Sunday, July 19, 2009

Retrospective: Ronnie James Dio - Black Sabbath...Twice

Really a superb album. This was Dio's first release with Black Sabbath (after the firing of past singer, Ozzy Osbourne) and he makes an amazing first impression. Every song is decent, with only one or two not being amazing. If Black Sabbath could release more albums like this, they would still be #1.
While not quite as good as Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules was still a pretty solid album. Holding the singles "Sign of The Southern Cross" and "Mob Rules" this album was a valiant effort by the group to remain in the public's eye, after their renewed popularity from their previous release. The only weird song is the odd instrumental "E5150" with bears little significance to anything else on the album.
This album is....well average to say the least. While it really isn't horrible, it's nothing that stands out. When you have greats like Dio, Tony Iommi, Vinny Appice, and Geezer Butler all on one project, odds are it's not going to be horrible...it just might not be that good. It's easy to see why the Dio-led Black Sabbath only stayed together for this one album. I'm glad they figured out the winning formula for their newest project, Heaven And Hell.

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