Heaven And Hell

Consistency is the key to a great band. However, sometimes consistency can become so fucking boring that a little spice would be more than welcome. Were Heaven And Hell to surprise us by coming out of the gate with something totally different 17 years after Dehumanizer — the last Black Sabbath, er, Heaven And Hell opus to feature singer Ronnie James Dio — it would probably freak most of the world out. Or would it? With the ten tracks that comprise The Devil You Know, we're treated to exactly what we expect: long, drawn-out songs that push guitarist Tony Iommi's wonderful, genre-inspiring chug riffs to the back so that Dio can wail (in his amazing voice, mind you) about fantastical stuff you'd expect to see at some sort of comic book convention or on the side of a boogie van. No bones about it, The Devil You Know is solid. It's got great, epic proto-power metal tunes and is far more interesting than any '80s Sabbath. But without anything divergent from what they've already done, it's like sitting down to one of mom's home-cooked meals, just not your favourite one.