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how brave of you !

but how can one expect anything from Running Wild in 2005 still amazes me ! :shock:

I certainly didn't expect a masterpiece by any means, but I did count on at least a good album. Of the band's most recent material, I thought The Rivalry was very good. I'd be happy with an album at least of that calibre. Rogues En Vogue, however, is far from that level.

last album I've heard from RW was Masquerade... and it was awful ! :x what classic RW album would you say Rivalry is up to ? I used to enjoy this band (my fav' is their live "Ready For Boarding") but I don't wanna waste any money on an average german HM album... :roll:

Blasphemy!!! The only band that bothered to write songs about pirates. From listening to samples I liked it and will buy it either way.

I just don't get it how you can give Brotherhood and Victory scortes in the 90's, while give this with the same exact sound, if not better, a 55 or 40. I would give them all around 70's and 80's, none of them deserve a 90 or a 55/44.

As many are aware the legendary metal webzine LOOT &
PLUNER fell asunder several years ago while sailing
the cryptic waters of Romania. Yet, it's spirit lives
on in many of us that still hold powerfull and true
heavy music dear to our metal hearts.

We fast forward to year 2005 and like a phoenix from
the ashes so rises the mighty LOOT & PLUNDER sailing
vessel if only for one more glorious ride.

Surely only one event could bring about such a stir in
otherwise still waters. You guessed it, the new
Running Wild release. As such, this special edition
issue will focus entirely on a review for the band's
new album Rogues En Vogue. You know the drill!


ALBUM REVIEWS:


REVIEW SCORES:

10 SKULLS (Buy Or Burn In Hell!)
9 SKULLS (Buy Or Die!)
8 SKULLS (Excellent)
7 SKULLS (Good)
6 SKULLS (Average)
5 SKULLS (Needs Improvement)
4 SKULLS (Bad)
3 SKULLS (Shockingly Bad)
2 SKULLS (An Insult)
1 SKULLS (A Scam)




RUNNING WILD - "Rogues En Vogue"
Reviewed by Matt the Pirate


TRACK LISTING:

Draw The Line
Angel Of Mercy
Skeleton Dance
Skull And Bones
Born Bad, Dying Worse
Black Gold
Soul Vampires
Rogues En Vogue
Winged And Feathered
Dead Man's Road
The War

Cannonball Tounge (Limited Ed.)
Libertalia (Limited Ed.)



SYNOPSIS:

After a three year wait following his last studio
album "The Brotherhood", German metal legend Rolf
Kasparek and crew return to the metal world with a new
longplayer in tow.

Now, those of us in the know are well aware of the
many issues at hand leading up to this release. RW is
almost a 25 year band now and recent album releases
although very solid have widely been regarded as
inferior to the glory days of the band. Now exactly
what era and albums from the band constitute the glory
days is always a hotly contested battle. Not
suprising when you consider this is studio album
number thirteen.

I, personally, lean toward the Power Metal base so
perhaps it is natural that my favorite Running Wild
CD's have always been Pile Of Skulls, Black Hand Inn
and Masquerade. I enjoy all Running Wild material but
these three have always stood far above the others. I
say this simply to give you fans an idea of where my
Running Wild tastes generally lie.

Now, on to the new release Rogues En Vogue. I had
listened to a few 30 second clips of the songs at
Amazon.de and they sparked my interest. I wasn't
overly pleased by any stretch of the imagination but I
figured from the clips that the material sounded like
it had a good chance to be as good as the last album
which considering the age of this band plus a three
year layoff sounded pretty good to me. Suddenly, from
a completely unexpected and sinister source the full
album fell into my lap prior to release.

All I can say is "OH MY GOD!". I cannot believe what
Rock 'n Rolf was able to do here. The creativity on
this release compaired to the solid but somewhat paint
by number last three releases is just baffling.
Everywhere you turn he seems to pull a different
rabbit out of his hat. If it's not an unexpeced
wrinkle in the song here, it's a shockingly fresh drum
kick there. If it's not the perfect outro you didn't
think was coming, it is a totally out of the norm
vocal delivery or guitar lick. In addition, totally
unlike previous releases it seems like the songs are
not identically recorded. He may use a certain
production on his vocals in one song and then the next
the little effect or echo or just the general sound or
the way he uses his voice has changed just enough to
be noticable.

Now, I'm not one for experimentation and screwing
around in the studio. It usually means your material
isn't good enough to stand on it's own but believe me
it is the opposite here. Even if Rolf had used the
same exact sound thoughout the album these songs would
still kick the crap out of anything he has done for
years.

You know how older bands like Judas Priest, Scorpions,
Kiss, Iron Maiden etc. etc. hang around for years and
we still love 'em. The material is not what it used
to be but heck, if they put out an album that even
harkens back to their glory days a little bit it is
well worth it and we are happy. Trust me folk, this
is not that.

