TITLE: "The Mob Rules"
ARTIST: Black Sabbath
ALBUM: Mob Rules and/or Heavy Metal: Music from the Motion Picture
RELEASE DATE: 1981
It's oddly fitting that I should follow a post about hearing loss with a post extolling the merits of Black Sabbath, don't you think?
I've had this past week off. Technically, I'm not on vacation, rather I'm on the second week of my paternity leave (I only took one week off back in March when Oliver was born). As such, instead of kicking back and relaxing, I've been attempting to tackle long-overdue errands. One such errand involved me taking a load of baby gear we're no longer using (including a stroller Oliver has already outgrown) down to our storage space over on Varrick Street. So, I loaded it up and set off on my way. It's about a fifteen minute walk, so I brought along the old iPod. Prompted by this recent news, I dialed up a random-shuffling selection of the mighty Black Sabbath (as what better music to listen to while you're pushing an empty baby stroller down 6th Avenue?) When "The Mob Rules" came galloping out of my headphones, it was all that I could do not to ram the stroller into the nearest innocent bystander in a fit of Luciferian zeal.
It's absolutely no mystery why Black Sabbath are hailed as the greatest metal band of all time (and if you dare to disagree, you're simply wallowing in a viscous, pungent mudslick of WRONG). That said, it seems that the band's tenure with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals is the line-up that grabs all the kudos. While it's true that the band gradually devolved into a lesser incarnation of its former glory (even briefly employing Bev Bevan from Electric Light Orchestra on drums at one dire point), the line-up featuring the great albeit diminutive Ronnie James Dio on vocals released some music that truly rivals the band's Ozzy-led heyday, among them "Neon Knights" and this skull-cracking track.
I first heard "The Mob Rules" on the soundtrack to the entirely half-baked cartoon, "Heavy Metal The Motion Picture" (a film that literally left me scarred for life -- but that's an anecdote for another post). Far and away the heaviest track on the album, "The Mob Rules" scored a scene in the abortive film wherein an evil, marauding army invades a city and slaughters its hapless inhabitants. Given the track's sprawling sound and Dio's hellion shriek, it was, of course, absolute perfection. Tony Iommi's guitar (especially in the opening seconds) sounds like a thousand flaming guitars. When Dio ushers in the rest of the band with an infernal "OHHHHH COME ON!", it sounds like the earth opening its vengeful, jagged maw to hungrily consume it unwitting tenants. In short, IT COMPLETELY ROCKS!
A short while later, the whole album, Mob Rules, was released, which I scrambled immediately to obtain. The version on the Sabbath album is slightly different from the version on the "Heavy Metal" soundtrack, but rocks just as hard (and features the amazing, creepy intro track, "E5150," which sounds like Satan belching underwater.) The rest of the album, honestly, was no great shakes, but it's still a classic (not least for its creeptastic sleeve, which prompted rumors that the legend "Kill Ozzy" was hidden somewhere in the artwork).
This was the last studio album the `Sabs recorded with Dio, who left shortly afterwards to start his own silly band, aptly named Dio (fun fact: hold the Dio logo upside and it says "DEVIL" -- well, it kinda does). Ozzy, in turn, carried on his wildly successful solo career, punctuated by a few fleeting reunions with Black Sabbath. Ozzy has since become a household name not because of his music or his days with Black Sabbath so much as the television show his wife commandeered, which arguably reduced the fabled frontman into a pathetic self-parody. Ronnie James Dio is also somewhat of a punchline (Tenacious D's ode to the elfin shrieker didn't really help matters), but he's survived with dignity somewhat intact, despite still insisting on carrying a broadsword around.
Regardless of the band members' respective shenanigans these days, "The Mob Rules" still holds up as a raging, rocktastic testament to the bludgeoning power of Black Sabbath. Go buy it now and better yourself.
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