Cover:
9 Skulls and Crossbones out of 10
Holy shit, it's a pirate ship! A big, evil-looking heavy
galleon off to score some bounty on the high seas. How cool is that!
Booklet: 9
Swashbucklers out of 10
It's a fucking treasure map! No shit. It's a map of an
island, with notations indicating such places as "Dead Man's Valley,"
"Jungle of No Return," and the invaluable "Source of
Rum." It even has latitude and longitude coordinates. Anyone feel
like going on a treasure hunt? The map indicates the location of a buried
chest, with directions measured in paces. 10 paces this way, 4 paces
past that rock, etc. Why there's a treasure map, I don't know, but it's
cool. There's also credits and all the lyrics scripted onto scrolls
on the other insert panel. The back cover has a painting of the band
landing on the beach, all dressed as pirates of course, brandishing
scabbards, muskets and hoisting a treasure chest. Who wouldn't want
to be a pirate?
Songs: 9
Yo Ho Ho's and a Bottle of Rum out of 10
The pirate motif wasn't nearly enough throughout
the packaging - it's continued throughout each album track. That's right,
every single song is about pirates, piracy, stealing, firing cannons,
sinking ships, swordfights, getting eaten by sharks, and other adventures
on the high seas. The singer, "Rock'n'Rolf" Kasparek, maintains
a gritty rock voice while still sounding like a pirate. Aaarrgh, matey!
The other players are tight, the music is pretty heavy but it's still
rock, it's not like Death Metal or anything. Good thing there's no ballads
though. Any pirate singing drippy love songs should be forced to walk
the plank!
Comments: At first I thought
this was just a singular concept album, but no. Running Wild has released
12 studio albums, several live albums and a ton of maxi-singles - every
one of them chock-full of songs about pirates! Hailing from Hamburg,
Germany, itself an ancient Hanseatic port and a famed epicenter of smuggling
and piracy since the middle ages, Running Wild was formed by Rock'n'Rolf
in the late 1970's and has been at it ever since. Their last CD was
released earlier in 2002 and a live CD/DVD set is expected out just
in time for the holidays. How can you fuck with a German heavy metal
band that's convinced they're pirates? You can't. This is my new favorite
band.
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