I picked up the new Heaven And Hell album today and I almost fell asleep on the ride home while listening to it. I was waiting for that one track to jolt me, to kick me in the pants but it never came. I know Black Sabbath and Dio fans alike are probably jizzing all over this thing, but it just sounds very tired to me.

When I say tired I mean slow and stretched out. I’m not saying it’s bad because there are a lot of cool riffs and signature Tony Iommi solos. RJD’s vocals sound good, as does Geezer Butler’s bass playing. Vinnie Appice’s drumming sounds programmed and slow but I only think that’s because it just sounds all too slow.

If they had kicked up the speed about 5 to 8 more beats per second I think I would have more good things to say about The Devil You Know. In fact, I ripped it using Windows Media Player and then played it at an increased speed of 1.5 X and I liked it a lot better.

I was really looking forward to this album and wouldn’t spend the money on it just to give it a bad review but I think I was expecting it to sound a bit more lively. Perhaps with time I can learn to appreciate it, but for now I’m just not feeling it.

(Image: Amazon.com)

Post from: Metal Martyr

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set to arrive on store shelves in just one week, there are more options for you purchasing preferences:

The Best Buy version will have the Exclusive DVD of the behind the scenes making-of The Devil You Know, while Walmart will offer an exclusive alternate cover that can be seen at Black-sabbath.com. Lastly iTunes will offer two unreleased live tracks from their 2007 European Tour with the digital purchase.

Look For The Devil You Know on Rhino Records on April 28th

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Heaven And Hell

The first single from the album, entitled Bible Black is available for for download (in “Single Edit” format) or you can stream it from Heaven And Hell’s Myspace. I downloaded it from iTunes and I gotta say that I love it. Dio and the boys still have it in them. They keep it modern enough to still be relevant, yet still hold on to the roots of their sound. Dio and Sabbath fans alike are going to eat this up!

Track listing for the album is below. In case you’ve been under a rock for the last two years, Heaven And Hell is the pretty much the Ronnie James Dio fronted version of Black Sabbath with a different name; Tony Iommi on guitars, Geezer Butler on Bass and Vinny Appice on drums.

1. Atom And Evil
2. Fear
3. Bible Black
4. Double The Pain
5. Rock And Roll Angel
6. The Turn Of The Screw
7. Eating The Cannibals
8. Follow The Tears
9. Neverwhere
10. Breaking Into Heaven

Image: Amazon.com

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Heaven And Hell have announced the title of their newly recorded album as “The Devil You Know” and have set a release date for April 28th via Rhino Records. According to Billboard.com, some of the song titles include: “Rock & Roll Angel”, “Bible Black”, “Atom & Evil”, “Eating the Cannibals.” and “Breaking Into Heaven”.

Image: Newscom

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Tony Iommi recently issued an update concerning progress on the recording of the new Heaven And Hell Album:

“I have been so busy working on the new (Heaven And Hell) album!!! It’s all going very well I’m pleased to say! We are hoping for the album to be released some time in March/April.”

Ronnie James Dio said that the songs they recently wrote sound like a “Real Cross-section” of The Mob Rules, Dehumanizer and Heaven And Hell. It should be interesting to hear new studio music from Heaven And Hell. More metal to look forward to in 2009.

On a side note, one thing that kills me about Dio is that he makes sure that he puts the horns up multiple times through a performance. I know he claims to have started it in metal…but I don’t feel he has to prove it 40 times in one song.

Source: BW&BK

IMage: Newscom

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“It really is BLACK SABBATH, whatever we do. We just choose to go out as HEAVEN AND HELL so everyone knows what they’re getting [and] so people won’t expect to hear ‘Iron Man’ and all those songs. We’ve done them for so many years, it’s nice to do just all the stuff with did with Ronnie again.”

I still have not grabbed a copy of the live album from Heaven And Hell, but I’ve heard great things about it. I still prefer the Ozzy era Black Sabbath but I’m eager to hear how this is going to turn out though.

• June 3-6 – Sölvesborg, Sweden – Sweden Rock Festival
• June 19-21 – Clisson, France – Hellfest

Image Source: Newscom.com

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Geezer Butler issued the following statement at his official website:

Thank you all who came to see the Metal Masters tour. It was a pleasure touring with such great bands and friends – Judas Priest, Motorhead, and Testament, and their respective crews. It was great meeting everyone who came to the meet and greets after the shows.

Now back to reality.  As you may know from my web-site and lyrics, I am pro all life, not just unborn fetuses. I don’t understand people who say they are pro-life, but then support unnecessary wars and the disgusting slaughter of animals for sport.

I respect people’s freedom of religion, but I absolutely abhor hypocrites.  Which brings me to this horrific video of cowardly bastards in airplanes, shooting wolves for so called “sport”, and the hypocritical politician [she's supposed to be pro-life, remember], who allows this cowardly act to take place in her state.  I know lots of people who hunt, and I enjoy shooting at my local gun range, but I don’t know, nor would I want to know, anyone who gets pleasure from this disgraceful behavior.  God/Nature has created a beautiful earth, and populated it with beautiful creatures, and i believe that all life is miraculous.  Why do politicians [royals included] enjoy killing so much, and treating those miracles with such contempt?

Love and peace,
Geezer.

As far as abortion goes, I’m pro-choice. As far as cruelty to animals, I completely agree with him. I grew up in a family of 5 in a small town during tough times. My father hunted and trapped. Anything that my father or brother killed we always put to some use. Most of the time it was Deer or the occasional black bear that was killed for meat and the animals that were trapped were sold for fur. I never got into the hunting thing and I never liked the ones that did it to stroke their ego. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support PETA 1 or 2. With that said, there is an ecological balance of nature that sometimes has to be evened out due to the fact that we, humans, screwed it up somehow. So then we have to go and play population control. It’s not a pretty game but sometimes it has to be done…but not the way it’s done in the video.

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Heaven And Hell

• UNDEROATH – DESPERATE TIMES, DESPERATE MEASURES (Premiere)
• LAMB OF GOD – WALK WITH ME IN HELL (live)
• DRAGONFORCE – HEROES OF OUR TIME
• CARNIFEX – ANSWERS IN MOURNING (Premiere)
• WHITE CHAPEL – THIS IS EXILE
• OZZY OSBOURNE – BARK AT THE MOON
• THE SWORD – FIRE LANCES OF THE ANCIENT HYPERZEPHYRIANS (Debut)
• SHADOWS FALL – FOREVERMORE
• HATEBREED – I WILL BE HEARD (live) (Premiere)
• HEAVEN AND HELL – THE MOB RULES
• MESHUGGAH – BLEED

Click ‘Read More’ to watch the four videos that are premiering or debuting tonight, if you haven’t seen them already online.

Image Source: Headbangerball.mtv2.com

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“We’ve got about six or seven new songs,” Iommi reports, “and then we stopped to do this (The Metal Masters) tour. When we finish that, we’ll take a couple of weeks off, then carry on writing.”

The guitarist adds that he’s “really pleased” with what the group has come up with so far, describing the material as “really good, pretty powerful.” Heaven & Hell, which also includes drummer Vinnie Appice, has signed a deal with Rhino and hopes to have the album out “as soon as we can,” according to Iommi, most likely in 2009.

A lot of fans of the band’s live performance and album have been eagerly waiting for this and I can’t blame them. This collaboration with Dio and the former members of Black Sabbath have had a successful run with “Heaven And Hell Live From Radio City Music Hall” on DVD and CD, which left fans of Dio era Black Sabbath hungry for more…and they’ll get it!

Read More at Billboard.com

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