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Ralph Viera (Dr.Fukk) from the band Thrash Or Die(http://www.facebook.com/thrashordie.fl) reviews Mob Rules. Black Sabbath's tenth studio album, released in November 1981. It peaked at number 29 on the U.S. charts.n the UK, it became the fourth Black Sabbath studio-album to attain Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in February 1982.It was the first album to feature Vinny Appice on drums, who had replaced original member Bill Ward in the middle of the tour in support of the previous year's Heaven and Hell. This led to Ozzy Osbourne dubbing the line-up "Geezer and the three Wops".[citation needed]
The cover art is a modified version of artist Greg Hildebrandt's piece entitled Dream 1: Crucifiers from 1971, with Black Sabbath licensing its use for the cover of Mob Rules. The original artwork has been augmented for the album, where not only have the band and album names been conspicuously added to the back wall, but also the hook hanging on the left side of the structure was changed to a crucifix, and the stain in the middle of the structure has been altered to resemble a devil's head. Lastly, Greg Hildebrandt's name has been added to the bottom center of the piece, as the original was rectangular in shape with the artist's name & year in the lower left corner, thus being truncated in the album's square presentation. The lyrical themes are dark, notably on tracks such as "The Sign of the Southern Cross" and "Falling Off the Edge of the World".
The Live Evil album was recorded on the Mob Rules tour. The album is included in the Black Sabbath box set The Rules of Hell.[4] The Mob Rules lineup toured under the name Heaven & Hell from 2006 until Ronnie James Dio's death in 2010. Their only album, The Devil You Know, was released in 2009.

Live Evil, released in December 1982 and in January 1983 in the UK, is the first "official" live album by British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, the previously released Live at Last (1980) not having been sanctioned by the band. It was recorded with Ronnie James Dio singing and is a document of the Mob Rules World Tour, that ran from 15 November 1981 to 13 August 1982. The 2007 limited-edition release Live at Hammersmith Odeon is from this same tour.
The sleeve states that Live Evil was recorded in Seattle, San Antonio and Dallas, but doesn't give the venues or recording dates for the individual songs. (Black Sabbath played Seattle on 23--24 April 1982, Dallas on 12 May, and San Antonio on 13 May 1982.) To further confuse matters, during a radio broadcast of his band Dio, recorded live in 1983 in Fresno, CA, Ronnie James Dio says, "Just in case you didn't know, the album Live Evil that we [Dio and drummer Vinny Appice] did with Black Sabbath here last time was recorded at Fresno.' It is not unreasonable to assume that many of the shows were recorded with a view to the live album (see the aforementioned Live at Hammersmith Odeon) but whether any of the tracks recorded at Fresno, where Sabbath played 18 April 1982, made the final cut is unknown at present.
Already having tense relations with the other band members, Dio and Appice abruptly left the group sometime in October 1982, during the mixing of the album, amidst rumors that they had sneaked into the studio late at night to mix the drums and vocals higher. All parties have since denied that this occurred and laid the blame on the engineer, who was 'telling tales'. In what Dio has called retaliation for his and Appice's departure from the group, on the back of the album, Dio is listed as "Ronnie Dio" instead of his stage-name of "Ronnie James Dio," and Appice is listed as a special guest rather than a member of the band. Production credits were ultimately for Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler and whilst the band sound well-mixed, the crowd is all but inaudible. It is interesting that when the "Neon Knights" single was released in 1980, it was Iommi and Dio who had produced the live version of "Children Of the Sea" which was the B-side.
One of the most popular tracks on the album is a near 20-minute long medley that includes "Heaven and Hell" (with its extended breakdown section and additional lyrics), "The Sign of the Southern Cross", a guitar solo, and finishing off the ending of "Heaven and Hell".
The 5th track, "Voodoo" features an ad libitum part from Dio, enhancing the song with additional lyrics not to be found on the studio version.
Another favourite is an extended "War Pigs" which featured a drum solo from Appice whose playing more closely resembled John Bonham than original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward's jazzier style.
Early in the "Heaven and Hell" medley Dio tells the audience "Not only are we filming this one...", but the footage have yet to become commercially available. The show in Dallas was filmed and some footage can be found on YouTube.