RUNNING WILD: Not-So Rapid Forays Into Their Catalog
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2018 10:00 pm
TL;DR
I like Running wild a lot. What do y'all think of 'em?
THE UNABRIDGED VERSION
Let's start by skipping all the obvious pirate cliches in this review and just hoist the anchor so we can set sail on this topic.....
Ooh, avoiding the pirate puns is gonna be harder than I thought.
Disclaimer: I consider RW among my 5 Most Favorite Bands Ever. So yes, I'm gonna be biased on some points. The other four, by the way, are Misfits, Riot, Blind Guardian, and Kai/Kiske-era Helloween. What can I say? Ich bin ein Deutcsh Power!
Why do I love RW so much? What sets them apart from Grave Digger, Rage, Stormwitch, and the 6,723 other traditional German metal bands not named Helloween and Blind Guardian?
Rolf just has the perfect metal voice. Rough but clear. the perfect bark for Metal music.
Killer guitar work.
Instantly memorable choruses.
Hooks! Dear God, the hooks in all these riffs are just crazy-catchy!
And finally, Consistency. Which leads to my next topic....
STAKING A BOLD CLAIM
RW may have the greatest streak of top-notch metal albums of any band ever. If you're not a fan, of course you disagree. Why are you even reading this? But if you are a fan, consider the run they put together:
Gates to Purgatory
Branded & Exiled
Under Jolly Roger
Port Royal
Death or Glory
Blazon Stone
Pile of Skulls
Black Hand Inn
Masquerade
Rivalry (getting iffy here, but I'll give it the nod for now)
That's TEN albums over the course of FOURTEEN years without a single bad album (or even an average one) in the mix! Now, compare that to the biggest names in Metal:
Black Sabbath: 6 (the first 6. If I needed to tell you that, go join the Justin Bieber fan club).
Judas Priest: 8 in a row, maybe, discounting their debut
Iron Maiden: 7, and that's giving 'Somewhere in Time' a free pass but OK, some dig it
Riot- you can make a case for 10+ here BUT you have to be a big fan of EVERY era of the band, which many people are not. Even i won't go that far, and I love this band (see disclaimer above).
Blind Guardian: 6, and that's IF you're cool with the first 2 (which I am, see the disclaimer).
I'm not trying to argue that RW is better than any of these bands, but that the consistency of their output is all but unparalleled in the course of metallic history. Even if someone doesn't like the 'pre-piracy' days AND you wanna call 'Masquerade' their last good album instead of 'Rivalry', you still get a 7-album span, surpassing all the Big Names except perhaps 'Priest. That is un-freaking-belieberable!!!!
And yet the band continues to be one of those acts that many, many metal fans just know as "that pirate band before Alestorm".
CONSPIRACY (Not King Diamond related)
What the hell gives? How does RW get so overlooked while other bands IN THE SAME SUB-GENRE get internationally recognized as 'pillars' of the Power Metal style?
Here are some conspiracy theories:
1- They don't seem to have ever been a great live act.
I've only heard a few live shows/bootlegs and I've never been impressed. And I've never heard anyone talk about their live shows as being among the best concerts they've ever seen. Their touring rep may have been stained early on when they toured with Celtic Frost and Noise made the unfortunate decision to bill RW as one of the heaviest bands on the planet.... while they opened for the band that brought you 'Morbid Tales'. This reportedly resulted in a lot of scorn/derision for RW on that early tour (source: Tom G. Warrior, 'Are You Morbid?').
2- They recorded their best material at the worst time.
RW started REALLY hitting their peak with 'Death or Glory' in '89, followed by Blazon Stone (91), Pile of Skulls (92), Black Hand Inn (94) and Masquerade (95).... exactly when 'traditional' Metal hit nadir in terms of popularity. By the time the hammer fell and reignited interest in Power Metal, 'the Rivalry' was wrapping up their classic period and album #11 (!) was in the works. So while everyone was losing their minds over 'Glory to the Brave', RW's ship had already sailed (you gotta admit THAT is a good pirate pun!).
3- Silly rabbit, pirates are for cheese-loving nerds.
The pirate theme seems to be just too cheesy for some folks. I just don't get how this is possible.
Dragons? sure!
Medieval warriors? Awesome!
Monsters? Cool!
Swords? Love it!
Drinking? Cheers!
Partying? Party on!
Pirates? Oh, that's too silly.
