?Classics? of power metal #3: RUNNING WILD - Death Or Glory (1989), upon further review
I'm trying not to constantly apologize for not knowing the accepted classics because, well, the whole goddamn point of this little project is for me to understand power metal better. My ability to comment is inherently a tad limited by my relative lack of familiarity with how the style got started; I think that's inevitable. How else I am going to learn what exactly power metal is and whether I can love it without listening? Take this band, Running Wild. Coming in, I had an idea of the things I find distancing about my concept of euro-power, especially the '80s stuff, that I've heard. In my head, euro-power has too much screaming relative to grit. Too much bombast and guitar wankery relative to content. Too much cheesiness in a way that's fundamentally wrapped up in the '80s. That's why Death Or Glory seemed like a bit of a revelation on first few spins. Now, with more listening I can draw a clearer through-line to their successors, but also to the other German PM bands at the time, in a way that maybe would have been more immediately obvious to a PM aficionado. Yeah, maybe this record is a natural progression from traditional metal... and furthermore, maybe not so far removed after all from, say, Walls Of Jericho-era Helloween. Imagining a parallel universe where Kai Hansen never stops trying to "sing"* for Helloween and the band never gets into ballads and develops a growing interest in military history, I could see that version of the band eventually evolving to the point where they make a Death Or Glory.
Now, compared to early Helloween, Death doesn't have an Ingo Schwichtenberg to go completely nuts on the rhythm section and ensure that the proverbial pedal never leaves the proverbial, uh, metal by that means.
I think they could do that sort of thing (Drummer Iain Finlay is credited as a cowriter on a good chunk of these songs, and he has some interesting licks, especially on "March On"), but they don't, or not often. What the record does have is two important traits: interplay among the band members, and restraint.
Restraint in classic power metal? Yeah. Originally, I was going to say that what Running Wild do have here is their two-guitar attack, with Rolf being supported by Majk Moti. Thing is, there are loads of two-guitar metal bands out there (including Helloween!), yet listening to Death I sometimes second guessed whether I was actually hearing two guitars. These songs sound loose and exuberant for easy headbanging, but they are so meticulously constructed. The guitarists don't overplay. They save the dual attack for when they play two separate complementary riffs together as utilized so gloriously on "Riding The Storm" (seriously, what a great song), or to support the solo with a strong rhythm. Those solos match the song - note how "Renegade" devotes way more time to its ominous bridge with the spoken word part than to its to-the-point guitar solo, whereas the title track's solo playfully flips back and forth between fast riffage, chords/riffs, and a combination of the two. Rolf Kasparek on vocals clearly has some metal scream in him, but he saves the screams almost exclusively for the big notes at the end of songs like "Running Blood" and "Tortuga Bay" when a little punctuation is needed. Most every song is basically mid to fast range straight ahead metal, yet peppered with a twist or gimmick. A sound sample is used in one song ("Renegade"), and only there. A piratey background muttering vocal is a key feature of "Marooned," and only "Marooned." "Tortuga Bay"'s overlapping vocal parts on the verse and screeching guitar chords both stand out because it's so rare that the rest of the album goes to either of those wells. This is nice because the excesses of '80s cheese (the "whoa, yeah!" in "Bad To The Bone," for instance), tend to be short lived too.
In addition to the credit he gets for being the mastermind of the operation, Rolf deserves a lot of credit for his vocal performance. Again, what we hear exactly matches what the material asks for. Too many metal singers who don't sound like shrieking wusses are trying way to hard to sound gruff and rugged. Rolf's voice leans guttural in the way that one would want from someone singing about pirates, but he keeps it tuneful, whilst with him I don't get the sense of trying too hard, at least from the vocals here. Running Wild as a result emerges with a sound that's masculine and pretty damn badass, whilst uncontaminated by bullshit macho posturing.** The lyrics, which I guess I'm lumping together with the vocals, tend to be about something, using the band's barely-even-relevant pirate gimmick to talk about freedom, moral codes, and paint pictures from history. A shocking lack of party anthems and romanticized Treasure Island pirates from our "pirate band" here.
So, I like Death a lot. And yet... yeah, with me, there's always an "and yet..." And yet, I can't deny that when I listen straight through, I'm usually a little burned out by the end. And can't deny that when I think about listening to more music that sounds just like this, my impulsive reaction is "nah, I think I'm good with this." Still trying to sort out whether it's the taste of '80s sheen that's turning me off - the chorus of "Renegade" and the verses of "March On" sound particularly dated - or whether no-frills metal without some twist tends to leave me restless. For reasons that I'm having a hard time quite putting my finger on, I keep getting a vague sense that either I should be embarrassed to like this, or that I don't really like it quite like I "think." So, either I just have a few sonic associations that I need to train my mind to not associate with spandex and it's nothing more than that... or, on a core level, classic power metal in the Hamburg mold does not quite resonate for me. Haven't sorted out which one it is.
But returning to the opening thesis from my first post about the record:
whatever else one may say about Death Or Glory, it rocks. That much is self evident. There are no bad songs here - even my "least favorite track" is by default rather than because there's anything wrong with it. Hey, my previous least favorite by default was "Evilution," and then that one revealed itself to have a bonafide groove in its main riff together with some solidly meaningful lyrics, so I needed a new least favorite by default. They all rock. And, well, read all that stuff I said about how tightly crafted these tracks are. I can't deny that this is really, really, good.
Gonna go with a "yes, but never again" strategy this time. By which I mean that I'll give Death the benefit of the doubt, conclude that it is as good as I want to think it is. And I'll also say that if Running Wild have indeed produced the best that formative '80s euro-power has to offer, I have no particular need to hear a bunch of other lesser music in the same vein. I think I'd get bored pretty quickly if all power metal stuck to this template. That's why a big part of this writing project is trying to plumb the varieties and corners and dead ends of PM, not just the basics. So, no more of the original "classics" for me, at least for awhile...
...Except maybe from this band. If anyone can make me want to listen to dozens of songs with these basic elements over and over, it's probably Running Wild.
Favorite track: "Riding The Storm"
Runner up: "Running Blood"
Least favorite track (by default): "March On"
Rating: 4.5/5
Will I come back to Running Wild?
See above.
Things I learned about power metal:
- There's plenty of room for grit in German-style power metal.
- There's plenty of room to make serious music with a pirate gimmick.
- My reservations about the subgenre may be fundamental... hopefully not, though.
*I suppose I shouldn't be so snarky. I simply find Kai's voice to be deeply grating; that's all.
**This almost inspired a long tangent about different ways that the concept of "masculinity" shows up in metal, and my mixed relationship with it, but I think that's a little beyond the scope of a post specifically talking about my experience listening to Death Or Glory.
***And after all that, we keep things German [EDIT: By which I mean, "not German."****], and we keep things "glory" focused. I sometimes wish I knew a way to do things other than chronological order. I can't help what order the records I want to write about were released in!
****Turns out HammerFall are Swedish and I was conflating parts of their biography with Gamma Ray. Who knows what other unique facts and insights I'll be able to glean?!
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