Black Sabbath - Mob Rules
That Dio with majestic ease could lift the legacy of Ozzy became crystal clear with the astounding Heaven And Hell release and there were more good things ahead. Mob Rules continues where Heaven And Hell ended, epic, clever, hard rocking and atmospheric, just not at the same extremely high level as its predecessor.

The opener Turn Up The Night is a fast rocker with some great lead guitar details from Tony Iommi, a party song of dimensions. A monster hook and inspiring bass wizardry from two of the genres best and most influential performers.

Voodoo is a slower and hard pumping track with a lot of depth coming from the drums, together with a seriously grooving bass line it creates an unbreakable force that just continues a bit too long down the same road.

Dio is one of my favourite singers ever and he performs with lots of energy and feeling on this record, Sign Of The Southern Cross sees him act out some unforgettable atmospheric passages in the spellbinding acoustic guitar intro. This huge epic is an album highlight, it bleeds mysticism and enchantment.

The songs seem to flow in a very natural order and with The Mob Rules we find the albums second swift creation, a down to earth rocker with a forceful drive.

The slow pounding Country Girl is treated with a great mellow mid-section passage, still not the most exciting rhythm in this one.

Slipping Away has a quite odd structure, but when a cool diverse drum passage, powerful bass jamming and huge guitar solo part makes an entrance it becomes much more interesting.

With Falling Off The Edge Of The World we reach a real Sabbath masterpiece, the depressing mood captured in the beginning of this creative composition surely leaves a big impression,
afterwards it turns into a powerful and heavy track.

At the end Over And Over presents itself and again the mood is quite dark shrouded and with a sense of hopelessness, Dio of course has the ability to transform these feelings with great empathy. The wonderful and ultra creative guitar work from Iommi is down right spectacular.

The sound on the album is truly fantastic, lots of depth and power all placed in an appropriate and well-balanced wall of sound.

Lyrically Dio has his own very poetical style which makes the lyrics complex and with an edge, lyrics you have to read a couple of times to understand them, and then again they can be understood in different ways. I think it's interesting with words that are a bit challenging to the mind. The themes are love, myths, spiritualism and personal issues from dealing with depression to feeling alive and well.

Musically the band sounds extremely tight and performs with an eye for detail, every player adds his specific strength to these songs; I have highlighted some of my favourite passages in the description of the songs and seen as a whole we are talking top of the line here.

A record that offers some great melodic tunes and dark atmospheres, a high level of technicality is reached and overall this album has a fabulous balance.

Written by Tommy
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
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Ratings

Tommy: 7.5/10

Members: 8.25/10 - Average of 2 ratings.



Member ratings

RevelationZ StaffStuart (Staff)

Rating: 8/10
Perhaps not quite as strong a release as Heaven and Hell but its still a top quailty relea... · Read more ·
Profile picturenotrap

Rating: 8.5/10
After the huge worldwide success of Heaven and Hell the second record of Sabbath Mark II h... · Read more ·

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RevelationZ Comments


Comment by Chase Maurice (Anonymous) - Sunday, December 15, 2002
I just recently got into Black Sabbath and this is their first ablum i bought. Although i don't think it's as good as some of their other albums like Paraoid and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath it's still a really great album that i can listen to over and over.


Comment by Latexxi (Anonymous) - Monday, April 28, 2003
After two listenings, this is between 7 and 9, best songs beings excellent and worst just boring rockers. Black Sabbath isn't the right music for party :)

Dio and Iommi are always great, but overall this doesn't match Sabbath's or Rainbow's earlier albums


Comment by shack (Anonymous) - Tuesday, July 29, 2003
"Mob Rules" is one of the best songs this band ever wrote. The album rocks from start to finish. Too bad Dio left after this album because they were really starting to get their groove.


Comment by CTC Command (Anonymous) - Saturday, April 24, 2004
This is the best of Black Sabbath's "Dio" albums--Mob blows Heaven And Hell out of the water. Most consistent recording by Sabbath since they put out Master Of Reality.


Comment by Erik (Anonymous) - Thursday, January 27, 2005
Man what 'bout Over And Over ? is one of the best Iommi solos Ever!!!




Comment by Patricio Alvarado (Anonymous) - Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Together with Heaven & Hell, both albums belong to the Black Sabbath's best era, in which Dio's performance was superb and Iommi's magic melodies reigned supreme. A classic.




Comment by Master Of Puppets (Anonymous) - Monday, May 8, 2006
Turn Up The Night-7/10
Voodoo-9/10
Sign Of The Southern Cross-9/10
E5150-N/A
The Mob Rules-8/10
Country Girl-6/10
Slipping Away-7/10
Falling Off The Edge Of The World-7/10
Over And Over-8/10


Comment by dan666 (Anonymous) - Monday, July 9, 2007
to master of puppets 6/10 for country girl go fuk ya self this song is better than anything metallica has done for the last 10 years but i guess you probably think the black album is a classic


Review by Stuart (Staff) - Tuesday, January 6, 2009
RevelationZ Staff

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Comments: 116
Perhaps not quite as strong a release as Heaven and Hell but its still a top quailty release. The sheer range of styles from up-beat classic metal about having a good time all the time to epic tales of religious mystery.

Plus its got Dio singing about how a demonic girl from the back of beyond stole his heart. And who can't relate to that?

Rating: 8/10

Posted by Stuart (Staff)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Review by notrap (Member) - Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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Comments: 55
Ratings: 66
After the huge worldwide success of Heaven and Hell the second record of Sabbath Mark II had definitely something to prove.

Mob Rules is a strong and mature album. Probably not so efficient, fresh and creative as the previous, however still a very good record.

Special credits to the title track and The Sign Of The Southern Cross.


Rating: 8.5/10

Posted by notrap
Wednesday, October 21, 2009










Review by Tommy
None

Released by
Gimcastle - 1981

Tracklisting
1. Turn Up The Night
2. Voodoo
3. The Sign Of The Southern Cross
4. E5150
5. The Mob Rules
6. Country Girl
7. Slipping Away
8. Falling Off The Edge Of The World
9. Over And Over


Style
Heavy Metal

Related links
Visit the band page

Black Sabbath - Official Website

Black Sabbath Tribute - A Danish Black Sabbath tribute band

Other articles
Band information - (Mads)

Heaven And Hell - (Tommy)

Seventh Star - (Hashman)

The Black Box - The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978 - (Hashman)

Master Of Reality - (Tommy)

Book Review - Black Sabbath: The Ozzy Osbourne Years - (Jonah)

Dehumanizer - (Stuart)

Mob Rules & Live Evil (2010 Deluxe versions) - (Michael)

Born Again (deluxe version) - (Michael)



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