Blazon Stone
| Blazon Stone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Running Wild studio album | ||||
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Publication |
1991 |
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| Label (s) | Noise Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
11 (13) |
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running time |
51 min 49 s (60 min 37 s) |
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| occupation |
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|
Jan Nemec & Rock 'n' Rolf |
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Studio (s) |
Studio M, Machtsum |
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Blazon Stone is the sixth studio album by the German heavy metal band Running Wild . It was released in 1991 and contains the band's biggest single hit, “Little Big Horn”.
Emergence
Compared to the line-up on the previous album, there were some changes, as both long-time lead guitarist Majk Moti alias Michael Kupper and drummer Ian Finlay left the band. After Jörg Michael had given a guest performance on the tour, the drumming roadie Rüdiger "AC" Dreffein was announced as a band member for the recordings. Axel "Morgan" Kohlmorgen became the new lead guitarist.
The recordings for the album took place from December 1990 to January 1991 in Studio M in Machtsum , Lower Saxony . The mix comes from Jan Nemec, the producer was Rolf "Rock 'n' Rolf" Kasparek , the singer and rhythm guitarist of the band.
The release of the album in March 1991 preceded the single "Little Big Horn". As B-sides it contained the songs "Billy the Kid" and "Genocide", a Thin Lizzy cover version of their album Chinatown . The single reached no. 30 in the charts and stayed in the top 100 for nine weeks. The album itself was released on April 4, 1991 on Noise Records on CD and LP, as well as in limited editions as digipack and picture LP . The first edition of the CD on Noise / EMI contained the B-sides of the "Little Big Horn" single as bonus tracks. For legal reasons, these two songs were no longer included on any other regular editions of the CD. It was not until 1999 that a new edition took place, on which the songs "Billy the Kid" and "Genocide" were again included.
The album was followed by a tour with the bands Raven and Crossroads and the release of the best-of album "The First Years of Piracy". In addition, bassist Jens Becker left the band and was replaced by Thomas Smuszynski .
The album title refers to the French word blason or blazon for coat of arms (see: blazon ). The record cover shows the band name and the album title incorporated into a coat of arms . The escutcheon is divided into four, in each of the quarters you can see the band mascot "Adrian" (with a pirate bandana ), a heraldic eagle, a snake with a drum and a dragon. The design comes from Horst Herrendorff and Andreas Marschall . The band photos in the booklet were made by Thorsten Herbig.
Track list
- Blazon Stone - 6:31
- Lone Wolf - 4:48
- Slavery - 5:15
- Fire & Ice - 4:08
- Little Big Horn - 4:59
- Over the Rainbow - 1:57
- White Masque - 4:19
- Rolling Wheels - 5:33
- Bloody Red Rose - 5:05
- Straight to Hell - 3:50
- Heads or Tails - 4:59
bonus tracks of the new edition: - Billy the Kid - 4:47
- Genocide (The Killing of the Buffalo) - 4:48
With a few exceptions, all songs were composed by Rolf Kasparek - up to this point the album contained most of the songs that he contributed entirely by himself. These exceptions are the “Fire & Ice” and “Billy the Kid” composed by Rüdiger “AC” Dreffein as well as “Over the Rainbow”, “Rolling Wheels” and “Straight to Hell”, all three by Jens Becker. "Genocide" was written as a Thin Lizzy cover version by Phil Lynott .
Meanings of some songs
- “Blazon Stone” is about pirates , the band's best known lyrical theme.
- "Lonewolf" describes the character type of a "lone fighter".
- "Slavery" is about the historical slave trade between Africa and America.
- "Little Big Horn" describes the battle of the same name on Little Bighorn in 1876 and asks in particular the motivation behind the ultimately fatal attack by General George Armstrong Custer .
- "Over the Rainbow" is a short instrumental piece for electric bass.
- "Rolling Wheels" is about the everyday life of musicians on tour.
- "Bloody Red Rose" is about the Wars of the Roses , which took place in England in the 15th century.
- “Straight to Hell” includes the fear of nuclear war .
- "Billy the Kid", a bonus track, is about the gunslinger of the same name .
reception
The album received excellent reviews when it was released. So wrote Götz Kühnemund from Rock Hard in his review, which ended with a rating of 9/10 points:
"Hymns like" Lonewolf "," Blazon Stone "or" White Masque "are with fatal certainty some of the very best that the Hanseatic people have achieved so far, and leave some of the running wild hit songs of the past far behind. [...] Logical conclusion: "Blazon Stone" will finally catapult Running Wild into the guard of the German megabands, you can bet your asses on that! "
A later review by Herbert Chwalek from the webzine Powermetal.de came to the conclusion that the band achieved a certain quality on this album due to the complete lack of ingratiation to contemporary tastes:
“Especially in the context of time, the stubborn adherence to the course chosen for Running Wild was clearly positive. How many other bands stuck to their course at the beginning of the nineties with this persistence and class? [...] "Blazon Stone" was and is a good album that looks good in any collection. "
In the German album charts, the album reached a maximum of 22nd, until then the best and to this day the second best ranking (after “ The Rivalry ” from 1998, which reached number 19) of the band. In Switzerland the album was even more successful and reached 16th place in the charts.
The title song of “Blazon Stone” and “Little Big Horn” were included in the 2003 best-of collection “20 Years in History”. In the long term, the title song became a classic that was played live again and again, which was also documented with the live album " Live 2002 ".
Web links and sources
- ↑ Single tracking at musicline.de ( memento of the original from January 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Review of the album in Rock Hard No. 50
- ↑ Review of the album at powermetal.de
