Masquerade (album)
| Masquerade | ||||
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| Running Wild studio album | ||||
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Publication |
October 30, 1995 |
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| Label (s) | Noise Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD, MC |
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Title (number) |
11 (13) |
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running time |
52 min 49 s (61 min 51 s) |
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| occupation |
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Gerhard Wölfle & Rock 'n' Rolf |
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Studio (s) |
Horus Sound Studio, Hanover |
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Masquerade was released as the ninth studio album by the German heavy metal band Running Wild in October 1995. It marks the beginning of a loosely connected trilogy on the subject of "good and bad". It's also the band's first album to be recorded with the same line-up as its predecessor.
Emergence
The recordings took place again in the Horus Sound Studio in Hanover , but this time the recordings were mixed by Gerhard Wölfle. The drum recordings also took place in the Vox Studio in Bendestorf .
The proven Andreas Marschall was also used in the design of the cover artwork . According to the title of the album, the cover presents a politician, a clergyman and an officer who have created a humanoid being on a round table in a ritual and have hidden their faces behind masks.
The album was released on October 30, 1995 on the record label Noise Records . It was the last collaboration with the traditional label, after which Running Wild signed with GUN Records . In 1999, however, a new edition appeared on Noise, on which the two songs published on the 1983 “Death Metal” sampler were added as bonus material.
There were also two special editions of the album, both of which came in a wooden box. One version contained a flag with the band logo, a video, an extended booklet and a bottle of “ Captain Morgan ” rum ; the other special edition did without these extras. In addition, limited editions of LPs and MCs were released.
For this album the band completed a tour with ten concerts in Germany and one in Switzerland in January 1996. Then the band took a break to collect ideas for the next album.
Track list
- The Contract / The Crypts of Hades - 2:20
- Masquerade - 4:20
- Demonized - 4:41
- Black Soul - 5:18
- Lions of the Sea - 5:49
- Rebel at Heart - 5:45
- Wheel of Doom - 4:03
- MetalHead - 4:57
- Soleil Royal - 4:45
- Men in Black - 4:36
- Underworld - 6:15
New edition 1999:
- Iron Heads - 3:45
- Bones to Ashes - 5:17
All songs and lyrics on the regular album were written by Rock 'n' Rolf. Only the bonus track Iron Heads was composed by Gerhard Warnecke.
Meaning of some songs
- The intro "The Contract" depicts a conspiracy. Three men are ready to put themselves in the service of evil for their own profit. The intro goes straight into the instrumental piece "The Crypts of Hades".
- The title song describes how evil is hiding behind “masks” of socially important positions.
- “Demonized” sees the world near the end due to nuclear weapons and environmental pollution.
- "Lions of the Sea" describes the fight against evil on the high seas, possibly through pirates .
- "Rebel at Heart" complains that in the modern world with its work and social obligations, one can only offer ideal resistance to oppression.
- "Wheel of Doom" sees religious fanaticism and blind materialism as great dangers for the political-social structure and calls on the listener to take action against it.
- “Soleil Royal” depicts the destruction of the French warship of the same name in 1692.
- "Men in Black" is also dedicated to the eponymous government agent, who, according to legend , are supposed to silence witnesses of UFOs .
- "Underworld" summarizes all the problems mentioned in the previous songs.
reception
Running Wild again received good reviews for the album, but the creative stagnation was also criticized:
“Discussing a new Running Wild record is about as interesting as a rendezvous with a pilot: Everything is nice, but no longer particularly exciting. [...] In a nutshell: The tempo has been increased, the album is compact, but has comparatively few elements of surprise. [...] The nine points are still deserved compared to the genre competition [...]. "
In commercial terms, the album was able to catch up with its predecessor and also reached a maximum of 54th place in the German album charts, whereby it was placed in the top 100 for 14 weeks.
On the 2003 best-of compilation "20 Years in History", "Masquerade" was represented with the songs "Lions of the Sea" and "Black Soul". However, the pieces on the album could not hold up in the live program in the long term.
Web links and sources
- ↑ Review of Masquerade , Rock Hard No. 130
- ↑ Tracking the album at musicline.de ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2014 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.
