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RSS Feed UAWIL #303: Black Sabbath - Mob Rules
After Black Sabbath was brought back to life by Ronnie James Dio on Heaven and Hell, the record company decided to run it back with Mob Rules. Bill Ward was out, Vinnie Appice was in - did Mob Rules live up to or even exceed Heaven and Hell??
Ronnie James Dio joining Black Sabbath really gave the band a shot in the arm. After declining returns with Ozzy in the late 70s, Ronnie's emergence as a singer and a songwriter helped push 1980's Heaven and Hell to platinum status in the US. The band and record company were eager to recapture the magic of Heaven and Hell but founding drummer Bill Ward had to replaced by American drummer Vinnie Appice, who stayed available during the Heaven and Hell Tour just in case Bill wasn't able to play.
They loved the success of Heaven and Hell so much, it seems, that they tracked Mob Rules very similarly to H&H. They come charging out of the gate with Turn Up the Night (as opposed to Neon Knights), they go back tp doom Sabbath with the Sign of the Southern Cross (not dissimilar to Children of the Sea) and end with the epic title track (E5150, or in Latin EVIL, is really the intro to Mob Rules in our book). But it's all great Sabbath thanks to the soaring vocals of Ronnie James Dio, the groovy bass lines of Geezer Butler and some extraordinary work by The Riff-Master - Tonny Iommi. It fit perfectly with the H&H material and maybe Tony got some inspiration from the young lads in Iron Maiden as producer Martin Birch had just worked on Maiden's sophomore release Killers.
The second side might not be as strong but the urgency and spectacular groove of Falling Off the Edge of the World galloping along to Ronnie's powerful and emotional vocals make it all time great Sabbath track. Though they would put this lineup back together for Dehumanizer in 1992 and again as Heaven and Hell in the 2000s, this would prove to be their only release during their heyday. The follow up live album Live Evil showed what an incredible lineup this was and it's sad to think it ended for cliched reasons but that's rock n roll. We celebrate Mob Rules and a killer Black Sabbath lineup as it turns 45.
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