Black Sabbath: Mob Rules

Black Sabbath: Mob Rules

1981

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 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


I ultra-love this album cover...I can still recall seeing it as a kid and finding it so endlessly fascinating...To this day I have no idea what in the world is being depicted but its breathtaking nonetheless...

Supposedly, there's a hidden message that says "Kill Ozzy" at the bottom right hand corner...Somebody else, was so kind to highlight the areas in question...

When I first saw the cover, the "OZZY" jumped right out at me, but the "kill" was a little more of a stretch..The original artists has de-bunked this, saying he created the album art 10 years before Sabbath used it...But I think it's more fun to pretend that the Sabbath-Ozzy break-up got so intense that they openly wished death upon each other on their album covers... 

Anyway, I like the Mob Rules" album very much...It follows its predecessors footprints very closely, but I actually like this one a bit more...It feels like the gloves are off...It's dirtier, it rocks a bit more, the songs are catchier, and I also get less of a Advanced D&D vibe, so I think that helps too...

 I've always liked side one of this, in particular...Although less-heralded, "Turn Up the Night" is every bit the ass-kicking opener that "Neon Knights " was, and when Dio sings, "It's the sign of the southern croo-o-o-o-o-o-ss..." on the song of the same name, I can't help but involuntarily make the horned hand and nod my head knowingly....

Sure there's the filler-ish  atmospheric instrumental  "E5150", but I'm going to defend its inclusion for its cool title alone (V is the Roman numeral for 5, the 1 looks like the letter I, and the L is the roman numeral for 50...So, it spells "EVIL", but there's probably no use spelling that out for everyone, cos I'm probably the last person to hear about this) ...Plus, I think it builds anticipation for the title track, which is the best song on the album, and one of my all-time Black Sababth favorites...Although, I'm 100% willing to admit that my admiration for the song is probably heavily tinted by nostalgia...I first heard the song on the "Heavy Metal: Music From the Motion Picture"  soundtrack...My Brother had this on cassette and this was another one I was obsessed with...everything about it was great to a young kid...

I think that the shrunken cover of the cassette actually made it more intriguing...I couldn't make out exactly what was going on, but I knew it was awesome...The words "heavy metal" written in metal...A big-titted  warrior-woman riding a chicken...A band lineup that featured Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Nazareth, Sammy Hagar, Cheap Trick and Devo?!?! My five year old mind was blown! Just looking at that jpeg above takes me back to 1981 so vividly that I have to look down to make sure I'm not wearing Toughskins...

So yea, I can't help but smile when I hear Dio belt out:

"Close the city,
 and tell the people that,
 something's coming to call..."

 Side two is fine also, just not as many highlights..."Country Girl" always makes me laugh because I can imagine Dio ,dosey-doeing  barefoot in overalls with a straw hat and a hayseed in his mouth...And really that's all I ask of a side two...

So. let's listen to "Turn Up the Night" by Black Sabbath...Enjoy...