Pile of skulls
| Pile of skulls | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Running Wild studio album | ||||
|
Publication |
1992 |
|||
| Label (s) | Noise Records | |||
|
Format (s) |
LP, CD, MC |
|||
|
Title (number) |
9 (LP, MC) |
|||
|
running time |
51 min 05 s (LP, MC) |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
Jan Nemec, Thomas Korge & Rock 'n' Rolf |
||||
|
Studio (s) |
Studio M, Machtsum |
|||
|
||||
Pile of Skulls was released in 1992 and is the seventh studio album by the German heavy metal band Running Wild . The song "Lead or Gold" contained on it was released as a single .
Emergence
In the run-up to the album production, drummer Stefan Schwarzmann returned to the band, who had already worked on the album "Port Royal". In addition, Thomas Smuszynski took the place of Jens Becker on bass and remained in this position until 2000.
As with the previous album "Blazon Stone" The recordings took place under the supervision of Jan Nemec and Thomas Korge in Studio M in Lower Saxony Machtsum place and lasted from June to August 1992. Remixed was the album of Jan Nemec, as producer was Rolf "Rock ' n 'Rolf “Kasparek .
Before the album was released, the single "Lead or Gold" with the B-sides "Hanged, Drawn and Quartered" and "Win or Be Drowned" followed. The single could not repeat the success of "Little Big Horn" from the previous album, reached a maximum of 90 in the Top 100 and disappeared again after three weeks. The actual album was released on November 5, 1992 by Noise Records on CD, LP and MC. For the first time, “Chamber of Lies” and “White Buffalo”, which were not included on the LP and MC versions, were released exclusively on CD.
After the release, a single for the song "Sinister Eyes" was also planned. B-sides were the new song "Skulldozer" and new recordings of the songs "Beggars' Night" and "Uaschitschun". However, the single was never released. However, "Skulldozer" by X-Wild , a band of some ex-Running Wild members, was released under the name "SkyBolter".
In 1999 a new edition of the CD appeared with the single B-sides as bonus tracks. The exception to this is "Skulldozer", which has remained unpublished until today.
After the album and the accompanying tour with the band Universe , lead guitarist Axel “Morgan” Kohlmorgen and drummer Stefan Schwarzmann left the band. Her successors were Thilo Herrmann and Jörg Michael . Kohlmorgen founded the band X-Wild together with the former bass player Jens Becker.
The album cover was drawn by Andreas Marschall and shows the album title according to a pile of skulls piled up in a cathedral. It is also noteworthy that the CD booklet does not contain photos of the band members, but also drawings.
Track list
Playing time: 51 min 05 s |
Playing time: 58 min 50 s |
Playing time: 77 min 58 s |
All songs were composed by Rolf Kasparek. The only exception is “Pile of Skulls”, which was written by Kasparek and Axel Kohlmorgen [making it the first album in the band's history that Kasparek had largely written alone]. The single "Lead or Gold" also contained two new recordings of older pieces, "Beggars' Night '92" and "Uaschitschun '92", which he had also composed single-handedly, as well as two new pieces, of which "Hanged, Drawn and Quartered "came from the pen of Axel Kohlmorgen, while" Win or be Drowned "was a collaboration between Kasparek and Thomas Smuszynski.
Meanings of some songs
- "Chamber of Lies" is an instrumental intro to "Whirlwind".
- “Whirlwind” and “Lead or Gold”, like many of the band's other songs, are about pirates .
- "Sinister Eyes" describes a clairvoyant .
- "Black Wings of Death" is about the equality of all before death .
- "Roaring Thunder" describes how the decisions of politicians bring about their own end.
- "Pile of Skulls" condemns the wars waged by secular and spiritual rulers.
- "White Buffalo" is about environmental degradation .
- “Jennings' Revenge” is about the historical pirate Henry Jennings , who in 1715 captured around 350,000 Pesos from a Spanish fleet that had recovered the treasure of a sunken ship.
- "Treasure Island" is based on the famous novel " Treasure Island " by Robert Louis Stevenson .
reception
Running Wild continued to get good reviews for “Pile of Skulls” in the trade press. In Rock Hard , the band was able to include one of their works in the “Dynamit” rating for the ten best albums in one issue for the first time with this album. The great stylistic similarity to the previous works caused criticism, but this was also seen as a positive sign of consistency:
“If you wanted to nag Running Wild, you could say that the band has been writing the same song for at least five years and repeating itself over and over again. If you look at it positively, you have to ascribe a completely unmistakable, characteristic style to Running Wild, which is refined from record to record. "
Kühnemund closed the review in Rock Hard with a rating of 9/10 points and the statement that everything was the same with Running Wild.
In the German album charts, the album, like the "Lead or Gold" single, lagged behind its predecessor and reached number 54. However, it stayed in the top 100 for a total of 18 weeks.
The 2003 best-of collection "20 Years in History" included the songs "Whirlwind" and "Treasure Island" from "Pile of Skulls". In the long term, however, the band's live program included “Lead or Gold”. A recording of this song can be heard on the album " Live 2002 ".
Web links and sources
- ↑ Single tracking at musicline.de ( memento of the original from April 2, 2015 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. 66
- ↑ Chart tracking at musicline.de ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2013 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.
