Time Signature Sailing fire...

Genre: heavy metal

"Shadowmaker", the come-back album of German pirate metal legends Running Wild, really seems to have gotten a raw deal with the reviewers many of who have described it as a disappointment and compared it to Morbid Angel's controversial "Illud Divinum Insanus" in terms of the degree of outrage and disappointment it will generate among the fans, and some have even gone as far as claiming that "Shadowmaker" sucks.

You know what, I honestly think that it doesn't suck, and listening to it does not really make me disappointed in any way. It is, of course, no "Port Royal", "Pile of Skulls" or "Death or Glory", but I would say that it is lightyears better than "Rogues en Vogue", which was a big disappointment to me. I would go as far as stating that, although the power/speed metal aspect that characterized many of Running Wild's previous releases is pretty much absent on this one, "Shadowmaker" does capture and highlight the hard rock and traditional metal aspect that has always been part of Running Wild's sound.

Virtually every Running Wild album contains a couple of old school heavy metal songs about motocycles, rebels, rock 'n' roll and so on, so that's not a new thing in the universe of Running Wild. The new thing, I guess, is that such songs are dominant on one Running Wild album. Fortunately (for me at least), we are dealing with pretty solid heavy metal and hard rock tracks built on pretty solid classic metal-styled riffs and lead guitar melodies. I do miss the speed/power metal aspect, I must admit, but I definitely do not think that we are dealing with a weak album in any way.

Most of the tracks are good old school heavy metal tracks with more of a hard rock edge, with "Piece of the Action" and "Me & the Boys" being the weakest tracks. The former definitely has its moments, but perhaps it is not the best choice for an opener. The latter is more of a hard rock track bordering on melodic rock, and probably the least Running Wild-like track ever recorded by Running Wild. Fortunately, the amount of decent and good songs outweighs the amount of sub par songs, and a track like 'Dracula', for instance' does have inklings of the semi-epic sound that characterized Running Wild in the past, while "I Am Who I Am" is a strong heavy metal track with a powerful main riff and a catchy chorus (and a bridge featuring another very Running Wild-like melodic metal riff). Likewise, the heavy and groovy 'Black Shadow' and the straight up and pumping heavy metal tracks 'Locomotive', 'Shadowmaker' and 'Into the Fire' are actually pretty good classic metal tracks. While pretty much a Thin Lizzy-inspired hard rocker, a track like "Riding on the Tide" still features a very typical Running Wild-style chorus, featuring a catchy vocal melody and maritime lyrics.

I think that the problem that many reviewer in reality have with this album is, as mentioned above, the absence of the typical Running Wild speed/power metal sound, and, hell, I miss it, too. But that does not make this album a miserable failure per se. As a straight up heavy metal album, I think it is pretty good, and it does feature many of the elements found on previous Running Wild efforts. And, fans of good old heavy metal (if they can shed expectations of this being another "Port Royal") should be able to enjoy it for what it is: a solid heavy metal album of the old school.

So, yes, I like this one, but I still hope that Rock 'n' Rolf will reintroduce some of the more speed/power metal elements that I love about Running Wild on the next album.

Wilytank Starting in 1984, Running Wild have released a continuous stream of high quality traditional heavy metal. Their first major peak was with 1987's 'Under Jolly Roger', their first dab into "pirate metal". Though what sits in between is also really noteworthy, 'Blazon Stone' is their next peak.

It's clear from the first song, "Blazon Stone", that there's going to be a lot of powerful, epic music here; and I'd just like to say that it features one of the best intro build-ups ever. It only the first of other epics on this album such as "Little Big Horn", in the style of war anthems continued from "Battle of Waterloo" from 'Death Or Glory'. Then there's "White Masque"

There's a lot Judas Priest influence going on in some of these songs. "Slavery" has some of the same tremolo elements that "Leather Rebel" from JP's 'Painkiller' has. I can see some earlier Judas Priest in "Straight to Hell". I also see Saxon influence with "Rolling Wheels" "Heads Or Tails". However, Running Wild easily puts their own influence in to make these songs their own.

Even the instrumental in the middle "Over the Rainbow" is pretty cool with its bass melody.

If you're looking for traditional heavy metal, you need to look into this band. They even have some appeal to power metal fans, but this is far from cheesy.

Time Signature Raging fire...

Genre: pirate metal, yo-ho-ho!

Running Wild made the worst possible exit ever with their catastrophically boring and tired sounding "Rogues en Vogue" goodbye album from 2005. But, hey, when they have a catalog of amazing metal releases like this one, they can be forgiven.

"Port Royal" is simply an milestone masterpiece of German metal from the 80s, and, right from the goofy pirate inn intro to the epic closing power metal track "Calico Jack", the album is just one barrage of ass-kicking cannon shots after another (savvy).

