The Devil You Know - Song By Song

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Next up we have Follow The Tears. It's another of my favourites on the album, a slower, heavy song with a nice intro section. Ronnie's vocals are great here and although the solo is a little short it is a good one.

[Charger]

Follow The Tears is without a doubt THE heaviest song Black Sabbath has ever done. And it is my absolute favourite from the album.

Lyrically this absolutely amazing dealing with one of Ronnie's favourite subjects and one that is very close to my heart and that is ofcourse loneliness. A very touching song lyrically.

The main riff is nothing short of suberb and the way the song builds up it totally unique in the Sabbath catalogue.

This is right up there with songs like NIB and Heaven And Hell in the best songs Sabbath has ever done.

Nothing bad to say about this masterpiece...nothing.

[Jack the Stripper]

“Follow the Tears” crushes my soul every time I listen to it and is my favourite track from the album and one of my favourite tracks from the Dio era period. The main intro and riff is so suspenseful, dark and heavy it could be music from a horror film. I wonder if this is the type of music Tony has talked about doing for horror movie soundtracks?

If I had to nit pick anything it’s that I wish Ronnie had just a little more bark to his vocals but it’s only a very small nitpick as it’s still amazing as it is...

All hail the King... King Iommi

[Scott]

I once read a review of TDYK that described Follow the Tears as such: "Iommi takes a menacing glance at doom/death". I might be paraphrasing there, but that one said all it needed to. Musically it's just intense.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

The penultimate track is Neverwhere, another of my absolute favourites on this album. A fast rocker, mythical lyrics about a bad girl (not for the first time!), nice vocals, great riff, indeed great all round musicianship. A fantastic track IMO.

[Zzzptm]

I'm liking Neverwhere, but it's not really getting my spine tingly. The whole album is having this problem. It *should* be getting me to rock out, but it's not. As I listen, I'm aware that there's no real dynamic range - everything is about as loud as everything else. So I'm gonna say "loudness war" and hold up the red card. Another victim of the compressor, this one... 13 had similar issues with a lack of dynamic range, I'm seeing a pattern here in albums with that loudness cranked up leaving me going "meh".

It's not a bad album overall, but it's disappointing how it fails to get off the ground the way H&H, MR, and D did.

[Charger]

Neverwhere is a great fast rocker. Better than Eating The Cannibals, the riffing here is more classic Iommi stuff and Ronnie's vocals and lyrics are absolutely top notch.

I do get what you're on about ZZZ...the dynamic range isn't what it could be on this album...But this still isn't nearly as bad as some albums have been. But in terms of earlier Sabbath stuff...yup...compressed...a lot.

[Zzzptm]

At least there's no clipping or popping like on *SOME* albums...

... looking at YOU, Death Magnetic!

[Jack the Stripper]

Neverwhere is probably my least favourite track off the album which would also make it my least favourite Dio era track. For an uptempo song the riff is quite boring and just doesn’t ignite the song in any way.

Ronnie’s vocal is the worst from the entire album, especially when he sings “the hand that rocks the cradle in the morning” part and the lyrics uninteresting although I quite like the catchy pre chorus line “Waiting alone for the witching hour, she feels the shock and the surge of power, she’s come to know” The solo is great also.
It’s not a terrible song by any stretch, the Dio era never did terrible, it just has a big sense of filler about it and the vocals are a little off.

It’s the “Live Forever” of the album.

[Zzzptm]

Neverwhere is probably my least favourite track off the album which would also make it my least favourite Dio era track. For an uptempo song the riff is quite boring and just doesn’t ignite the song in any way.

Ronnie’s vocal is the worst from the entire album, especially when he sings “the hand that rocks the cradle in the morning” part and the lyrics uninteresting although I quite like the catchy pre chorus line “Waiting alone for the witching hour, she feels the shock and the surge of power, she’s come to know” The solo is great also.
It’s not a terrible song by any stretch, the Dio era never did terrible, it just has a big sense of filler about it and the vocals are a little off.

It’s the “Live Forever” of the album.

I'm wondering, how much did Dio's health impact his vocals? I think we all are of a mind that there were some big issues with his singing on this album, and as I recall, he was diagnosed with cancer in 2009, same year this album was being recorded.

[Jack the Stripper]

^^^
Hard to know for sure but I think it was probably more age decline and general wear & tear. If you listen to the 3 new tracks they recorded in 2006 for the Dio years compilation there was an obvious drop off in his vocals from Master of the Moon that was recorded just 2 years prior. Then another notable drop off again from The Dio Years compilation to TDYK with the exception of Bible Black, he really seemed to dig deep for that song.

It could very well have been that the 2007 reunion tour they did took a toll on his voice also. I do think the cancer more than likely affected him during the 2009 tour though. How could it not?

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

The final track on the album is Breaking in to Heaven. I quite like it, but not as much as I used to... not sure what happened there! It's slow and heavy and one of the better lyrics on show. Trouble is the vocal melody to the verse is a little bland and no real tempo change throughout its near 7 minutes doesn't help. But I do like it just not as much as other tracks here.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

My ranking for the album is:

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


And the Ranking for the Dio albums are:

1. Dehumanizer
2= The Mob Rules
2= Heaven & Hell
4. The Devil You Know

I should clarify that the first three are all within a whisker of each other, and TDYK is still a stonking good album!

[Zzzptm]

My Dio-era rankings are:

1. Mob Rules
2. Heaven & Hell
3. Dehumanizer

^ Close enough to sometimes jostle up and down in relation to each other, depending on my mood.

4. TDYK - it's still not catching on with me, and I tried. I really tried. No sparks for me.

[Charger]

Breaking Into Heaven is the third real Epic song of the album, but it is also the weakest one of those 3...It is still a good song but this could have used a tempo change in the middle as it is it is bit too samey through out. I think from Tony and Geezer this was the first sign of that uninspired writing that we witnessed quite a bit more on 13.

Ronnie's belting out great vocals and great lyrics but the music just isn't quite up to par with what he is doing here...and that's a real shame...as this had potential to be a great closer. Vinny's drumming is great here too though.