Dio's vocals on this album are just some of the best and most aggressive sounding vocals he's ever put on an album. His vocals match the intensity that the album art for the album gives off as well as the album title itself. For being a couple years shy of seventy years old, Dio has still got it. In this album, Dio blends the perfect mixture of melody and aggression together to create some of the best vocals he's ever done on an album, if not the best. Dio's lyrical ability is also top notch and on this album he created some of the best lyrics he's ever written for any other album. The lyrics on this album are just great. Heaven & Hell's 'The Devil You Know' Lands in U.S. Top 10". Blabbermouth.net. Roadrunner Records. 6 May 2009 . Retrieved 6 May 2009. As was the case in 1992, the triumphant return of this outfit has resulted in a lesson that can school any and all adherents of metal music. It is definitely one of the best, if not the best album to come out this year. It isn’t a matter of this band being capable of doing no wrong, but simply that every time their in the studio, nothing ever comes out that way. They reprove their worth every time, starting nearly from scratch at each instance, and have once again put out something that will be talked about and listened to years after the novelty wears off. This is the devil that all of us know and love, forever unchanging, and forever a master at his craft.

Graff, Gary (25 July 2008). "Heaven & Hell 'Six Or Seven' Songs into New CD". Billboard . Retrieved 27 July 2008. As for Ronnie, his lyrics are fine. It sounds more in the vein of Dehumanizer, with more 'occult' style lyrics and staying away from rainbows and things of that nature. I like the story-through-song approach we have going on, where a song is like a whole concept. Reminds me a lot of Dio's solo effort Magica and maybe even Strange Highways. “Atom & Evil” and “Breaking Into Heaven” seem to have the best lyrics, from what I understand of the songs so far, and they make a good opener and closer. One thing I will say about this album, is that I did not “get it” the first time around. And by that, I mean for the first couple of listens, I was kind of ambivalent towards it. Much the same way I was with Fused. However, after about four listens, I think this may be one of the highlights of the entire Sabbath band catalog and it's solo band offshoots. It's nice to hear Iommi play an acoustic guitar again, which he only has done sparingly for Sabbath songs like “Children of the Sea” and “Nightwing” (the latter is from Headless Cross).

Double the Pain

Kaz, Jim (29 April 2009). "Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know". IGN. Archived from the original on 14 April 2010 . Retrieved 26 April 2012. Ultratop.be – Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 10 October 2021.

I think it was a combination of two thoughts - the plot of the song itself and the thought of people who get lost in the addiction to hard drugs that alter their realities, thus getting themselves buried deeper and deeper underground... This time he'd be buried a bit deeper and he'd wake up in a way different reality. It was a similar universe, but some events happened differently than in his first universe, some things and people looked different. Heaven & Hell: New Audio Interview With Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler Available – Mar. 27, 2009". blabbermouth.net. Archived from the original on 7 May 2012 . Retrieved 30 March 2009. The mix is powerful and expansive. Everything sounds enormous! The bass is nice and growly. Dio’s vocs are right out front like they should be. I dig the drums on “TDYK” way more than on “Dehumanizer”. If it were me, I’d boost the guitar two or three decibels at 400-500 Hz to give it more bite (it sounds fine as it is, but it’s quite polished).The artwork was based off an image called “Satan”, by an artist from Norway named Per Oyvind Haagensen. Link here. Heaven & Hell: The Devil You Know" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 22 April 2018. Munro, Tyler (27 April 2009). "Heaven and Hell – The Devil You Know". Sputnikmusic . Retrieved 26 April 2012. The music is mostly played in minor keys, obviously to take advantage of the natural tendency to sound more imposing. The band does do a decent job of staying away from standard verse-chorus-verse structure. This makes the individual songs stand out more and keeps the album from running together. Unfortunately, many of the songs do tend to stay at one speed. Some tempo changes would serve to make the songs stand out even more. Coordinator [Project Assistance] – Dutch Cramblitt, Jason Elzy, Kris Ahrend, Liz Erman, Lyn Fey, Mason Williams (2), Matthew Szerencse, Nikki Fair, Rich Mahan, Scott Webber, Sheryl Farber, Steven Gorman*, Vania Garcia