You Know, a new
studio disc filled with plodding, generic thumpers like “Atom and
Evil,” “Double the Pain,” “Neverwhere” and the embarrassing “Rock and
Roll Angel.” Ronnie James Dio is still in amazingly strong voice, but
he proffers too many similar cadences, like you’re following the
bouncing ball of a sing-songy satanic Mitch Miller. Guitarist Tony
Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler sound constrained, with only drummer
Vinny Appice going for broke. There are a few bright (make that black)
spots: “Bible Black,” about the Bad Book, and chaotic closer “Breaking
into Heaven” evoke the power of the band at its peak, while “The Turn
of the Screw” has its evil moments. But if this Fearsome Foursome made
a pact with the Beast for a quality comeback, they should have read the
fine print — or at least consulted with that Faust guy.
This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.
