Rapid Foray

It may be true that you can't teach an old swashbuckler new tricks, but a more pressing question would be, why would anybody want to? There are only so many ways to plunder a ship, so while nowadays there aren't any pirates outside of a few touristy places donning the stereotypical trifold hat and wooden leg, why not stick to the nostalgic visual of shivering the old timbers and walking the plank? Such is the predicament that Running Wild has been in following the end of their long collaboration with legendary kit master Jorg Michael and the installation of a drum machine in the studio on subsequent outings, which many of their core fans view as the equivalent of putting a cruise ship engine on the Queen Anne's Revenge. Yet contrary to this prevailing sentiment, Rolf and company have maintained a relatively consistent yet slightly inferior output following the close of their 90s canon in The Rivalry. Although it can be rightly asserted that the last two albums functioned as de facto Rolf Kasparek solo project fodder in the Running Wild template due to the lack of a full band lineup, the 2016 release of Rapid Foray saw an auspicious return to old form with the entry of a live session drummer and a notable shift towards more ambitious songwriting in line with the good old days.

Along with the far more organic character that this album possesses due to having a live human performer at the kit, there is a fairly clear effort to turn back the clock a considerable amount, literally back to what was hailed by many as their crowning achievement Blazon Stone. The cumulative tempo of this album has been kicked up a considerable degree, downplaying Rolf's old school rock/metal tendencies in favor of a vintage 90s speed/power display that's a bit closer to the Helloween model. The complexity of the songs, the level of technical prowess displayed during the lead breaks, and even the level of stylistic eclecticism showcased within their sea shanty-based power metal niche has been amped up to a level not seen in about 2 decades. Of particular note is the blaring bagpipe segment that closes out the mid-paced rocker and nod to Scottish pride "By The Blood Of Your Heart", alongside a few clear melodic nods to the old spaghetti western films on the six-gun slinger "Into The West", effectively providing some needed gimmicks to arguably the two most 80s rock-leaning numbers on the album. Likewise, the massive 11 minute homage to the classic novel/film "Last Of The Mohicans" married the serene, Iron Maiden-infused ballad elements of their olden epics with a few lead guitar melodies indicative of a North American aboriginal influence.

All that being said, what has primarily been lacking in Running Wild's repertoire that has been the cause of unrest in fan circles since the early 2000s is a sizable collection of high octane speed metal bangers, and that is ultimately where this album truly closes the deal. Right from the onset of the album's open "Black Skies, Red Flag", it's pretty clear that Rolf is fired up and looking to give the subjects of his pirate kingdom a healthy dose of what they've been yelling for so incessantly. On the faster side of the spectrum that showcases why they share equal credit in the development of German power metal as their fellow Hamburg counterparts Kai Hansen and company are some certified cruisers in "Warmongers", "Blood Moon Rising" and the bass happy galloping extravaganza of the title song "Rapid Foray". All the while Rolf's vocals have a new found degree of enthusiasm that's along the lines of an aged seafaring captain stumbling upon the fountain of youth, and the driving guitar work and melodic passages trading blows with his singing have a correspondingly freshness and vitality going for them. Then again, the two points where this album really shines are right dead at the middle with the highly engaging and dynamic instrumental "The Depth Of The Sea (Nautilus)" and the infectious anthem of speed-infused goodness "Black Bart", probably the best song Rolf has produced since The Rivalry.

Any objective fan of Running Wild's hybrid melodic style and ongoing pirate age lyrical fixation, i.e. anyone who isn't still holding a grudge over the drum machine era and transferring it to anything this band has put out since reforming, will find a highly competent return to form for a band that has admittedly been going in a fairly different direction for the prior 15 years. Naturally the actual degree of stylistic departure that preceded this album was more one of degrees where the 80s hard rock inclinations that have always been present in Rolf's arsenal was getting more attention than in the speed-crazed material during the days of the German resistance to grunge and alternative rock, but while that was arguably not a terrible thing, those protesting the more stylistically stripped down demeanor of The Brotherhood and Rogues En Vogue should be well placated by the lion's share of these songs. It's not quite a full on retread of the Blazon Stone and Black Hand Inn days to the point of surpassing the apex of this power metal institution's long running career, but at bare minimum it could be qualified as the successor to The Rivalry that Victory would have been if a few things were changed/improved upon.

I planned on not even touching this, I had no reason to ever do such a thing at this point. We know how much Running Wild has sucked for almost twenty years, right? Yeah I'm just gonna skip the preamble and say this is as close to a return to form we're probably ever going to get, but it's still a huge breath of fresh air for the long suffering fans of the band's glory years.

