RUNNING WILD — Port Royal (review)

RUNNING WILD — Port Royal album cover Album · 1988 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Time Signature
Raging fire...

Genre: pirate metal, yo-ho-ho!

Running Wild made the worst possible exit ever with their catastrophically boring and tired sounding "Rogues en Vogue" goodbye album from 2005. But, hey, when they have a catalog of amazing metal releases like this one, they can be forgiven.

"Port Royal" is simply an milestone masterpiece of German metal from the 80s, and, right from the goofy pirate inn intro to the epic closing power metal track "Calico Jack", the album is just one barrage of ass-kicking cannon shots after another (savvy).

"Port Royal" is the essential pirate metal track with its big sound and classic-metal-meets-power-metal guitar riffage and oh-oh-oh-oh-riddled chorus, as are "Calico Jack", "Mutiny" and, to some extent, "Conquistadores" - although the latter deals with the murder and exploitation of Native Americans by Europeans in the name of the king and the church (so, a bit of social criticism there). "Into the Arena" is an uptempo power metal track with a couple of neoclassical elements, too, and this one is interesting in that it was penned by Majk Moti and not Kasparek, and so it sound different from Running Wild on many subsequent releases, when Kasparek takes over the songwriting completely. The other Moti-penned track "Blown to Kingdom Come" is very Priest-inspired, but also contains a neoclassical bridge. The bass-dominated instrumental "Final Gates" was, of course, penned by bassist Jens Becker and has the distinct honor of being the one of the first metal tracks wherein a 5-stringed bass is used. "Uaschitschun" is one of Kasparek's trademark environmentalist songs which takes a Native American's perspective on our destruction of nature, and, while this is musically (combining it with the typical metal theme of individual freedom and independence), not the most interesting song of the album, it does have a compelling chorus line.

As with most of Running Wild's mid 80 to mid 90s releases, this is a fine example of German heavy metal at its best,- and any fan of traditional metal and early power metal should check it out.
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