Mob Rules To Release "Rise Of The Ruler" August 22

Photo: Melinda Clabes

When the North German power metallers MOB RULES unveil their eagerly awaited new album “Rise Of The Ruler” on 08/22/2025, fans of melodic metal art will be thrilled. The follow-up to 2018's successful album “Beast Reborn” (which reached a sensational #37 in the German and #59 in the Swiss album charts) is not only a work brimming with creativity, wit and quality, but also the conceptual continuation of their two early albums “Savage Land” (1999) and “Temple Of Two Suns”
(2000), with which MOB RULES laid the foundation for their career. Both albums are linked by an exciting concept story about life in a dystopian, hostile end-time world in which resources are becoming scarce. This is exactly where “Rise Of The Ruler” comes in and keyboardist Jan Christian Halfbrodt (who is responsible for all the lyrics) continues the thread.

The first single “Back To Savage Land” is programmatic in this context. The band around singer Klaus Dirks has succeeded in creating a true power metal anthem that will take the hearts of metal fans by storm with its speed, strong melodies, healthy heaviness and catchiness. The first taste of “Rise Of The Ruler” perfectly sums up the band's strengths in its compactness. In collaboration with director Rainer Fränzen (Orden Ogan, Grave Digger, among others), the most extensive video concept in
the band's history was created, which includes the song “Dawn Of Second Sun” as well as “Back To Savage Land”.

The visual design was created by French cover artist Stan W. Decker (Masterplan, Primal Fear etc.), who perfectly staged the post-apocalyptic scenery of “Rise Of The Ruler”. Mixing and mastering were once again in the experienced hands of Markus Teske (Vanden Plas, The New Roses etc.). After “My Sobriety Mind” (from the “Beast Reborn” album), MOB RULES also collaborated again with singer Ulli Perhonen (Snow White Blood), which is reflected in the beautiful duet “On The Trail”.

In addition to the eleven-track standard album (available as CD digipak and colored vinyl), MOB RULES have also been working on a very special fan item over the last few months: The limited earbook edition of “Rise Of The Ruler” comes with an exclusive bonus CD containing five additional, brand new songs, as well as a spoken version of the concept story, an alternative version of “Dawn Of Second Sun” and the two video clips for “Back To Savage Land” and “Dawn Of Second Sun”.
The large-format, hardcover book-style 48-page earbook extensively documents the creation of the album, video shoot, photo shoot and provides insights into the concept story.

It was definitely worth the wait: after “Beast Reborn” (2018), the live album “Beast Over Europe” (2019) and the anniversary compilation “Celebration Days - 30 Years Of Mob Rules” released in 2024, the Northern Lights are finally back with a powerful new studio album that marks another milestone in their extensive career.