Forget all their songs dealing with history, fighting the oppression, riding free on the wind, conspiracies, religious hypocrisy, corrupt leaders, and all those other metal cliches that people eat up when sung about by any other band.... some pirate songs cross a line. Real Men play on 10, not on the gangplank.
4- Rolf dragged the sails through the mud for too long.
Yeah, hard not to argue that by 'Victory' things took a turn for the worse. Rolf spent more time on his costumes than on his songwriting. We won't discuss the drum machine controversy. I ain't arguing against any of that stuff.
However....
Bands overstay their welcome all the time, and folks usually still hold the old material in high regard. Perhaps when combined with Conspiracy Theory #2 above, people missed all the good stuff and thus just used the later, weaker stuff to affirm Conspiracy Theory #3 above: "gee, the 12th RW album isn't very good, so I'll just assume the previous 11 albums are equally bad".
ON THE HORIZON
So is there still room in port for this old rust bucket of a band?
Well, direct copycats BLAZON STONE seem to have gotten some positive feedback in recent years, so running up the ol' Jolly Roger doesn't automatically get you hanged, drawn, and quartered these days (ok Alan, easy on the pirate puns. Deep breath. Pretty blue butterflies. Exhale. OK, back on track).
And then there's 'Rapid Foray', which shows Rolf returning to form, at least somewhat. No more shadowmaking garbage that apes the worst Accept & Priest material from 1986. No more Beatles' covers. While it may be derivative of their classic albums, RF demonstrates that there is still some wind in those leathery old sails (ooooooh, the puns, the puns...).
It also begs the question: if Rolf can still play and write in this style, what the hell were the past ~20 years/5 albums about? Doing that one 'experimental album' to get something out of your system is one thing; blowing two decades writing stuff like "Me and the Boys", that's a fucking problem man! It's what drove me nuts about 'Siberian Winter'; it clearly demonstrated that Rolf COULD still write insanely great material, which begged the question, why the hell was he wasting time penning chum like 'Detonator'?!
So where do we go from here? Well, I've spent about an hour total crafting this diatribe, so it's long since time I opened the floor up to everyone else. Thoughts? Favorite albums? Trivia that others don't know? Theory #5 about GUN Records being to blame for the decline in album quality once Neat dropped the band?
Have at it, ye scurvey dogs!
I like Running wild a lot. What do y'all think of 'em?
THE UNABRIDGED VERSION
Let's start by skipping all the obvious pirate cliches in this review and just hoist the anchor so we can set sail on this topic.....
Ooh, avoiding the pirate puns is gonna be harder than I thought.
Disclaimer: I consider RW among my 5 Most Favorite Bands Ever. So yes, I'm gonna be biased on some points. The other four, by the way, are Misfits, Riot, Blind Guardian, and Kai/Kiske-era Helloween. What can I say? Ich bin ein Deutcsh Power!
Why do I love RW so much? What sets them apart from Grave Digger, Rage, Stormwitch, and the 6,723 other traditional German metal bands not named Helloween and Blind Guardian?
Rolf just has the perfect metal voice. Rough but clear. the perfect bark for Metal music.
Killer guitar work.
Instantly memorable choruses.
Hooks! Dear God, the hooks in all these riffs are just crazy-catchy!
And finally, Consistency. Which leads to my next topic....
STAKING A BOLD CLAIM
RW may have the greatest streak of top-notch metal albums of any band ever. If you're not a fan, of course you disagree. Why are you even reading this? But if you are a fan, consider the run they put together:
Gates to Purgatory
Branded & Exiled
Under Jolly Roger
Port Royal
Death or Glory
Blazon Stone
Pile of Skulls
Black Hand Inn
Masquerade
Rivalry (getting iffy here, but I'll give it the nod for now)
That's TEN albums over the course of FOURTEEN years without a single bad album (or even an average one) in the mix! Now, compare that to the biggest names in Metal:
Black Sabbath: 6 (the first 6. If I needed to tell you that, go join the Justin Bieber fan club).
Judas Priest: 8 in a row, maybe, discounting their debut
Iron Maiden: 7, and that's giving 'Somewhere in Time' a free pass but OK, some dig it
Riot- you can make a case for 10+ here BUT you have to be a big fan of EVERY era of the band, which many people are not. Even i won't go that far, and I love this band (see disclaimer above).
Blind Guardian: 6, and that's IF you're cool with the first 2 (which I am, see the disclaimer).
