While there’s only seven songs on the new Mob Rules platter, it still clocks in around 52 minutes, thanks in large part to the 18:10 ‘The Oswald File’ (undoubtedly almost as voluminous as the titular FBI dossier on JFK’s assassin), which investigates the psychology of the gunman, rather than detail the events. It utilizes a newscast snippets and begins with the American president’s famous speech in Berlin. You know Mob Rules are German, right?

Anyway, all songs about that (fateful) day will pale in comparison to Saxon’s ‘Dallas 1PM’. Modulated vocals start the romping Priestly ‘Trial By Fire’ and ‘Warchild’ features a killer guitar break, while ‘Astral Hand’ shows off a more progressive flare, especially towards the beginning. The piano sections of the behemoth ‘Oswald File’ also support such tendencies, augmented by synthesized strings. In fact, despite the Black Sabbath inspired moniker, Mob Rules are a prog band with the odd power metal leaning (high pitched singer), relying on keyboards and rarely opting for balls out aggression.