MOB RULES - EP review added 6th October 2009
Album Review: Astral Hand EP (2009)
For fans of: Melodic Metal.. and wastes of time
German band Mob Rules have been around for 15 years and already have 5 studio albums and 1 live album to their names. The Astral Hand EP is a precursor to their next full album, Radical Peace, which is penciled in for release in November '09.
Klaus Dirks (vocals), Matthias Mineur (guitar), Sven Lüdke (guitar), Markus Brinkmann (bass), Sascha Onnen (keyboards) and Nicholas Fritz (drums) undoubtedly play a tight, enjoyable sort of music. The melodies and harmonies are excellent, but I'm a little unsure as to the point of this release.
The title track is utterly brilliant - really, properly bloody good - but then they repeat it a further two times. Why? The whole point of an EP is not to offer numerous versions of the same track. You sometimes get that on a single so a DJ can choose which track to play - perhaps a long, short and clean version - but here it makes little sense.
'Man On The Run' is an okay track. It's nothing special, but at least it only appears once... 'Hold On' is a rehash of the song from their Temple Of Two Suns album. Again, why? It's a fine effort but its inclusion reeks of zero effort and imagination.
I'd give this EP 1 out of 5 if it wasn't for the brilliance of that first track. If the full album is even half as good as the 'Astral Hand' song it's going to be phenomenal, but this EP is a total waste of time.
Check out... The first track.
Track List:
01. Astral Hand (Album Version)
02. Astral Hand (Edit Version)
03. Astral Hand (Instrumental)
04. Man On The Run
05. Hold On (2009)
Label: AFM Records
Artist's website(s): Mob Rules , MySpace
