RUNNING WILD — Blazon Stone (review)

Album · 1991 · Power Metal

4/5 · 2011-06-21
Time Signature

Lonewolf...

Genre: power metal / traditional metal

This album is special to me. I bought it on my "blå mandag" or "andendag", as we call it, which in Danish culture is the day after the communion when the kids go downtown on their own and, since the communion in Danish culture is sort of a rite of passage, the "andendag" is technically the kids' first day as adults (although they're only like 13 to 15 years old; I should also mention that, being primarily a Lutheran culture, this is the only communion that Danish kids go through, and I should also mention that, like most other kids, I didn't do it for religious reasons, I did it for the money [you see it is customary to give the kids a shitload of money in "konfirmationsgave" as it it called on this occasion]... anyway, this is a review not an anthropology lesson), and what is more fitting way to start one's metalhead adulthood than buying an album with a track on it entitled "Lonewolf"? I liked this album so much that, when the other metalhead kids later started wearing death and thrash metal patches with brutal imagery on them, I went out and got a "Blazon Stone" patch - so, I guess I was a lonewolf and a rebel even among lonewolves and rebels.

Musically, this album offers solid heavy metal with power metal elements and a very big and epic sound, and it all goes beautifully together. You can sort of divide the tracks up into two categories. You have the epic historical tracks, whose lyrical universe centers around historical events, concepts and people (such as Native Americans, rogue hero-villains, slave galleys and the like. Then you have the rock 'n' roll rebellion tracks, which deal with your typical 80s metal lyrical concepts of freedom and independence. Musically, the former category tends to display more power metal elements and to have a more epic feel, while the latter tends to be more classic 80s metal like with references to acts like Priest and Accept and so on.

The album is characterized by Rock 'n' Rolf's signature tremolo one-string picking, which, I guess, is obligatory on any great Running Wild album, and another signature element is the use of lead guitar melodies (which often prove to be just as catchy, if not more, as the choruses). Just check tracks like "Blazon Stone", "White Masque" and "Bloody Red Rose" (the latter even incorporates folk melodies), and you will know what I am talking about. While most of the tracks are good on this album, the standout track, for my money, is the epic "Slavery" whose heavy drive and use of timpani invokes a sense of being on a slave galley.

I tend to prefer the more epic tracks like "Slavery", "Blazon Stone", "Little Big Horn", "White Masque", and "Bloody red Rose" as well as the melodic and quite epic sounding bass-centred instrumental "Under the Rainbow", but there is no denying that motorcycles-leather-and-studs tracks like "Lone Wolf", "Fire & Ice", and "Traight to Hells", as well as the heavier and darker "Rolling Wheels" capture almost everything good about classic metal - at least in terms of guitar riffage.

The production is, as mentioned, biiiiig. Everything is reverb-ladden to evoke that stadium rock feel of the 80s (mind you that grunge had not killed off big rock and metal by 1991 yet, and so a lot of the 80s conventions of rock were still at play). Normally, I dislike the 80s rock preference for reverb, but on this particular album, it actually works very well, because there is a lot of bottom to the overall sound of the album.

"Blazon Stone" is an underrated metal classic from an underrated metal band.z Any fan of classic metal should check this release out.