Matthias Mineur, Sascha Onnen
Mob Rules
If you think the way "Ethnolution A.D." developed itself was a test passed with good grade, then "Radical Peace" is even more steady. With enough pouring riffs built on a Rock basis but also strong epic Power Metal sounds with pomp bents, this is a valuable choice for a person crossing the "just Euro Power" Metal borders. Reliable ambassadors of the German scene, MOB RULES show no signs of wear and Matthias Mineur (guitars) & Sascha Onnen (keyboards) have some good explanation 'bout this achievement.
By Grigoris Chronis
•
March 25, 2010
Hello Matthias, thanks for taking the time to answer to our questions for this brief interview. What's the status in the MOB RULES camp at this moment?
The original plan was to tour with Ronnie James Dio after the release of "Radical Peace", which was unfortunately cancelled (due to Dio being diagnosed with stomach cancer). So right now we are looking for alternative plans. Hope we have some other opportunities. But we will still play some festivals in this year.
"Radical Peace": how important do you feel this latest album is for the band's discography and/or career? How crucial do you think it is for MOB RULES's name, having in mind the driving force(s) behind the band?
I think, this is (like almost) the best album of MOB RULES by far. The aim is and always was to make the best possible album. That we successfully evolved has to do with our bigger experience and with new musicians who brought a new dimension inside of MOB RULES. All this you can hear on "Radical Peace", I think.
The CD has been hailed by many as the best album in the band's history. Not willing to chat much on this, let's just ask if you count much on the feedback received by the Media or fans. You support the opinion that an artist should listen only to his own voice?
Of course we are reading the critics in some magazines or in the Internet. And it is a good feeling that most people like "Radical Peace" a lot, because writing and recording such an album means one year of hard work. But even if the critics weren't as good as they are, that wouldn't matter, because we are proud of this album.
"The bottom line is that MOB RULES tried successfully to jump out of the overused Euro Power Metal recipe and walk towards music diversity", reads a line in the review in our mag. Would you consider "Radical Peace" to be more 'pomp' in regards to its predecessors, but also more fresh? - I'd like to escape saying "modern", haha! Or it's just a matter of production? Was the album's direction/sound a natural process while writing and recording or it's something that caught the band by surprise when all was done and mixed?
We never think about new songs, new sounds, new approaches, we always let it go and see if we enjoy it. It's sometime hard work (mainly for the 18-minute "The Oswald File"), but we are both proud and happy with the result. We produced the CD by ourselves, with a little help from Markus Teske, who mixed the production. The aim was to evolve and develop our sound and reflect the bigger progressive attitude in our music. The songs are a bit harder edged and a bit darker as in the past, so we tried to transform this into the sound of the record.
Cannot escape but ask bout the impressive work done in the lyrics subjects in "Radical Peace". I have to confess I saw MOB RULES develop an even more social/historic profile - something I know you anyway had from the beginning. Can you guide our readers a little bit into the stories behind the songs in he new CD?
The ideas for the lyrics are from all the things that we are interested in: politics, culture, different countries, economics etc…The highlight and centrepiece of the album is of course the 18-minute epic "The Oswald File", dealing with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. With this song, we continue the concept of political memorable moments in the world's history, which we started with "Ethnolution A.D." three years ago and we don't scare to pick up very serious subjects like the Holocaust in the opener "Children Of The Flame", that tells the story about the deathcamp children in Auschwitz.
Being the sixth album for MOB RULES, it's obvious the band has its own songwriting patterns by now. Speaking to -mostly- just Metal fans, how easy or difficult is it to be unchained from your own favourite bands and develop/evaluate your own attributes in musicmaking? Do you get upset - if this has ever happened, to be exact - when you read/hear MOB RULES labelled as just "another Euro Power Metal band" (cause they surely ain't, haha!)?
The aim is and always was to make the best possible album with the best music we like. Like any other band we are always inspired and influenced by other great bands of course. We also inspire each other and since this is our sixth album, we already have a kind of musical tradition to work on and it is a little bit frustrating to be compared with bands that don't have such a long history like we have. But you know, in this business there are good and bad journalists and only the bad ones would write "another Euro Power Metal band", haha.
Picking up one and only song to convince the potential buyer of "Radical Peace"s quality, which one would you choose? And why? Which are the keywords?
Well, I really like the opener "Children Of The Flames", mainly due to the doomy guitars, the lyrics and the breathtaking IRON MAIDEN atmosphere in that song. I also like our first single "Astral Hand", a great song with amazing hooks and a very catchy chorus. However, the highlight still remains "The Oswald File". You see, it is difficult to choose only one song.
More than one decade after the "SavageLand" debut, which are the main differences between the 'then'and 'now' Matthias? Both as a guitarist in MOB RULES and as a music fan and person?
As mentioned above, the band has evolved due to personal changes. And we are more self-confident, we know who we are and what we do best. Beside that, music always is a question of experience, too. I guess the sound is a bit more progressive than on our debut and the topics are a bit more diverse and unusual for Metal. Our taste in music has changed in ten years, obviously, and so our songwriting has changed a bit as well. Today we also like bands as OPETH or AMORPHIS, which means a few darker elements in our music. I think this makes a good blend between traditional Power Metal, progressive elements and some darker tunes.
Last but not least; being a huge LA Hard Rock fan myself, I would always want to ask if it's true you got your name from DOKKEN's awesome axemen George Lynch. I guess everybody shall think it's the BLACK SABBATH hymn responsible?
It is true! It has nothing to do with BLACK SABBATH whatsoever. I used to be a huge LYNCH MOB fan and I once saw George Lynch wearing a baseball cap with the slogan "Lynch Mob Rules". I thought that would be a cool name for our band. So, MOB RULES it was; it's a kind of anarchistic name, which I rather like.
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