I'm not trying to argue that RW is better than any of these bands, but that the consistency of their output is all but unparalleled in the course of metallic history. Even if someone doesn't like the 'pre-piracy' days AND you wanna call 'Masquerade' their last good album instead of 'Rivalry', you still get a 7-album span, surpassing all the Big Names except perhaps 'Priest. That is un-freaking-belieberable!!!!
And yet the band continues to be one of those acts that many, many metal fans just know as "that pirate band before Alestorm".
CONSPIRACY (Not King Diamond related)
What the hell gives? How does RW get so overlooked while other bands IN THE SAME SUB-GENRE get internationally recognized as 'pillars' of the Power Metal style?
Here are some conspiracy theories:
1- They don't seem to have ever been a great live act.
I've only heard a few live shows/bootlegs and I've never been impressed. And I've never heard anyone talk about their live shows as being among the best concerts they've ever seen. Their touring rep may have been stained early on when they toured with Celtic Frost and Noise made the unfortunate decision to bill RW as one of the heaviest bands on the planet.... while they opened for the band that brought you 'Morbid Tales'. This reportedly resulted in a lot of scorn/derision for RW on that early tour (source: Tom G. Warrior, 'Are You Morbid?').
2- They recorded their best material at the worst time.
RW started REALLY hitting their peak with 'Death or Glory' in '89, followed by Blazon Stone (91), Pile of Skulls (92), Black Hand Inn (94) and Masquerade (95).... exactly when 'traditional' Metal hit nadir in terms of popularity. By the time the hammer fell and reignited interest in Power Metal, 'the Rivalry' was wrapping up their classic period and album #11 (!) was in the works. So while everyone was losing their minds over 'Glory to the Brave', RW's ship had already sailed (you gotta admit THAT is a good pirate pun!).
3- Silly rabbit, pirates are for cheese-loving nerds.
The pirate theme seems to be just too cheesy for some folks. I just don't get how this is possible.
Dragons? sure!
Medieval warriors? Awesome!
Monsters? Cool!
Swords? Love it!
Drinking? Cheers!
Partying? Party on!
Pirates? Oh, that's too silly.
Forget all their songs dealing with history, fighting the oppression, riding free on the wind, conspiracies, religious hypocrisy, corrupt leaders, and all those other metal cliches that people eat up when sung about by any other band.... some pirate songs cross a line. Real Men play on 10, not on the gangplank.
4- Rolf dragged the sails through the mud for too long.
Yeah, hard not to argue that by 'Victory' things took a turn for the worse. Rolf spent more time on his costumes than on his songwriting. We won't discuss the drum machine controversy. I ain't arguing against any of that stuff.
However....
Bands overstay their welcome all the time, and folks usually still hold the old material in high regard. Perhaps when combined with Conspiracy Theory #2 above, people missed all the good stuff and thus just used the later, weaker stuff to affirm Conspiracy Theory #3 above: "gee, the 12th RW album isn't very good, so I'll just assume the previous 11 albums are equally bad".
ON THE HORIZON
So is there still room in port for this old rust bucket of a band?
Well, direct copycats BLAZON STONE seem to have gotten some positive feedback in recent years, so running up the ol' Jolly Roger doesn't automatically get you hanged, drawn, and quartered these days (ok Alan, easy on the pirate puns. Deep breath. Pretty blue butterflies. Exhale. OK, back on track).
And then there's 'Rapid Foray', which shows Rolf returning to form, at least somewhat. No more shadowmaking garbage that apes the worst Accept & Priest material from 1986. No more Beatles' covers. While it may be derivative of their classic albums, RF demonstrates that there is still some wind in those leathery old sails (ooooooh, the puns, the puns...).
It also begs the question: if Rolf can still play and write in this style, what the hell were the past ~20 years/5 albums about? Doing that one 'experimental album' to get something out of your system is one thing; blowing two decades writing stuff like "Me and the Boys", that's a fucking problem man! It's what drove me nuts about 'Siberian Winter'; it clearly demonstrated that Rolf COULD still write insanely great material, which begged the question, why the hell was he wasting time penning chum like 'Detonator'?!
So where do we go from here? Well, I've spent about an hour total crafting this diatribe, so it's long since time I opened the floor up to everyone else. Thoughts? Favorite albums? Trivia that others don't know? Theory #5 about GUN Records being to blame for the decline in album quality once Neat dropped the band?
Have at it, ye scurvey dogs!