Mob Rules

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Lore & Background

The album was the first new recording Black Sabbath made after Heaven and Hell, starting with a version of the title track "The Mob Rules" for the soundtrack of the film Heavy Metal. The track "E5150" is also heard in the film but not included on the soundtrack. According to guitarist Tony Iommi's autobiography, the band began writing and rehearsing songs at a rented house in Toluca Lake in Los Angeles. They initially hoped to record in their own studio and purchased a sound desk, but Iommi said, "We just couldn't get a guitar sound. We tried it in the studio. We tried it in the hallway. We tried it everywhere but it just wasn't working. We'd bought a studio and it wasn't working!" The band eventually recorded the album at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. Mob Rules was the first Sabbath album to feature Vinny Appice on drums, who had replaced original member Bill Ward in the middle of the Heaven and Hell tour. Bassist Geezer Butler said of working with Appice, "No, because Vinny was a big fan of the band and loved Bill's playing. Bill was one of his favourite drummers and so he knew all his parts and my bass parts and he adjusted accordingly to everybody in the band. He was brilliant. He came in and totally filled in Bill's shoes." Butler cited "The Sign of the Southern Cross" as his favourite Mob Rules track because "it gave me a chance to experiment with some bass effects". The album was the last time the band worked with producer and engineer Martin Birch, who went on to work with Iron Maiden until his retirement in 1992. Iommi explained to Guitar World in 1992, "We were all going through a lot of problems at that time, most of it related to drugs. Even the producer, Martin Birch, was having drug problems, and it hurt the sound of that record. Once that happens to your producer, you’re really screwed." Mob Rules would be Dio's second and final studio recording with Black Sabbath until the Mob Rules-era line-up reunited for 1992's Dehumanizer. The seeds of discontent appear to have sprouted when Dio was offered a solo deal by Warner Brothers, with Iommi stating, "After the (Heaven and Hell) record became such a great success, Warner Brothers extended the contract at the same time, offering Ronnie a solo deal. That felt a bit odd to us, because we were a band and we didn't want to separate anybody." Dio confided that the recording of Mob Rules was far more difficult for him than Heaven and Hell because "we approached the writing very much differently than the first one. Geezer had gone so we wrote in a very controlled environment in a living room with little amplifiers. And with Mob Rules we hired a studio, turned up as loud as possible and smashed through it all. So it made for a different kind of an attitude." Vinny Appice stated in a 2021 interview that the writing was largely a collaborative process done through jam sessions: "We put [songs] together by jamming and playing together and putting ideas in the pot. It's a natural way of doing it and it works really well for us. That's how we did all the big albums like Mob Rules and Holy Diver. Nobody came in with a song." Iommi reflected to Guitar World in 1992, "Mob Rules was a confusing album for us. We started writing songs differently for some reason, and ended up not using a lot of really great material. That line-up was really great, and the whole thing fell apart for very silly reasons — we were all acting like children." The major problem, noted by Mick Wall in his book Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe, was that the balance of power within the band had shifted: "With Bill and Ozzy happy to leave the heavy lifting to Tony and Geezer, in terms of songwriting, coming into the studio only when they were called, even as their flair deserted them over the final, dismal Ozzy-era albums, at least everybody knew where they stood. Now, though, the creative chemistry had shifted." Iommi reflected in 1997, "I still like that album."

In Their Own Story

The cover of Mob Rules is adapted from a 1974 painting titled "Dream 1: Crucifiers" from a series of paintings by Greg Hildebrandt of the Brothers Hildebrandt partnership. The paintings were created after a projected documentary on world hunger by the brothers under the guidance of the Catholic Church fell through. Greg's relationship with the church soured, which resulted in the series of dream paintings. These paintings, including "Dream 1…" were published in 1978 by Ballantine Books in the book The Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt. There were alterations, besides the inclusion of the band's name and album title, in the artwork. A hook seen dangling from the left side of the torture implement was changed to a cross. The blood stain in the center of the piece was also altered to more closely resemble a devil's head.

Reader's Guide

Mob Rules was released on 4 November 1981 to mixed reviews. In the US it went gold and in the UK it reached the Top 20 and spawned two chart singles, the title track and "Turn Up the Night". AllMusic's Greg Prato called the album "underrated" and enthused, "Mob Rules was given a much punchier in-your-face mix by Birch, who seemed re-energized after his work on new wave of British heavy metal upstarts Iron Maiden's Killers album. Essentially Mob Rules is a magnificent record, with the only serious problem being the sequencing of the material which mirrors Heaven and Hell's almost to a tee." Guitarist Tony Iommi acknowledged this common criticism in his memoir, admitting that he was frustrated at being accused of making Heaven and Hell part two and speculating that the band would have been criticized regardless of their approach. Seven of the album's tracks were played live on the Mob Rules Tour. "E5150" was used as an intro tape, and "Over and Over" was the only song not featured on the tour in any way. While the title track was the only song from this album regularly played by Black Sabbath on subsequent tours, "Falling Off the Edge of the World" was performed live by Heaven & Hell (which consisted of the same Black Sabbath lineup that recorded Mob Rules), and "Sign of the Southern Cross" occasionally played live by Dio. J.D. Considine of Rolling Stone gave Mob Rules a negative review in February 1986. Profiling the album in 2008, Bryan Reesman noted: "Even with Dio bringing in more fantasy-based lyrics and moving the group away from seemingly Satanic verses, the title track to Mob Rules, not to mention its menacing cover could easily imply a call to anarchy. But beyond the snarling guitars and vocals is actually a cautionary tale against mindless mayhem." In modern re-evaluations, the album is generally looked upon very favorably, with Rolling Stone awarding the album a positive review of 3 stars, and other reviewers such as Allmusic's Fred Thomas observing that "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." and Classic Rock complimenting the lyricism alongside Tony Iommi's riffs.

Did You Know?

• The first new recording Black Sabbath made after Heaven and Hell was a version of the title track 'The Mob Rules' for the soundtrack of the film Heavy Metal.
• The album cover is adapted from a 1974 painting titled 'Dream 1: Crucifiers' by Greg Hildebrandt, and the blood stain was altered to more closely resemble a devil's head.
• Bassist Geezer Butler cited 'The Sign of the Southern Cross' as his favourite Mob Rules track because it gave him a chance to experiment with bass effects.
• Tony Iommi stated in 1992 that drug problems, including those of producer Martin Birch, hurt the sound of the record.
• Vinny Appice said the writing for the album was done through jam sessions, with nobody coming in with a pre-written song.