?Classics? of power metal #3: RUNNING WILD - Death Or Glory (1989), initial impressions

Past exposure to this band/record:  None beyond seeing the band's name over and over, both in lists of best power metal records and in primers about PM.  So I come in with the basic understanding that Running Wild are one of the institutions of europower, one of the defining bands from the Hamburg scene.  My understanding is that doing any kind of survey of PM without knowing anything about Running Wild would be almost as bad as doing so without knowing Helloween, hence this pick for the project.  And also that apparently they were doing the "pirate metal" thing before it was cool.

 

 

Well, let's get one thing out of the way first: whatever else one may say about the unimaginatively titled* Death Or Glory, it rocks.

I don't actually have much else negative to say about it.  I was expecting things to maybe be a little basic, a little knuckle dragging.  Instead, principal impression here is that Death Or Glory is polished in a good way.  In sharp contrast to something like Irae Melanox, a debut record by a hungry band still figuring things out, Death Or Glory is the fifth record from an established collective that'd been recording throughout the eighties.  It definitely shows.  Death Or Glory is a slickly produced package that smoothly does what it sets out to do.

My primary impression is that Death Or Glory very smoothly tries to have it multiple ways.  The songs are straight ahead and easy to understand, yet some of those drum fills and bass parts are fancier than they'd need to be if this were lowest common denominator stuff.  Singer Rolf Kasparek sticks mostly to a gruff mid-range but selectively raises his pitch just enough that it seems calibrated to appeal to power metal nerds without alienating those who get turned off when the singing gets too wussy or cheesy.  Something about the production - the guitar reverb, maybe? - hints at '80s bombast making the songs sound of their time, but not defined by their time; like they're a band playing metal taking advantage of the technology of their time as a bit of dressing.  They have pirate songs here, playing up their then-unique gimmick, but they're also freely mixing in songs about history and society.  Running Wild are the sort of band who'll write a bombastic '80s song called "Renegade" but make its titular renegade a junkie (and put it second on the record!); they'll write a bombastic '80s song called "Bad To The Bone," but unlike certain other songs by that name, it won't be about the singer talking himself up** (best as I can tell, the song is actually about moral opposition to modern day fascism).  They seem to be aiming for a sweet spot that appeals to a wide swath of ears, and damned if it doesn't do exactly that.

On the whole, Running Wild seem to have mastered the art of writing a guitar riff that has a fast core part and then a flourish at the end of each bar, and building an unmistakably powerful power metal song around it.  I mean, this is obviously good stuff, and I can't imagine not immediately reacting by saying "this is good stuff."  

 

Anything not to like here?  Well, instead of doing my usual thing and predicting what the record is going to have to do to win me over, let's think of why Death Or Glory might fall in my esteem with repeat listens.  I could see the constant barrage of similarly paced high-energy songs getting tedious over the record's run time.  I could see concluding that the vocal melodies aren't quite strong enough to achieve peak pop appeal... although, I dunno, it's hard to forget the choruses of "Renegade," "Bad To The Bone," "Battle Of Waterloo," etc after just a few spins.  I could see ultimately thinking that the band are a bit of a one-trick pony.  They have a formula and the songs here basically all follow it.  You know, though, I think I'm going to keep finding little wrinkles the more I listen that keep things fresh.  At the moment enjoying the haunting intros to "Running Blood" and to the title track, the bass riff in the second half of "Highland Glory," and the screeching counterpoint riff of the two-guitar attack of "Tortuga Bay."  

 

So, yeah, we'll see about staying power.  So far, tracks that landed especially favorably on first listens include opener "Riding The Storm," which is almost a perfect encapsulation of why metal is, or can be, awesome.  "Highland Glory" stands out as a rare metal instrumental that holds my attention because all of the musicians are always doing something throughout, plus I really like that arpeggiated riff that I think is still guitar with wah-wah or something but sounds almost like keyboard.  "Tortuga Bay" just fucking rocks.  This record rocks.  I'm feeling like maybe this is a discovery to share with the world, and hear the world's response of "you do realize we all already know about Running Wild, right?"

 

Favorite track:  "Riding The Storm"

Runner Up:  "Tortuga Bay"

Least favorite track:  "Evilution"

Preliminary rating:  4/5

Next:  More thoughts on Death Or Glory, whenever I get around to it!

 

*"Glory" is unfortunately a common enough word in both band and record names in metal that some Googling the wrong term somehow led me to a profile of a (totally unrelated to RW!) Nazi metal band, and now my search history is presumably tainted.  Blech.  Some of Germany's exports hold up better than others.

**Confidential to George T.:  I, for one, do not buy you as a badass with that stutter.  "I'm b-b-b-b-b-bad..."  Uh huh, yeah, sure, you are, dude.