AFM Records (2009)
Flying under the radar has been part and parcel of this German sextet’s career path through the years. The first three albums coming out through Limb Music during 1999-2002 had more in common with symphonic power than their recent fare. 2004’s fourth album “Among the Gods” struck a chord with my head, allowing Mob Rules to take in American melodic and progressive influences from acts like Savatage and Queensryche to develop creative arrangements and diverse songwriting that opens the band to wider audience appeal.
This sixth full length centers around a six part, 18 minute plus epic track “The Oswald File”. Containing actual dialogue from president John F. Kennedy, the song starts as more of a doomy ballad - picking up the pace around the 4:30 mark before more news report sound bites enter in the mid-section. I thoroughly enjoyed the acoustic guitar meets symphonic keyboard bridge tension before the song takes more of a swirling, Queensryche-like harmonic feel. Tackling one of the biggest political tragedies of the past fifty years makes for an all around larger than life experience.
The other six songs aren’t anything to overlook either. “Children of the Flames” has that trippy exotic riff as its backbone while the chorus and solo recall the latter day Savatage before Criss Oliva sadly left this earth. “Trial By Fire” contains more of those mid-tempo German traits with the cultural guitar strains and driving drum work that make sure-fire crowd pleasers the minute they spring from the speakers. Keyboardist Sascha Onnen doesn’t take a back seat in this dual guitar lineup either, balancing real piano lines with the deeper symphonic textures in a slower track like “Warchild” to perfection.
What I love most about Mob Rules would be their fearlessness when it comes to their style of play and originality. With “Radical Peace” they craft alluring musicianship without overblown pretentiousness - you may not get the material as instantly as say Motörhead, but I think the depth will make everyone return to this album again and again.
www.mobrules.de
www.afm-records.de
Composed by Matt Coe