MOB RULES

Not a bad release at all but "Heaven and Hell" would always be a tough album to follow up on. Very similar to the "Heaven and Hell" album but that's essentially what put me off Dio in the end - everything with him sounded like everything else that he did. His voice was perhaps just too powerful and although I loved his music up to a point, I found it was easy in the end to tire of him. This album isn't "Heaven and Hell" - it's good but it's not a monster. To me Bill Ward was part of the Black Sabbath thing so his loss to the band over this album did the album no favours although there is nothing wrong with Vinny Appice behind a drum kit. Iommi's riff work here is as strong as ever. Best tracks here, to my mind, are "The sign of the Southern Cross" and "Falling off the edge of the world". A three and a half star effort as far as I'm concerned taken down to three star because I may as well have been listening to the second half of the "Heaven and Hell" album.