Running Wild - Port Royal

Excelente album, totalmente recomendado

Running Wild is a relentless metal band that doesn't let you take a breath. This is looking metal straight in the face.

Buena banda

My only wish is that I could have seen these folks in their native country on tour. On par with their fellow Germans known as Scorpions. Check them out! No aficionado's collection will be called complete without them.

Awesome music!

Not much I have heard by Running Wild I haven't liked, and such is the case with their 1988 album Port Royal. It is the second album after the German power metal virtuosos switched from the Satanic themes of their first two albums to the pirate image they continue to this day. It is musically solid and lyrically intelligent with songs mostly pertaining to greed and religious persecution. At least two executions are referenced. One man is sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered (hanged to near the point of death, eviscerated with the entrails shown to the still conscious victim, and the body cut into quarters). The other man was simply burnt at the stake. A couple of songs stand out immediately. The title track is one of the band's best. "Uaschitschun" is another track I liked the moment I heard it. It is about the stripping of the land and resources from the Native Americans ("Uaschitschun [meaning 'white man'] tell me why"). It is a powerful song, but also accessible and can be sung along to. One of the reasons I am a fan of Running Wild is that they are a power metal band that can write catchy songs without moving towards a pop metal sound.Besides "Port Royal" and "Uaschitschun," other favorites of mine on this album are "Raging Fire," "Conquistadores," and the closing track "Calico Jack." "Raging Fire" is just a catchy and memorable number. The relentless pace and chanting in "Conquistadores" really fits the theme. It evokes images of Spanish conquerors riding with reckless abandon through the Americas: "They fight, they kill, they rape, under the banner of the 'holy' church. They hunt, they lie, they cheat, they steal doing dirty deeds under churchbell's peal." "Calico Jack" is a killer 8 minute album closer. The other songs on this album are all solid as well. Even the instrumental, "Final Gates," is excellent (albeit a bit repetitive) and demonstrates incredible skill. I highly recommend Port Royal to any fan of 1980s power metal.

I dunno if Rockin' Rolf from Running Wild can really be considered a musical genius, but he sure came up with a kick ass idea when he chose to mix GOOD Euro Power Metal with imagery from the olden days of piracy. The album starts out with the title track, and it has an awesome gang chorus that sticks in your head. "Raging Fire" is the next cut and its one of my favs on this disc that tends to follow the Running Wild forumla-a big chorus with Rolfs awesome riffs and vocals. Essential for any fan of good old traditional metal.

I have been a metal head for a long time. I remember Iron Maiden's first lp. I confess, I like epic, anthemic, well played songs with tons of lead guitar pyrotechnics and a vocalist who can actually sing. This is the old school metal which inspired me so many years ago and it is that very metal, today called power metal, which Running Wild delivers on Port Royal. This disc is a remastered version of an album released originally in, I think, 1988.No silly "I'm so eeevuul" growling. A guitarist not afraid to shred. As one may surmise, there are lots of songs about pirates but this seema to me to be a metaphore for the love of freedom and it never gets cheesy. No songs about self pity and being broken as in so many nu metal/grunge/hardcore trying to pass for metal garbage for sale at the local music store these days. These guys are the real deal. If you like true metal buy this now.