{"id":46795,"date":"2014-11-06T20:38:17","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T01:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=46795"},"modified":"2014-11-06T20:38:17","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T01:38:17","slug":"mob-rules-timekeeper-20th-anniversary-box-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/mob-rules-timekeeper-20th-anniversary-box-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Mob Rules | Timekeeper – 20th Anniversary Box<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"MobIt’s hard to believe that German power metal band Mob Rules has been around long enough to be celebrating their 20th anniversary. Their debut album was released 15 years ago, but apparently they’ve been active a full two decades now. The band is celebrating in style with a deluxe 4-disc retrospective called Timekeeper – 20th Anniversary Box<\/em>. Here’s what you get:<\/p>\n

Disc 1 is titled Timekeeper: The Best<\/em>, and is exactly what the name implies. It has 15 of the best Mob Rules songs, covering all of the band’s studio albums from 1999’s Savage Land through 2012’s Cannibal Nation. Honestly, one disc doesn’t do this band’s catalog justice, and many of their better, more recent songs are omitted. Two full discs of \u201cbest of\u201d material would have been perfect.<\/p>\n

Disc 2 is titled Timekeeper: Friends<\/em>, and it’s this disc that will get serious Mob Rules fans to open their wallets for this set. It includes ten new recordings, all of which feature at least one guest performer. Guests include Udo Dirkschneider (ex-Accept, U.D.O.), Bernhard Weiss (Axxis), Amanda Somerville, Herman Frank (Victory), Chity Somapala (ex-Firewind) and others. Seven of the ten are re-recordings of older Mob Rules songs, and it’s very cool to see how the guest performers influence those songs. One is a high energy cover of UFO’s \u201cLights Out.\u201d There are two new songs as well.<\/p>\n

Disc 3 is a 2-song single. It features the single version of \u201cMy Kingdom Come\u201d and a live version of \u201cMeet You in Heaven.\u201d As cool as these songs are, this disc seems like a giant missed opportunity. They could easily have collected the various b-sides and bonus tracks they’ve released over the years as a treat to those fans who can’t always afford the pricey imports and EP releases.<\/p>\n

Disc 4 (which we were not provided for review) is a DVD featuring the full Mob Rules performance from ProgPower USA, five video clips and additional live footage. This should be another highlight of the Timekeeper set, especially for those who were in attendance at that ProgPower USA performance.<\/p>\n

It’s not perfect, but there’s really no way for any serious Mob Rules fan to skip this set. Timekeeper<\/em> is loaded with great German power metal songs, and has more than enough extras to make it a worthwhile purchase even if you already own all of the Mob Rules albums. And the price point is about what you’d expect to pay for a DVD alone, making this an even more impressive set.<\/p>\n

Genre: Power Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nKlaus Dirks (v)
\nMatthias Mineur (g)
\nSven Ludke (g)
\nMarkus Brinkmann (b)
\nNikolas Fritz (d)
\nJan Christian Halfbrodt (k)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:<\/p>\n

Disc 1 \u2013 Timekeeper: The Best
\n1.\tTemple Fanfare
\n2.\tPilot of Earth
\n3.\tBlack Rain
\n4.\tCannibal Nation
\n5.\tAstral Hand
\n6.\tClose My Eyes
\n7.\tDead Man’s Face
\n8.\tAmong the Gods
\n9.\tIn the Land of Wind and Rain
\n10.\tHollowed Be Thy Name
\n11.\tLast Farewell
\n12.\tIce and Fire
\n13.\tLord of Madness (live)
\n14.\tWith Sparrows
\n15.\tRain Song (live)<\/p>\n

Disc 2 \u2013 Timekeeper: Friends
\n1.\tInsurgeria
\n2.\tCelebration Day
\n3.\tLights Out
\n4.\tEnd of All Days
\n5.\tBroken
\n6.\tAll Above the Atmosphere
\n7.\tCoast to Coast
\n8.\tHow the Gypsy Was Born
\n9.\tRun With the Wolf
\n10.\tMy Kingdom Come<\/p>\n

Disc 3 \u2013 Single
\n1.\tMy Kingdom Come
\n2.\tMeet You in Heaven (live)<\/p>\n

Label: AFM Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.mobrules.de<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist — It’s hard to believe that German power metal band Mob Rules has been around long enough to be celebrating their 20th anniversary. Their debut album was released 15 […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":46796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[8645,2317,10235,1097,10236],"class_list":{"0":"post-46795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-afm-records","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-mob-rules","11":"tag-power-metal","12":"tag-timekeeper-20th-anniversary-box"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}