After a steady decline in both inspiration, mental stability, and commercial appeal throughout the second half of the '70s, metal icons
Black Sabbath were reborn with 1980's
Heaven and Hell. The album would be their first with new vocalist
Ronnie James Dio, whose passionate, controlled wail broke new ground for the band and helped drive a comeback. 1981's
Mob Rules was a quick follow-up to
Heaven and Hell, continuing the momentum of that record's energy as well as its shift away from dark metal to more commercial hard rock.
Tony Iommi's signature guitar playing takes on new forms throughout the album, with
Zeppelin-esque riffing on "Slipping Away," slithering bluesy rock playing on "Voodoo," and a strikingly different approach to soloing, shifting from the laser-focused slow burn of early
Sabbath albums to a more frenetic, technically showy style on some tracks. Speedy album opener "Turn Up the Night" is one of the more spirited and pop-friendly moments of any
Sabbath record, with a hooky and melodic chorus and
Iommi running through fast-paced leads and trills that were no doubt taking notes from
Eddie Van Halen, who was perhaps the most celebrated guitarist in the world in 1981.
Mob Rules delved more into experimentation with keyboards and synthesizers, with auxiliary player
Geoff Nicholls adding cinematic synth bedding to the epic churn of "The Sign of the Southern Cross" and spacy atmosphere to "Falling Off the Edge of the World," among other synth contributions. New drummer
Vinny Appice replaced original
Sabbath drummer
Bill Ward, pushing the sound even further from the band's original sludgy approach. These changes, along with
Dio's fantasy-based lyrics and a red-lined mix by producer
Martin Birch put
Mob Rules closer in line with the emerging New Wave of British Heavy Metal than the druggy devil-worshiping doom metal
Black Sabbath first built their name on. While it was a solid album,
Mob Rules might have followed the template established on
Heaven and Hell a little too closely. The pacing and flow of the record was almost identical to its predecessor, from the chuggy opener of "Turn Up the Night" mirroring
Heaven and Hell's "Neon Nights" straight through to final track "Over and Over" feeling like a continuation of "Lonely Is the Word," the searching, midtempo finale of the previous album. It didn't sell quite as well as
Heaven and Hell, and
Dio and
Appice left the band soon afterward, (though
Dio's relationship with
Sabbath would be complex and sprawling) leaving
Black Sabbath to reconfigure throughout the '80s with mixed results.
Mob Rules and
Heaven and Hell work well as each other's companion pieces, making the first round of
Dio-fronted
Sabbath material a bright spot surrounded by relatively grim efforts on either side. [This remastered version includes several B-sides from the album's era, as well as an alternate version of the title track that was used in the soundtrack for the animated film
Heavy Metal. In addition to previously released rarities, it also includes 19 live tracks from concerts in 1981 and 1982.] ~ Fred Thomas
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