666sharon666
The Rivalry is the tenth Running Wild album from 1998. Conceptually it carries on with a good versus evil theme that began on the previous album Masquerade. I personally see The Rivalry as both the last rather decent Running Wild album and also their last actual power metal album.
Musically there isn't really a lot for me to write about Running Wild's music that I haven't already done in my run through reviewing their albums. There were never a band to really mess with their formula too much aside from the shift from speed metal to power metal in the late 80's and the shift towards a more dominant traditional heavy metal sound that occurred following The Rivalry. This album is closest certainly to Masquerade and is overall about on the same sort of level in terms of quality. A few standouts including fan favourite Ballad of William Kidd, but largely another typical Running Wild release. I have no problem with that, as it's better than what happened next. 4 stars.