"Port Royal" is the essential pirate metal track with its big sound and classic-metal-meets-power-metal guitar riffage and oh-oh-oh-oh-riddled chorus, as are "Calico Jack", "Mutiny" and, to some extent, "Conquistadores" - although the latter deals with the murder and exploitation of Native Americans by Europeans in the name of the king and the church (so, a bit of social criticism there). "Into the Arena" is an uptempo power metal track with a couple of neoclassical elements, too, and this one is interesting in that it was penned by Majk Moti and not Kasparek, and so it sound different from Running Wild on many subsequent releases, when Kasparek takes over the songwriting completely. The other Moti-penned track "Blown to Kingdom Come" is very Priest-inspired, but also contains a neoclassical bridge. The bass-dominated instrumental "Final Gates" was, of course, penned by bassist Jens Becker and has the distinct honor of being the one of the first metal tracks wherein a 5-stringed bass is used. "Uaschitschun" is one of Kasparek's trademark environmentalist songs which takes a Native American's perspective on our destruction of nature, and, while this is musically (combining it with the typical metal theme of individual freedom and independence), not the most interesting song of the album, it does have a compelling chorus line.

As with most of Running Wild's mid 80 to mid 90s releases, this is a fine example of German heavy metal at its best,- and any fan of traditional metal and early power metal should check it out.

Time Signature Lead or gold...

Genre: pirate metal, yaarrr

"Pile of Skulls" is another fine release from the original pirate metallers in Running Wild. It contains one magnificent metal track than another. Running Wild have always balanced between traditional metal and powe rmetal, but often inclining more towards the traditional metal side, but I think that they immerse themselves more in power metal elements on this album.

As usual, everything is larger than life (just check out the awesome cover artwork), but at the core of the lyrical themes is something very real - power, corruption and abuse. Now, this is one of the wonderful things about metal's larger-than-life nature: you can take socially real topics and extrapolate them into a world of fantasy, enabling the artist to address some pretty serious topics in a manner that you will not find in many other types of popular music. Hell, metal is the Star Trek of popular music!

The album opens with the folk metal instrumental "Chamber of Lies" which morphs into the first pirate track of the album - namely, the uptempo "Whirlwind" which describes a ship's cutting through the foamy waves and storm-filled waters of the Spanish Main! Musically, this song contains one Rock 'n' Rolf style tremolo ass-kicker riff after another. Other pirate themed tracks are the wonderfully melodic and catchy "Lead or Gold" and the epic "Treasure Island" and "Jenning's Revenge", both of which contain extremely catchy parts. "White Buffalo" is another uptempo track, solidly rooted in the Priest-inspired metal of the late 80s, which addresses environmental concerns. "Roaring Thunder" is a lesson in heavy riffage, possibly containing the greatest riff in the history Running Wild (fans of Maiden's "The Prisoner" will like this, I think). "Sinister Eyes", "Black Wings of Death", the motorcycle-friendly "Fistful of Dynamite", and "Pile of Skulls" are all great tracks which display Rock 'n' Rolf Kasparek's affinity for writing hard rocking and fast paced metal riffs.

All you freedom loving metal pirates out there should do yourselves a favor and check out this heavy metal gem!

Time Signature Glory or glory...

Genre: pirate metal, mate

I am going to stick my neck out and give this five stars. "Death or Glory" is a metal classic and captures almost everything which is good about the classic metal of the 80s, such as kick ass riffage, rock 'n' roll guitar solos, a great sense of melody, big sound, guitar harmonies, epicness and larger than life lyrical concepts.... pirates, mate... savvy?

Maybe this sounds terribly cliche-ish to some, and perhaps it is, but, remember that such cliches were an integral part of traditional 80s metal, and one of the challenges back then was to convey these cliches in

First off, this album is a pure riff-fest, and you will find awesome hard rocking riffs in tracks like "Renegade" (the main riff), "Evilution" (the chorus), "Bad to the Bone" (all riffage) while most of the other tracks are full of Rock 'n' Rolf's trademark melodic tremolo power/speed metal riffs.

What I particularly like about this album is its epicness, its bigness. I mean many tracks have big, epic introductions, such as "Riding the Storm", "Evilution", "Running Blood", "Death or Glory" and the epic war song "Battle of Waterloo" and the instrumental "Highland Glory (The Eternal Fight)" is just biiiiig and epic all the way through.

This album harbors (savvy?) some of the finest pirate metal tracks known to metalking, such as "Tortuga Bay", "Marooned" (I love the hoh-hoh-hoh-hoooh choir in the chorus), "Riding the Storm" and "Death or Glory".

Rock 'n' Rolf would kick Jack Sparrow's ass anytime, so if you consider yourself a true metalhead and a pirate-fan, check out this album, because it is one of the best metal albums from the late 1980s. Savvy?