Black Sabbath
Mob Rules

While browsing DeBaser, I read a harshly negative review of this 1981 album, and I thought, damn, did they put the wrong vinyl in the sleeve when I bought it? Something from Stryper must've gotten in, reading the reviewer's opinion. I go to check. Everything’s fine, the opener 'Turn Up The Night' is right there with Toni Iommi's surprising solo and all the other tracks I remembered follow in order. What a relief.

Whether Ozzy was irretrievably burnt out in '78 or not (not really, in truth), Toni's big move to revive the infernal name of an honest doom rock band is one that changed the course of music history. Taking advantage of differing opinions on the stylistic direction of Rainbow's career, the guitarist managed to enlist in Sabbath a small but immensely badass elf who alone sings like the entire damn Red Army choir and gestures and interprets like a Shakespearean actor, and he even has the apotropaic sign of the horns (up and down) which is a godsend for the band's image. The guy chose a not-so-modest stage name, but he truly has an endless voice and a natural inclination for the emphatic genre, so the reformation of Black Sabbath is accomplished under the banner of that epic metal that some glimpses of Rainbow had excellently foreshadowed ('Stargazer', 'Gates Of Babylon') but not sufficiently developed, and then abandoned. (In fact, the genre, lacking voices comparable to Dio – literally – would no longer be effectively undertaken by the Man in Black, and would be progressively set aside in favor of AOR-style hard rock, admirable but no longer legendary).

We all know the story of Sabbath: the collaboration, unfortunately, lasts only for two studio albums and a double live album, excellent in listening but heavily reworked in the studio, and it is precisely the disagreements over the mixing and production of ‘Live Evil’ that serve as the pretext for an outraged Ronnie's departure. In reality, the two divas could not share or divide the stage, and the helm returned to the very tough Iommi, who evidently preferred the idea of poaching singers from Blackmore and turned to none other than... but that's another story, of course.

The repertoire of Black Sabbath 'Mark II' has over the years become an immensely valuable asset of the epic genre, thanks to the 24-carat riffs of the master of the house and the stentorian and tenor voice of the diabolical and dearly loved sprite, increasingly the darling of rock crowds, also because he never wears out and will be able to deliver up to two straight hours or more of memorable performances, both in the fast tracks and in the ballads of wandering knights. 'Heaven And Hell' lays the first eight fateful tombstones of the sepulcher, as we know, but the subsequent 'Mob Rules' is no less, according to the enthusiastic fans worldwide who promptly honor it with a platinum record (and we're not talking about easy-to-please folks; you can't just give them Mino Reitano).

So what did the reviewer friend hear as so abominable on this album on April 24, 2005, in the late afternoon, to punish it with such an unforgiving opinion?

I don’t know. 'Turn Up The Night' is a great fast-paced track and features a guitar solo that makes you exclaim, did Eddie Van Halen drop by here? All guitarists and Black Sabbath fans know the story of the fingers of Toni Iommi's right hand, his cross and delight, because if it's true that the lack of two finger tips made phrasing on the fretboard difficult (remember that Toni is left-handed), it also led to the birth of the doom genre, as he had to favor slow and heavy riffs to the point of tuning down his instrument, with an undeniable sepulchral effect.

Toni Iommi has all my admiration and sympathy because even a much lesser problem in my right hand required patience, pain, and a lot of practice for me to continue playing at my usual level, which is honestly not to be underestimated. Toni has always claimed to experience a lot of pain, and in my small way, I know something about it too, and I haven’t even finished fighting. (In fact, I'm having surgery in two days, and perhaps that's why I've been thinking of the Sabbath guitarist. Whatever happens, I know I'll adapt my arm once again to play with my elbow or my teeth if necessary. Long live Rock and Roll).

All this to say that we certainly weren’t used to hearing him flutter over the keys, but in this 'Mob Rules' it seems like hearing an instrumentalist who has found a new way to live with the guitar, far from a disappointing album. Nine hell of tracks, including the instrumental E5150 (which stands for E-V-I-L if the numbers 5, 1 and 50 are expressed in Roman numerals, a cryptic idea from Geezer Butler), three or four anthology tracks and an overall very high level. The album is more wicked and punchier in the mix than the previous one, which, however, contains at least one more substantial masterpiece, and is much more compact and granite-like, and everyone (not just the guitarist) has found the definitive balance of the best sound for this lineup and this repertoire. Beautiful the opener, legendary the title track, and absolutely terrifying the epic ‘Sign Of The Southern Cross’, while ‘Over And Over’, specially forged for Ronnie James Dio's voice and interpretation, is one of the most intense 'slow' tracks ever recorded by the Sabs. I wouldn’t know how to speak ill of 'Falling Off The Edge Of The World', nor of 'Country Girl' and 'Slipping Away', while 'Voodoo' even seems to look back to the past, way back to 1973. Don’t you like this album? You don’t like Black Sabbath, I say.

It will be Dio's subsequent appearance with the band, eleven years later, that is not at this level at all, forced into a genre that doesn’t belong to them and hasn’t produced memorable pieces (maybe one, if I really push myself and come up with a little something). After the forgettable 'Dehumanizer' and a further fifteen-year hiatus, the lineup known as ‘Heaven And Hell’ (even though the name Black Sabbath always remains Toni Iommi's property) continued the journey replicating the majesty and style of the eponymous album and this ‘Mob Rules’, in no way inferior to the previous one and stylistically and conceptually united with it. All this until the sad stop imposed one dark day by the Grim Lady, whom not even the Sabbath priests could persuade to relent and who suddenly snatched the Little Man with the Large Voice from us. Not from our hearts, Lady, nor from our eyes and ears, because I hear him now, and I am seeing him, he's flipping the horns at your face once again, and at 65 going strong, he sings truly like God, no pun intended. The Lady isn’t tech-savvy.