RATINGS: A = must own B = buy it C= average D = yawn F = puke

Mob Rules – Cannibal Nation
AFM Records
www.afm-records.de

Rating: B+

Mob Rules were formed in the 1990’s and on November 13th, the band will release their 9th studio album, Cannibal Nation, which is the best in their history.

Vocalist Klaus Dirks, a founding member of the band, is very happy with the way the album turned out, “Mob Rules are really there to fulfill dreams – our own dreams. We’ve never thought about it if a song or an arrangement would encounter any resistance. Probably, this is why the new album’s title was never questioned. We liked it immediately, so we just said, let’s go with it.”

Mob Rules is a mix of power metal and classic old school metal with a twinge of progressive rock in the mix. This makes for a unique sound. In fact, it is hard to believe it has taken them nine albums and most metal fans in the USA have not heard of the band. “We’ve been overseas several times to play festivals, and people tell us that we are hailed as a cult band there; one that puts yardsticks out there in the genre,” says Dirks. “I guess we can be confident in what we do now, especially when we have success at events like 2011's edition of the ProgPower USA Festival, in Atlanta.”@

Dirks discusses the mixed styles of the band, “When a band keeps up with its style of music as we do, with seven albums behind us, we don’t really see any danger in doing that. Our fans wouldn’t think that we’ve now turned towards an extreme metal direction. Mob Rules always stood for deeply melodic songs and a rockin’-metallic attitude. Any album from this band should always question, and the title should always be accepted as provocative, right? We’ve done it before, and we’ll continue to do it.”

Mob Rules have made an album of pure metal that is full of hooks and is easily pleasing to hardcore metal heads as well as more pop oriented hard rock fans. It is not an easy place to be. The band may have their own talents and abilities to play in several styles within the metal genre to blame for their difficulties of breaking big. It is a shame because this band deserves more appreciation. In fact, if readers of Classic Rock Revisited will give this album a chance then they will like what they here.

This is album is part Scorpions and part DIO mixed in with a whole lot of Mob Rules. The band is talented songwriters and performers. This one could be the sleeper album of 2012! The song “Lost” is a great metal song while “Close My Eyes” starts off the album with Mob Rules proving how good a band they are. Fittingly, “Tele Box Fool” embraces what idiots the media is, a fact shown by the way the American hard rock media has totally missed out on Mob Rules.

The final word on Cannibal Nation goes to Dirks, “In my opinion this album is a prime example of how timeless, traditional music can sound."

@By Jeb Wright