MOB RULES

"Mob Rules" is just like its predecessor. It won't add anything to your "Sabbath" collection in terms of outstanding songs. The format (nine songs for forty minutes of music) is full radio-oriented. FM radio music; that's all. Poppish at times ("Turn Up The Night"), heavy riffs during others ("Voodoo"). But the latter is totally uninspired. Iommi is trying to save it but it is hopeless.

Ward has also disappeared from the line-up (same reasons than Ozzy : drug addiction). He is replaced by Carmin Appice's younger brother Vinny. He's holding the drumkit quite well actually.

It seems that there are still legions of fans that are willing to follow the band since this album reached the twelfth sopt in the UK charts. Nonetheless, I wouldn't recommend this album to anyone, except maybe to die-hard Dio fans (which is absolutely not my case).

Still, there are some songs showing some more research in terms of songwritting : "The Sign Of The Southern Cross" is one of these. Instead of a uniform concept, this one holds several identifyable sections. Acoustic to start, powerful vocals combined to some heavy riffs later on. It breaks the dull feeling and must be considered as a highlight. Since it is by far the longest song of the whole album (almost eight minutes) it's a good news and an enjoyable moment (unfortunately, there won't be many). Maybe a bit too long and repetitive towards the end...

The spacey instrumental "E5150" is useless. But it is not the first time that "Sabbath" releases such a song. I really wonder why. Iommi holds the pieces together during "The Mob Rules" because otherwise this song wouldn't deserve your time to listen to it. But the story goes on and on here.

Another exception is "Falling Of The Edge Of The World". It's a again a more elaborate song which starts as a smooth and quite song but will be built crescendo to end up as a very good hard-rock number with a furious guitar solo. Upbeat tempo. A very energetic song. The second highlight. The album closes on another decent song. The rock ballad "Over & Over". Yes, Iommi is playing a great guitar break here as well.

"Sabbath" has turned into a standard hard-rock band by this time (but this tendancy started already some times before this release). The heavy metal sound of the band has disappeared, the line-up will almost change for each album while Iommi will be holding the band on his own.

Two stars.