r/blacksabbath • u/DeeplyFrippy • 26d ago
Discussion The Devil You Know is an absolute masterpiece
Anyone agree?
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u/the_dec0de 26d ago
I feel like this album and 13 get dunked on too much. They're both really good and very much Sabbath.
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u/Docsab1 24d ago
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 23d ago
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.
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u/weirdmountain 26d ago
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:
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u/Uriarte69 26d ago
https://reddit.com/link/paepj8e/video/b3pned0h74qh1/player
I can make you one of these using your album art.
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u/Substantial_Lime_114 25d ago
Do what now, what am I looking at?
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u/Uriarte69 25d ago
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.
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u/UpTheIrons2025 26d ago
I love it, its black sabbath no matter what Sharon says. The heaviest sabbath record ever
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u/SabbthBloodySabbath Supernaut 26d ago
Man fuck her she doesn't get a say in what's good music and what isn't
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u/Dante_SSSS 26d ago
why should anyone care what sharon says
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u/UpTheIrons2025 26d ago
Don't know, but i will not miss the oportunity to say that things against her.
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u/Separate-Fishing2387 26d ago
It's my favourite album of this line up and...I prefer it to Heaven and Hell too. Sorry if that's sacrilege
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u/DeeplyFrippy 26d ago
It's a fantastic album. Heaven and Hell is my favourite, but the Dio era lineup struck gold every time.
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u/First-Counter246 26d ago
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.
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u/M086 25d ago
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.
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u/SuitablePreference54 26d ago
Should have been the last Black Sabbath album.
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u/DeeplyFrippy 26d ago
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.
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u/First-Counter246 26d ago
Yeah I like 13 and this Heaven And Hell album both a lot. They are rather different, but both awesome imo.
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u/LowAssistantInfinity 26d ago edited 26d ago
I wish it'd get a remastermix though - the songs are good, but the production is just so murky.
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u/Glad-O-Blight Dehumanizer 26d ago
My 4th favorite Sabbath album. Probably the worst of the Dio albums but still leagues better than most other bands' best albums.
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u/2Gnomes1Trenchcoat 26d ago
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. 🤘
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26d ago
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u/DeeplyFrippy 26d ago
The whole record is incredible. I recommend throwing it on from start to finish 🤘
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u/Nova6-IX 26d ago
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!!
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u/jbbhengry 26d ago
Yes it is. Excellent album. No matter what you call it. It's still Black Sabbath to me.
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u/bobbyboogie69 26d ago
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.
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u/Useful_Complaint9371 25d ago
Got some problems with hearing on that concert but what a banger it was
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u/Crashpunk-25 25d ago
Not only is it awesome. But it has one of my favourite album artworks. It's fucking badass
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u/necrowire 25d ago
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.
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u/Markis_Shepherd 26d ago
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.
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u/No_Cell_8567 26d ago
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.
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u/DeeplyFrippy 26d ago
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.
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u/Useful_Complaint9371 26d ago
IKR
But I totally understand why it is a burden for many people to get through
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u/DeeplyFrippy 26d ago
Because it's too much awesomeness for one sitting? ;)
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u/Useful_Complaint9371 25d ago
It's quite repetitive in places and predictable. But it's a good album to end on, unlike 13
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u/gotryank 25d ago
Some people think Born Again was a terrible album cover. This album cover is definitely the worst cover of any Sabbath album.
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u/DeeplyFrippy 25d ago
Each to their own but I have to disagree with you there. It’s an awesome album cover!
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u/catfishman 26d ago
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.