When I first heard the album I admit the sound mix
seemed kind of strange. Like I said Rolf has pulled
out some new tricks and you have to listen a little
while to fully drink in the new sound. Vocally he
sings a bit higher and with a sharp bite on many
songs. This is a voice we have not exactly heard
before. All in all though, once you play a few times
it just sounds so perfect. Pure Running Wild, fresh
and exciting although I have noticed that certain
speakers seem to work better than others for this
album.

When it comes to old fans. If you are looking for a
specific sound Rolf has done in the past such as "I
want it to sound just like Port Royal" or whatever I
can already tell you it does not sound like any
pervious album so forget it. I guess I would call
this a modern, clean production and yes there might be
some triggered drums or whatever put Rolf has a real
drummer on board for this album and if you give it a
chance believe me it sounds powerfull and exciting.
Drums 100% smoke.


SONGS:

Instead of going though every song on the album I
think it will be more helful if I just tell you how it
is. The mix of songs is all over the place. You have
a few very speedy songs, many of the songs have a mix
of speed and yet the main riff is more basic and you
have a few straight forward tracks but even on those
Rolf seems to throw in some cool suprises to spice
things up. For one, the straight forward tracks some
like to refer to as the "rock" tracks have some cool
metal licks in them and the choruses are better or at
least more catchy than you would find on the rock
tracks from the previous two albums The Brotherhood
and Victory. Some of those rock tracks were like
pulling teeth just to get through them.

As a side note, many of you may be wondering will
there be any straight rock stompers ala AC/DC like the
ones that showed up on The Brotherhood. Namely,
Detonator and Dr. Horror. The answer is No, every
track on Rogues is more melodic in nature and not in
that style.

We cannot talk about Running Wild without bringing up
Piracy. Sure enough a pirate song exists on Rogues En
Vogue. It is called Skull And Bones. I could say a
lot about this track but I will simply leave it at
this. I'm pretty sure any whining and complaing that
the pirate song on the last album was somehow not
legitimate and that Rolf may no longer have it in his
heart to write a real pirate song ends here.

Overall, the songs are more catchy than before.
Choruses ring in your ears for days and the songs do
not drag on like some of the songs on the previous
three albums that seemed to repeat themselves and last
far too long. I think The Rivalry album comes to
mind. Now, you may get the feeling from this review
that I somehow don't like the last three albums from
the band. That is far from the truth. It is just
that this release simply blows them away.



GENRE: Heavy/Power Metal
COMPARABLE TO: Iron Maiden, Iron Savior
ORIGINALITY: 5 of 5
PERFORMANCE: 5 of 5
SONGWRITING: 5 of 5
VOCALS: 5 of 5
PRODUCTION: Grows On You
SPECIAL WEAPON: Rolf's Energy

BOTTOM LINE:

I only have the main album which is 11 songs. There
are two bonus tracks that will be released on the
Limited Edition version and they are rumored to be
outstanding but even if they end up being demo quality
recordings of bathroom sounds I have to rate this
album: 10 OF 10 SKULLS (Buy or Burn In Hell!)
www.running-wild.net

bottom line : you shouldn't review cds if you're deaf !

As I said in the review, I was way too generous with The Brotherhood. I would quote that around 60-65 today. I do feel that Death or Glory and maybe Black Hand Inn are worthy of a 90+ score, but 70's - 80's (good to excellent) is sufficient for the rest of them.

Yes, this album has a similar sound to Victory and The Brotherhood, but the quality of the songs on this album has certainly dropped.

Death or Glory is extremely overrated. Their best album is Pile of Skulls. Anyway, real fans of Running Wild I doubt would be too disappointed with this one, sure it is not a Pile of Skulls or Black Hand Inn, but it is still true to their style of recent cds. I think 40/55 is way too harsh, I am sure it is not that bad, especially after listening to even more samples.

Mike and Danny,

As a long time visiter to metalreviews I have always enjoyed the site and you guys generally do a bang up job on your reviews. That said, I really think you were completely unfair with your scores of the new Running Wild.

Yes, my review is perhaps a bit too overstated but after Victory and TB which were only O.K. I was really shocked that Rogues is such a spectacular album and that's why such a high review.

Mike,

I like that you thought about it for a while and gave the album some time before destroying it but I think both yours and Danny's scores are more of a message to Rolf to revert back to the style he used in older days than a true reflection of the quality of this release.

P.S. I would rather have the speed metal days also so we are not completely different you and I.

Matt The Pirate
LOOT & PLUNDER

the only possible disappointment is the big epic 10 minute track The War is not nearly as good as The Ghost which was a masterpiece.

BTW, what proof is there that they use drum machine?

