Mob Rules - Among The Gods

*=Staff's pick	Black Rain Hydrophobia* Invitation Time* The Miracle Dancer Among The Gods* New World Symphony Ship Of Fools Seven Seas Meet You In Heaven Arabia

Genre	Heavy Metal	Klaus Dirks	Vocals
Tracks	10	Oliver Fuhlhage	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	Matthias Mineur	Guitar
Label	SPV	Thorsten Plorin	Bass
Release	17 May 2004	Arved Mannott	Drums
Country	Germany	Sascha Onnen	Keyboards
Similar artists	Chinchilla

Germany's Mob Rules are back with their 4th outing, and the style is the same: classic, riff based heavy metal with focus on a simple structure containing strong arrangements and refrains, and some american touches to it.

I really don't know what to say about this. After five listenings I still don't really feel anything for this album. It continues exactly where the last album Hollowed Be Thy Name from 2002 ended, and I spontanously feel that it would be time for something to happen. I am all in favour of a band being faithful to their sound and style, but that requires that the songwriting gets better by time. That is not the case here.

It is a litle bit heavier and more straight this time, and a tiny step back to the earlier albums, but the difference is marginal, and at the same it is unfortunatly a bit slower then before. The usual type of Mob Rules songs are represented: the heavy and pompous Black Rain, Among The Gods and Arabia, the uptempo Hydrophobia, Invitation Time and Meet You In Heaven and the midpaced and slower The Miracle Dancer, New World Symphony, Seven Seas and Ship Of Fools. Fully competent, but still average heavy metal. It feels like the music contains less and less for every release, and now it feels a bit too naked to grab hold of you and keep up the interest.

It feels a bit too soft and careful, almost laidback. They have more power and pondus inside of them, I am sure of that, and I wish for that to show more. It has stopped happening things in the Mob Rules camp, and if you already own the previous efforts you will not explore any new horizons with this one. You might instead risk being bored and disappointed. Since I had expected more, and the album does not grow after several listenings, the grades have to stay at this level. Die hard fans might appreciate this, but I'm not even sure of that.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	6,5	5

Summary
5,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy