Description

Double album with gatefold cover featuring two studio albums

The Rivalry 1998
Fans cut off Running Wilds success around this time, with this album being the centre of that debate. Some think Masquerade is where things started to fall apart and others believe Victory showed the first severe signs that the band, or specifically Rolf, was beginning to falter. I personally fall in the latter group, making this (to me) the last full, unadulterated Running Wild experience. Sure, Rolf begins padding some of the song lengths and there arent as many master tracks, but what exists is fresh and fearsome, with some truly outstanding pieces here and there. One main complaint you’ll find with this album is that it can get pretty damn long or exhausting with the number of tracks – the longest Running Wild album in both cases, in fact. It beats Black Hand Inn by a few minutes and Victory by one track. Whereas that Black Hand Inn had one long-ass song, this one has a few that actually don’t get drowned out that badly. Face it, tracks like the epic Ballad Of William Kidd and Return Of The Dragon are too good to turn off, and the shorter tracks around them are also barrels of fun. While a change of pace, Rolf hasn’t forgotten his duty to bring majestic, aggressive leads and some grit to the German heavy metal scene. Much like Chris Boltendahl from Grave Digger, Rolf doesn’t squeal or go falsetto on us. No, he protrudes his dusty vocals with all the power in his gut, wailing and howling loudly without undercutting his catchy performances on all the tracks. Some of his best moments here can be heard on Ballad Of William Kidd, Adventure Galley, Return Of The Dragon and War And Peace; on these in particular Rolf sounds extremely proud of his job. Running Wild has always had depth in their music, even in the early demo days where raw quite literally meant death and heavy metal. Almost a couple decades later we have The Rivalry, a special release that used the same Running Wild formula for the past few albums while attempting to switch up the tracks a little bit. This wasn’t the fault, but what was to come surely began the downward spiral into, well, utter shit. Was it the horizon beyond the start of the next technological era that got to Rolfs head? Who knows, but even then that first mishap was still enjoyable. It’s the ones after it that hurt, as they arent Running Wild giving it their all – they arent Rolf giving it his all.

The Victory 1999
Back in the late eighties/ early nineties there were really lousy reviews by critics against Running Wild They are sounding the same – all the time but still the fans loved it. Well, would you not know, when frontman Kasparek tries to develop the sound and make a step towards musical progress then the same kind of unruly bastards shout what is this – it isn’t like it used to be. Victory is marking a notable change in songwriting and production and if you expect the same smoking aggression that dominated Pile Of Skulls or Masquerade be prepared this is a little more progressive. The are some solid tracks like Timeriders, Into The Fire and The Hussar and some tracks that are questionable like the Beatles cover Revolution. However the album is still worth some attention

Track list:
1. March Of The Final Battle (The End Of All Evil)
2. The Rivalry
3. Kiss Of Death
4. Firebreather
5. Return Of The Dragon
6. Resurrection
7. Ballad Of William Kidd
8. Agents Of Black
9. Fire And Thunder
10. War And Peace
11. . Fall Of Dorkas
12. When Time Runs Out
13. Timeriders
14. Into The Fire
15. Revolution
16. The Final Waltz
17. Tsar
18. The Hussar
19. The Guardian
20. Return Of The Gods
21. Silent Killer
22. Victory