Running Wild (band)

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Running wild
Runningwild-logo.svg

Running Wild live (2005)
Running Wild live (2005)
General information
Genre (s) Heavy metal , speed metal , power metal
founding 1976 as Granite Heart, 2011
resolution 2009
Website www.running-wild.net
Founding members
Rolf "Rock 'n' Rolf" Kasparek
Uwe Bendig (until 1983)
Matthias Kaufmann (until 1983)
Wolfgang "Hasche" Hagemann
(until 1987)
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar
Rolf "Rock 'n' Rolf" Kasparek
guitar
Peter Jordan (since 2005)
bass
Ole Hempelmann (since 2015)
Drums
Michael Wolpers
(since 2015)
former members
guitar
Gerald "Preacher" Warnecke
(1983–1985)
guitar
Michael "Majk Moti" Kupper
(1985–1990)
guitar
Axel "Morgan" Kohlmorgen (1990–1993)
guitar
Thilo Herrmann (1994-2001)
guitar
Bernd Aufermann (2002-2004)
bass
Carsten David (1976–1979)
bass
Matthias Kaufmann (1978–1983)
bass
Stephan Boris (1983–1987)
bass
Jens Becker (1987-1992)
bass
Thomas "Bodo" ​​Smuszynski
(1992–2002)
bass
Peter Pichl (2002-2009)
Drums
Stefan Schwarzmann
(1987–1988; 1992–1993)
Drums
Iain Finlay (1988-1990)
Drums
Jörg Michael (1990; 1994–1998)
Drums
Rüdiger "AC" Dreffein (1990–1992)
Drums
Christos "Efti" Efthimiadis (1998–2000)
Drums
"Angelo Sasso" (2000–2002)
Drums
Matthias Liebetruth
(2002-2009)

Running Wild is a German heavy metal - tape , which was established in 1976. After it was dissolved in summer 2009, it has been active again since 2011.

history

In 1976 Rolf "Rock 'n' Rolf" Kasparek founded the band Granite Hearts in Hamburg together with Uwe Bendig, Michael Hoffmann and Jörg Schwarz . At that time the musicians Hasche and Matthias Kaufmann played together in the band Grober Unfug in Hamburg. In 1977 Kaufmann helped out as a bass player at Granite Hearts, and rehearsals took place at the Emilie-Wüstenfeld-Schule . Kaufmann and Kasparek then decided to form a new band together and also won Hasche for the band. After the bassist and drummer of the original line-up left the band, the remaining members looked for a band name. The name Running Wild came about because the band members were Kiss and Judas Priest fans and there is a song with this title from the latter band.

After numerous line-up changes, Rolf Kasparek has long been the only remaining founding member and, as the band leader, is the band's figurehead. With a few exceptions, he wrote almost all of the songs and lyrics.

The band's mascot is Adrian, the "son of Satan" ("Adrian, son of Satan") ; the name is a reference to the film Rosemary's Baby .

First albums

In 1981 Running Wild recorded a first demo tape which included Hallow the Hell , War Child and King of the Midnight Fire . The first two songs mentioned also appeared on the sampler LP Debut No.1 on the Raubbau label, which became known in the rock scene through the punk band Slime . In 1982 the band consisted of Kasparek, Hasche, Preacher and Stephan Boriss. In 1983 Running Wild recorded rather rough versions of Chains and Leather and Adrian for the sampler Rock from Hell . These two songs were re-released on the demo tape Heavy Metal Like a Hammerblow together with the debut No.1 pieces as well as live versions by Genghis Khan and Soldiers of Hell . The demo was also released as an unofficial vinyl bootleg. In 1984 the two songs Bones to Ashes and Iron Heads were released on the sampler Death Metal by Noise Records . