Death or Glory
| Death or Glory | ||||
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| Running Wild studio album | ||||
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Publication |
November 8, 1989 |
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| Label (s) | Noise Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
11 (15) |
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running time |
54 min 18 s (73 min 16 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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Death or Glory was released in 1989 and is the fifth studio album by the German heavy metal band Running Wild . With the first chart entry in Germany, this album established the band's commercial success.
Emergence
Before the album, drummer Stefan Schwarzmann left the band and was replaced by the British Iain Finlay.
The album was recorded in Studio M in Machtsum under the direction of sound engineer Jan Nemec and released on November 8, 1989 by Noise Records . There were editions on CD, LP and Picture LP . There were two new CD editions in 1995 and 1999, the 1995 and 1995 B-sides of the 1992 released "Lead or Gold" single. The new edition from 1999 contained the songs of the "Wild Animal" EP as bonus material.
The record cover was painted by Sebastian Krüger and shows illustrations of "death" and "fame" in the style of tarot cards . Death is symbolized by a rich man in a wig who bends over a treasure chest and holds a pearl necklace towards the viewer. Fame is stylized by a man standing in the dark, desperately stretching his arms towards a source of light above his head.
A few weeks after the album, the song "Bad to the Bone" was decoupled with the B-sides "March On" and "The Battle of Waterloo" for a single . In 1990 the already mentioned EP “Wild Animal” was released, which contained three new songs and a new recording of the song “Chains and Leather” from the second album “ Branded and Exiled ”.
The album was toured extensively from January to July 1990, with appearances in Greece, Spain and France. Since Iain Finlay had left the band before, Jörg Michael played at all concerts. The bands Rage , SDI and Random accompanied all of the performances . The band later performed at the then Rock Hard Festival , the Open-Air Festival in Neunkirchen (with Alice Cooper and Extrabreit ) and the Finnish Giants of Rock with Uriah Heep , Pretty Maids and Sodom . The VHS tape "Death or Glory Live" was filmed at a concert in Düsseldorfer Tor 3 .
Track list
- Riding the Storm - 6:30
- Renegade - 4:29
- Evilution - 4:43
- Running Blood - 4:30
- Highland Glory (The Eternal Fight) - 4:52
- Marooned -: 13
- Bad to the Bone - 4:46
- Tortuga Bay - 3:17
- Death or Glory - 4:00
- The Battle of Waterloo - 7:46
- March On - 4:12
Bonus tracks of the new edition:
- Wild Animal - 4:11
- Tear down the Walls - 4:15
- Störtebeker - 4:06
- Chains & Leather - 5:44
In contrast to many of the band's other albums, this time Rolf Kasparek was not responsible for the majority of the song material, only Riding the Storm , Running Blood and The Battle of Waterloo came from him . However, Kasparek composed the music for many of the songs, while the lyrics were written in collaboration with Iain Finlay. This applies to Renegade , Marooned , Bad to the Bone, and Tortuga Bay . Death or Glory and March On were composed by Michael Kupper , with Finlay again assisting with the lyrics in the former. Evilution was composed by Kasparek and Jens Becker, the text comes from Finlay alone. The instrumental piece Highland Glory (The Eternal Fight) was composed by Finlay and Becker.
Meanings of some songs
- Many songs have a pirate theme again , specifically these are "Riding the Storm", "Marooned" and "Tortuga Bay". “Störtebeker”, a song from the “Wild Animal” EP, has another historical role model in Klaus Störtebeker .
- "Running Blood" denounces crime in the name of a religion .
- "Bad to the Bone" is dedicated to the memory of the Second World War and asks the question why wars would continue after such experiences. The song is related to the election successes of the right-wing conservative party The Republicans , which in 1989 a. a. moved into the Berlin House of Representatives . Rolf's announcement before the song during the 1989 tour: "There is a new party in Germany ..." "Bad to the Bone" is a contemporary political statement
- "Death or Glory" is about the traditional English fox hunt .
- "The Battle of Waterloo" describes the historical battle of Waterloo .
review
Following the “Port Royal”, which was rated as a respectable success, “Death or Glory” was perceived as a further increase. Thomas Kupfer from Rock Hard magazine put this into words as follows:
“Port Royal” was already a good album, but with “Death or Glory” Running Wild have improved yet again. [...] The quartet did not stand still in its development, as feared from some quarters, but took another giant step forward [...]. "
In retrospect, “Death or Glory” is seen as the beginning of a series of excellent albums. Herbert Chwalek from the webzine Powermetal.de brings this up in his review:
“With“ Death or Glory ”the strongest phase in Running Wild's career began. The quartet around Rock 'n' Rolf was able to improve again in contrast to its predecessor and delivered the best performance in the band's history on "Death or Glory". Overall, an improvement on the predecessor, harder, more coherent, simply more coherent in itself. A first harbinger of later brilliant deeds with some damn good songs [...]. "
In autumn 2001, "Death or Glory" was the only work by the band to be included in the "Top 300 - The best discs of all time" compilation by Rock Hard (issues 174–176) and reached number 282.
Commercially notable is the band's first chart listing, as “Death or Glory” reached number 45 in Germany.
Long-term successful songs, which the band played live over and over again, were mainly "Bad to the Bone" and "Riding the Storm" (see the live album " Live " from 2002). Both songs were also included on the 2003 best-of compilation "20 Years in History".
The song "Bad to the Bone" was also the content of a mixture of homage and parody by the band JBO . On her album “Meister der Musik”, published in 1998, absurd cover versions (“ Richard Clayderman plays Metallica ”, “ Yngwie Malmsteen plays Tic Tac Toe ” etc.) were announced or presented in excerpts in the three-part title track in the style of a teleshopping broadcast . At the end there was the gag "Running Wild Playing Running Wild", whereupon "Bad to the Bone" was played. As a special guest, JBO had brought the then running wild drummer Iain Finlay into the studio for this gag, who had played with Justice for several years with JBO guitarist Hannes Holzmann . This entire gag can be interpreted as an allusion to the musical conservatism of Running Wild.