Mob Rules (album)

This article is about the Black Sabbath album. For other uses, see Mob Rules.

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Mob Rules is Black Sabbath's tenth studio album, released in 1981 following the success of Heaven and Hell. A different recording of the title track appeared in the animated motion picture Heavy Metal and is featured on the soundtrack album.

The lyrical themes are dark, notably on tracks such as "Sign of the Southern Cross" and "Falling Off the Edge of the World".

It was the first album to feature Vinny Appice on drums, who had replaced original member Bill Ward on the tour in support of the previous year's Heaven and Hell. This led to Ozzy Osbourne dubbing the line-up "Geezer and the three Wops".

It is rumoured that the cover art for this album, by famed artist Greg Hildebrandt, contains a heavily-disguised message that reads "KILL OZZY,". It is apparently located toward the bottom of the picture, on the ground, written in a dark, crimson colour. However, the message is barely legible, and it is widely believed that the purported text is coincidental. link The artwork was not created specifically for the album, for one thing, having been done in the 1970s, but was licensed for use.

The Live Evil album was recorded on the Mob Rules tour.

The remastered album has been issued twice, by Castle in 1996, and Sanctuary in 2004. The Sanctuary release is a straight copy of the Castle, save for the label details, since Castle is actually a subsidiary of Sanctuary. So far, this remaster has not been available outside the EU.

Track listing

All songs written by Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi. All lyrics written by Ronnie James Dio.

1. "Turn Up the Night" – 3:42
2. "Voodoo" – 4:32
3. "The Sign of the Southern Cross" – 7:46
4. "E5150" – 2:54
5. "The Mob Rules" – 3:14
6. "Country Girl" – 4:02
7. "Slipping Away" – 3:45
8. "Falling Off the Edge of the World" – 5:02
9. "Over and Over" – 5:28

Miscellaneous

• In a radio interview the band revealed that the four-beat cymbal crash intro to "Turn Up The Night" was simply a time-setter and was supposed to have been edited out of the final mix.
• In the UK, a 7" and 12" picture-sleeve single of Mob Rules preceded the album release. The B-side was a previously unavailable live version of "Die Young" (the studio version of which is on the Heaven and Hell album).
• The second UK single was "Turn Up the Night"/"Lonely Is the Word", released as standard black 7" in the generic Vertigo singles sleeve, a 7" picture-sleeve and a 7" and 12" picture-disc.

Credits

• Ronnie James Dio – vocals
• Tony Iommi – guitar
• Geezer Butler – bass guitar
• Vinny Appice – drums
• Geoff Nicholls – keyboards