Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Running Wild
Label: Noise Records
Released: 1991
Length: 60:37
Rating: 4.5/5
The metal pirates from Hamburg kept up the hard-hitting style of its excellent predecessor »Death or Glory« (1989), the record that won Running Wild cult status among metalheads, on their sixth studio album, »Blazon Stone«. The band’s chieftain, guitarist and singer Rolf Kasparek, a.k.a. Rock’n’Rolf, brought in Axel Morgan to replace longtime guitarist Majk Moti, while the new man behind the drum kit, taking over from Iain Finlay, was the enigmatic AC, real name Rudiger Dreffein. Both carried on in the dynamic style of their predecessors, even though their stints in the band were short-lived. Despite the goofy, teased-up hairdos that were already totally out of fashion in 1991, fans rank this among the finest lineups Rolf ever managed to gather around himself. On »Blazon Stone«, Running Wild generally cemented their signature take on power metal, known among fans as pirate metal: a reign of epic guitar passages, charging Teutonic rhythms and mighty chants, in which Rolf’s snarling vocals rebelliously sing of a burning desire for freedom and total contempt for every political and religious institution. Lyrically, apart from »Heads or Tales« and »Slavery« (which deals with slavery in the Caribbean), Rolf’s crew drifted a bit from the usual pirate themes on »Blazon Stone« and headed into other chapters of history, like the Wild West (»Little Big Horn« and the bonus track »Billy the Kid«) and the English War of the Roses between the Red and the White Rose (»Bloody Red Rose«).
The title track carries on Running Wild’s long tradition of powerful openers with an epic, pompous charge, starting with the instrumental intro and its mighty guitar harmonies. That’s cut through by a typically bombastic transition into a fiery section with combative guitar passages and merciless drum fills, with the double bass pedal getting a serious workout. Rock’n’Rolf was in great spirits while making this album, and his vocal charisma shines especially bright once the well-crafted backing vocals join him in the chorus of this Running Wild classic. »Lonewolf« is nowhere near as epic as »Blazon Stone«, but it still makes a strong impression with a mighty chorus and a brilliant guitar solo. Every single track on this album is bursting with energy and enthusiasm, because Running Wild were truly in peak form as a band at the time. »Slavery« is built in the ‘classic style’ with galloping rhythms, vengeful guitar passages and Rolf’s perpetually pissed-off singing, while its most interesting feature is a pompous, multi-voiced chorus about human cruelty and inhumanity. »Fire & Ice« stands out with a mighty hard rock riff, while the slow build-up of epic atmosphere peaks in a combative chorus, delivered under the vocal command of the Hamburg metal pirate captain.
Fans’ favorite track on the album is without a doubt »Little Big Horn«, which also came out as a single. The lyrics tell of the total humiliation of the cruel, glory-hungry American general George Armstrong Custer, who at Little Big Horn suffered the biggest defeat in the bloody history of the American conquest of the Wild West, against a Native American tribal alliance led by Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Gall. Rolf mocks Custer’s greedy delusion, which got all of his soldiers killed along with him, the whole way through the lyrics. Musically, too, this classic can be called the album’s peak: its main riff already carries a nostalgic, ‘Wild West’ flavor, while the melodic chorus is a chapter all its own. The short instrumental »Over the Rainbow« is one of the most atypical pieces in the whole Running Wild story and features a rare example of a great bass solo in German metal, courtesy of Jens Becker, for whom this album was the last collaboration with Rolf (he later joined Grave Digger). »White Masque«, spiced with wound-up rhythms and telling of freemasonry and a mysterious aristocratic killer hiding behind a white mask, is another one of the »Blazon Stone« highlights, especially its red-hot chorus, in which Rolf once again slips perfectly into the role of an old sea dog with a sword in one hand and a mug of grog in the other.
The more than solid »Rolling Wheels« is likewise soaked in an angry mood throughout, while its few instrumental moments come off a little mysterious. »Bloody Red Roses« is another very interesting Running Wild standard, with lyrics about the conflict between the followers of the White and Red Rose during the ‘Wars of the Roses’ civil war, fought over the English crown in 1485 between Richard III of York and Henry VII Tudor. Rolf’s lyrics are critical of the victor Henry and sympathetic to the defeated Richard, whom most historians still regard today as a cruel tyrant and a hunchbacked schemer. »Straight to Hell« is yet another electrified standard with a battle ‘call’ in the chorus; it doesn’t stand out in any particular way, but it would fit in perfectly on any classic Running Wild album.
The closing pirate-metal anthem, »Heads Or Tails«, is an almost ideal ending to the album, as Running Wild head back to the age of the Caribbean pirates with it, and, as they’ve done a few times in their history, play on the strings of pirate-metal ‘brotherhood and unity’. Later reissues of »Blazon Stone« also included two bonus tracks of varying interest. The romantic, energetic »Billy the Kid«, which opens with an acoustic intro, is stylistically (partly thanks to its main riff) a sort of sequel to the classic »Little Big Horn«, with authentic Wild West atmosphere and an idealized view of the legendary gunslinger and outlaw Billy the Kid, while »Genocide« is a rather neat cover of a Thin Lizzy standard and one of the few covers in Running Wild’s history.
»Blazon Stone« is rightly one of the most revered classic Running Wild albums, packing some of the most unforgettable moments in the history of this cult band. It usually ranks very high when fans are asked about their favorite Running Wild albums. On release, it managed to cement the metal pirates from Hamburg as one of the leading German metal acts of the time, and in sales terms it remains their most successful album of the nineties to this day. Even though some of the songs on »Blazon Stone« are rather similar to each other in places, as has always been typical of Running Wild, there are no weak or boring moments on it, the kind that tended to creep in on their later albums.
Lineup
Rolf Kasparek – vocals, guitar
Axel Morgan – guitar
Jens Becker – bass
AC – drums
Production
Rolf Kasparek
Track list
1. Blazon Stone (6:29)
2. Lonewolf (4:47)
3. Slavery (Rolf Kasparek) (5:14)
4. Fire & Ice (4:08)
5. Little Big Horn (4:57)
6. Over the Rainbow (1:55)
7. White Masque (4:16)
8. Rolling Wheels (5:31)
9. Bloody Red Rose (5:04)
10. Straight to Hell (3:49)
11. Heads or Tails (4:57)
12. Billy the Kid (Bonus) (4:49)
13. Genocide (Bonus) (4:47)
