The Brave Picks Top 30 Of 2009 countdown continues! Each day in December we will deliver one of the essential records of the year - as voted by the scribes here at BraveWords.com. We have entered the Top Ten!

Double-bass drum roll please ....

#9 - HEAVEN AND HELL – The Devil You Know (Rhino)

HEAVEN & HELL - featuring BLACK SABBATH legends Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice - released their long-awaited new album, The Devil You Know, via Rhino on April 28. Officially the full-length follow-up to 1992's Dehumanizer, fans put the album into the US Top Ten and loyal Sabbath-heads worldwide came out in droves to see the band perform live.

"Everyone had so much fun playing together that we didn't want it to end," says the group in a statement. "We started writing together and the songs started flowing like we never stopped. We wound up writing and recording an album that stands up to anything we've ever done. We're really proud of the music and excited for people to hear it."

BraveWords.com's Martin Popoff stated in his review: "Better than Dehumanizer, better than the three introductory new tracks last year (actually those were pretty cool), but not as good as the sparkly Heaven And Hell or the thundering, blustery Mob Rules, The Devil You Know pretty much delivers the good and expected outcome, and not one possible and reasonable outcome, an album that is altogether too slow and/or too cheesed horror. Old fans gripe (as I did with Mssr. Tim Henderson), that likely gone are the days of surprises and crazy arrangements, circa ’73 to ’78, and yes, the one surprise that was the album Heaven And Hell (as we know, Mob Rules was not too much of a surprise, nor was Dehumanizer – if you tacked it temporally onto the Dio catalogue). Still, there is much to celebrate here."

Read the entire review here.

BraveWords.com - Brave Picks Top 30 Of 2009

#30 - DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT - Addicted (InsideOut)

#29 - GOD DETHRONED - Passiondale (Metal Blade)

#28 - KISS - Sonic Boom (Kiss Records/ Walmart)

#27 - GORGOROTH - Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt (Regain)

#26 - CHEAP TRICK - The Latest (Cheap Trick)

#25 - EX DEO - Romulus (Nuclear Blast)

#24 - SWALLOW THE SUN – New Moon (Spinefarm)

#23 - KATATONIA - Night Is The New Day (Peaceville)

#22 - KREATOR - Hordes of Chaos (Steamhammer)

#21 - ASPHYX - Death... The Brutal Way (Century Media)

#20 - GOATWHORE - Carving Out The Eyes Of God (Metal Blade)

#19 - VADER – Necropolis (Nuclear Blast)

#18 - CHICKENFOOT – Chickenfoot (Redline)

#17 - BRUTAL TRUTH - Evolution Through Revolution (Relapse)

#16 - CANNIBAL CORPSE – Evisceration Plague (Metal Blade)

#15 - MASTODON - Crack The Skye (Warner)

#14 - PORCUPINE TREE – The Incident (Roadrunner)

#13 - CANDLEMASS - Death Magic Doom (Nuclear Blast)

#12 - AMORPHIS – Skyforger (Nuclear Blast)

#11 - SACRIFICE – The Ones I Condemn (Sonic Unyon)

#10 - VOIVOD – Infini (Sonic Unyon/Relapse)

#9 - HEAVEN AND HELL – The Devil You Know (Rhino)