Some of the quibbles that have been plaguing the band ever since the "reformation" (because you and I both know damn well this is just a Rolf Kasparek solo project accompanied by a yes-man and a long deceased anonymous drummer that every single human in the universe knows is a damned drum machine) are still here. Rolf's ancient voice is still floundering in a dry environment in dire need of reverb to cover up his weird snarl (though the more prominent layering and generally stronger choruses certainly help here), the guitar tone is still mechanical and "steely", for lack of a better term, the drums are still an uninspired program milking three beats into oblivion, and all the best parts are still lifted almost note for note from previous classics. But despite all of these problems, Rolf is spending more time ripping off classic albums like Pile of Skulls and Black Hand Inn instead of The Brotherhood. The abundance of lame cock rock songs have been shaved down dramatically, with only a few here to really stink up the joint, and even then a good chunk of them are actually some pretty entertaining tunes. For example, "Stick to Your Guns" should be the exact kind of song I loathe from a surface perspective, but it's more well written than something like "Me and the Boys" or "Down to the Wire". It sounds like a lost AC/DC tune from their stadium filling days, instead of a weak filler track on a 70s KISS album like every other rock song he's penned since the turn of the century. "By the Blood in Your Heart" calls to mind something like "Uaschitschun" or "March On", or even one of Judas Priest's lesser anthems like "United" or "Take On the World". But, like "Stick to Your Guns", it just works somehow. The utterly incessant ohrwurm of the chorus is a pretty large reason for that.

But really, those aren't the main draws of any Running Wild album. "Fight the Fire of Hate" will always pale in comparison to "The Phantom of Black Hand Hill", and that's no different here, since the more metallic and speedy numbers that hearken back to their halcyon years are the best songs here by a galactic mile. "Black Bart" was chosen as an advance single, and that was possibly the smartest thing anybody could have done to promote the album, since it sounds straight out of Pile of Skulls. Granted, part of that is because it's so similar to "Jennings' Revenge", but that doesn't bother me since that's one of their unsung classics of the era. The song is filled to the gills with those glorious nautical melodies that were the band's bread and butter from 87-02. Quick tremolo melodies and sharp triplets make up the lion's share of the music on the track, and every little quirk present is just so indicative of what used to make them so great that it stands head and shoulders above literally everything Rolf has released since Victory (with the obvious exception of "Libertalia", which was basically a lost Blazon Stone song burrowed away as a bonus track on their worst album). The major scale melody immediately following the solo, the catchiest chorus he's written since "Pirate Song", everything here is great, and any Running Wild fan worth their salt will find themselves enthralled with the track from the opening seconds.

While "Black Bart" stands as the obvious highlight, several other songs are littered with golden moments as well. "Warmongers" uses the main riff from "Black Hand Inn", and it works just as well 22 years later. Songs like "Black Skies, Red Flag" and "Hellectrified" are much more in line with traditional heavy metal than the speed metal monsters of "Black Bart" and "Blood Moon Rising" (which, like all the other good songs here, reminds me of a previous classic, this one being "Lions of the Sea"), but they're very strong regardless. The signature closing epic, "Last of the Mohicans" works extremely well too. It, like "Bloody Island" before it, just rips off "Treasure Island" with a startling lack of restraint, but god dammit it works. I don't know if it's just the fanboy in me hearing familiar sounds and instantly latching on after years and years of every new release being worse than the one previous, but to me it just shows that Rolf is still good at what he used to do and he's simply choosing to do it again. He's always bordered on self-plagiarism but it's always been well written and endearing enough to not really matter, and that's exactly what's happening here.

It seems like Rolf somehow remembered how to write excellent choruses again, because the only song that fails in that respect, and unsurprisingly ends up as the only song on the album that I can confidently say is just flat out bad, is "Into the West". The shitness of that song actually almost sours the entire album because it encompasses everything wrong with the drum machine era of RW. The weak chorus, the uninspired riffs and melodies, the fact that it just inoffensively passes through one ear and flops out of the other, it's almost insulting since it's clearly trying to emulate "Little Big Horn" and it's just completely ineffectual anyway. It's weird, it doesn't do anything that any other tracks don't do, but it just doesn't work for me, so take that with a grain of salt.

I'm probably making this sound like it's much better than it actually is, and I'll fully admit that. Rapid Foray is a solid album but nothing more than that. There are tons of little moments of brilliance (like the chorus of "Black Bart" or the "whoa-oh oh" parts in the title track) but none of the songs really live up to their predecessors. It aims for the sound of the early 90s and lands somewhere in the early 00s instead, stuck somewhere between the "solid but not great" The Rivalry and "half great and half fucking terrible" The Brotherhood. I'm cognizant enough to know that the rose tinted glasses are on with me right now, and tracks like "Blood Moon Rising" and "Hellectrified" will very likely fade from memory in favor of the obvious highlights like "Black Skies, Red Flag", "Black Bart", and "Last of the Mohicans", but for a long time fan, this is exactly the kind of album we were hoping Shadowmaker would have been. Remember how I said Resilient, despite a more mediocre slog on the whole, was stronger than Shadowmaker purely because it sounded like Rolf was having fun again? Rapid Foray takes that to the next level, as this is the most energetic and fun-loving collection of songs Running Wild has managed to put together in almost twenty years. It's not going to be on any year end best-of lists unless you're a dad, oldnoob, or German metal magazine, but it's extraordinarily refreshing to get an even "solid at best" album out of Rolf these days so it's worth a listen regardless.


