The Devil You Know

Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice made their third and final album together here. It is the line-up that had recorded Black Sabbath's Mob Rules in 1981 and Dehumanizer in 1992. It is also the last studio record Dio made before his death in May 2010. It began in 2007, when the Dio-era Black Sabbath line-up recorded three new songs, "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind" and "Ear in the Wall", for the compilation Black Sabbath: The Dio Years. Iommi has said they were written because he felt there was nothing in the vaults from those years worth releasing. Dio expected at the time to leave afterwards and return to Dio, saying another Sabbath album was "the last thing on my mind"; Iommi says they agreed to make one while the band was in Japan on the 2007 tour. Work started before and after the Metal Masters Tour, at Dio's house and then Iommi's, with each member bringing CDs of material to the project. The band produced it with the engineer Mike Exeter. It entered the Billboard 200 at number eight on 30,000 copies in its first week and was named best album at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards. The running order here is the original's as printed.