Winter, I think this will answer your question. I wrote this on another forum:


TECHNICAL WITCH HUNTING

Some of these review are starting to piss me off. They always point to something like the drum sound, the production or sterile programmed guitars or whatever crap they want to make up to sound like they know what they are talking about and use that as an excuse to give the album a mediocre score even though they admit the songs are good. They even bring up actual musical complaints like "well, it sucks because the same time signiture is used on every song". Who gives a SHIT!!!!

I really feel they are jumping on the bandwagon. I think a lot of them do not realize bands are constantly using computers, effects, programmed pieces etc. in the studio. That's what production is all about. Whatever RW uses in the studio, some other band uses something else. Not better, not worse. Some like it, some don't.

I would rather have a reviewer say something concrete like "The songs didn't catch my ear because they were too repetitive and the choruses were not catchy at all. The power of the album was weak because the guitars were not loud enough and I could barely hear the drums at all. The overall beat of the song just seemed funky and not pleasing to the ear and several songs were to simple and sounded like filler. I think the lead singer has a bad voice too."

Something like that I can respect but these nerds that have nothing but technical complaints are worthless and I bet everything I own that they have given high scores somewhere along the line to a band that does the exact same stuff they are complaining about with RW.

I will say this though. RW brought this kind of "technical witch hunting" on themselves by doing such blatantly programmed drums on Victory and TB and then trying to pretend it was not so or at least skirt the issue with a drummer psuedonym. This only bloodies the waters for technical nerds. Once you lie or hide from something and get caught people jump all over it even if it is not a big deal. Now they expect you to be lying and covering things up and look to expose you.

To me, I'm pretty sure Jorg used tons of computer work to get the speed drums on Black Hand Inn. That's not to say he did not play the drums but computers are used in the studio to replicate and you build the songs in pieces. My attitude is I love those drums so even if they are somehow copied or pieced together who cares. Please do the exact same thing next time.

Regarding guitar sound. The sound of an electrical guitar is already created by equipment just by using an amplifier. Whether there is computers involved in the studio sound or not is irrelevant. Only an accoustic guitar is pure.

Yeah I agree it should be about bottom line--does the music sound good? And Running Wild either always used some type of drum machine or their drum sound simply sounds like it--now listening to Blazon Stone and the drums sound identical to the new albums, the only thing changed is the production got clearer. But even if they do use drum machine, it still sounds pretty good, no need to put a unique band down because of it. Even with Jörg Michael the drums sound similar for the most part.

Jesus fucking Christ. THis band needs to be destroyed. As far as I'm concerned this band only put out 4 albums. Gates to Purgatory, Branded for Exile, Death or Glory, and Black Hand Inn. THe rest of their catalogue is absolute shit....complete fucking generic riff recycling bull shit metal. Goddamnit this is one of the few bands that makes me want to kill myself. GODDAMNIT! 4 incredible albums, distributed amongst a career full of shitty albums and goofy top hats. Rockin Rolf is a has been. He just did an interview where he says Judas Priest and Motley Crue are reuniting for the money!!! Are you fucking kidding me Rolf?!! You're just in it for the money pal, and you're fucking lazy to boot. I dont know how this man managed to forge a career from releasing the same album every fucking year. DIE DIE DIE!!

lazy? Maybe he is just not talented enough to do something different, Running Wild sound is good and unique, why should he move away from the proven winning formula? If you don't like it fine, I like it and I am sure there are others who can't get enough pirate songs and those awesome guitar rythms and echoing vocals.

Thats just the thing....its not good. It hasnt been good since 94. thats 11 years of pure suckage. And if you don't have the talent anymore to put out quality metal albums you should bow out gracefully, not continuously embarass yourself like Rockin Rolf is doing. BOttom line is he doesnt make good music anymore. There is nothing unique about this band now, they need to go away.

Awesome guitar riffs??? - Havent heard a good one from him since "The Phantom of Black Hand Hill"

Awesome vocals? - His best vocal delivery is on "running blood" from Death or Glory. ANything post 94 is recycled crap.

Its not even a formula anymore, he is literally taking riffs from all of his old songs and pasting them together and calling it an album. Do yourself a favor and stop defending this terrible terrible band. Mind you they werent always bad, in fact in the beginning they were quite awesome. Sadly this is true no longer....same thing goes for Rage....stop making music......or if you insist on making it, do it in your basement and stop selling it, you're ripping people off.

At least they have more style and sound better than your favorite Lost Horizon disc. Whaaaa, and Yaaaaaaaa don't make very interesting songs. Sure they aren't as good as they were in early 90's, but they are still damn good just listen to songs like the Ghost, The Rivalry, When Time Runs Out, etc.

Running Wild have been consistant to their sound, just like other bands like Motorhead, Overkill, AC/DC, etc. there is nothing wrong with that if you like that style, if you don't then simple don't bother with the band.

you can doubt bu it will remain the absolute truth !