PS: Yes, he does the thing he always does in like eight of the eleven songs. Rejoice.


Originally written for Lair of the Bastard

Running Wild was once a legendary band that had developed a unique sound and style within the metal scene. This group has become an artificial, cringe-worthy and uninspired solo project that has passed its zenith more than two decades ago. The band has only released barely acceptable and plain horrible records for more than one and a half decades now. People thought that band leader Rolf Kasparek had finally understood the signs when he put his band to an end towards the end of the last decade but he has since revived the band and released two overall rather underwhelming records. Rapid Foray follows that tradition. This record isn’t as abominable as the uninspired slapstick effort Resilient but it doesn’t have the diversity, energy and flow of Shadowmaker. Dear fans, please stop living in the past and don’t make yourselves sad by buying this underperforming effort. By supporting this group and buying this album, you actively and progressively help a confused veteran destroying the legacy of his own band.

The three opening tracks of this new album are among the worst I have heard in a very long time. One-dimensional recycled guitar riffs that would have already sounded dated three decades ago meet non-existing bass guitar sounds and a drum computer that sounds so sterile that it’s even obvious to inexperienced listeners that Running Wild is a plastic product on a lower level than a casting pop band on television. If compared to ambitious pop singers, the vocals on this disastrous opening trio are though completely invariable and lack any glimpse of creativity and passion. The lyrics are even worth as they aren’t even close to an actual coherent text structure or even a certain form of poetry. It sounds as if random words dealing with the band’s pirate image had been generated together to create nonsense such as ‘’Black skies, red flag, so hear the reaper’s calling – Thunder, lightning, all hell is breaking loose – Black skies, jet black, so fear the reaper’s calling – Hunter’s striking, your hand is on the loose’’ in the horrible opener ‘’Black Skies, Red Flag’’. I’m not expecting a lyrical masterpiece here but rhyming calling with calling and loose with loose and putting random half sentences together is below the minimum grade an elementary student would get for a poetry project at school. An average young teenager who is learning English as a second language can express himself at least twice as good as Rolf Kasparek on this disasterpiece. Even Alestorm writes cleverer texts than Running Wild these days and our drunk friends from the United Kingdom aren’t even trying.

It was terrible to make it through the first three abominable tunes and things get a little bit better. The title song ‘’Rapid Foray’’ sounds more dynamical as it offers more than one riff, a few addicting melodies and something like a coherent song structure. The three previous stinkers make this track sound like a masterpiece but from an objective point of view, this is a good average tune at best. ‘’By the Blood in Your Heart’’ is even better and comes around with a surprisingly emotional and epic vocal performance and a catchy chorus that gets supported by longing bagpipe sounds towards the end. This song sounds like a Grave Digger ballad that could have been released twenty years earlier which isn’t original by any means but it’s well executed. If you think that the band is building up some momentum now, I must disappoint you. The only other good song is the powerful and speedy fist-pumper ‘’Black Bart’’ which was rightfully chosen to represent this record in order to make people believe that Running Wild is back in strength.

The end of the record isn’t as abominable as the beginning but it’s almost constantly weak. We get an overlong instrumental called ‘’The Depth of the Sea (Nautilus)’’ that is going nowhere and neither manages to build up some atmosphere nor to expose the technical qualities of the involved musicians and their beloved drum computer. The other songs offer forgettable pirate metal by numbers that are only minimally more interesting than the opening trio. ‘’Into the West’’ is probably the most interesting song among those tunes as it offers some memorable melodies and a solid guitar solo. This song is an attempt at being the party tune of the album and it does an acceptable job. The album ends with what is supposed to be its masterpiece, an epic tune called ‘’Last of the Mohicans’’ that is more than eleven minutes long and represents almost a fifth of the entire record. The song starts with a mildly amusing spoken word passage that sounds as if a robotic vocal sample of Blaze Bayley’s voice would talk to us. After an overlong overture, the song offers some nice riffing and fierce vocal parts that makes us temporarily forget the absence of a bass guitar and the overtly dominant fake drum sounds. The cheerful chorus is acceptable even though the lyrics sound like a hastily written novel summary by a student who needs to do his homework during lunch because his teacher is going to evaluate it in the early afternoon. The middle part includes some very short samples of Indian folk chants that are soon replaced by slow and chugging riffs leading to a solid but overall unspectacular solo section. As you might guess, this ambitious closer is equally balanced between good and bad parts and overall a really average and unspectacular tune. If you expected the band to keep the best until the end, you lost your bet.

So here’s the final verdict: five average tunes meet six bad stinkers. Running Wild isn’t playing pirate metal but piracy metal. They are recycling outdated song ideas in a cheap attempt to steal your money. Don’t let them exploit you. Instead of spending one hour of your life on this coaster or frisbee, you could do much more useful things like completing a tax declaration, renewing your vaccinations or washing the dishes. Believe me, all these things are more pleasant than making it through Rapid Foray.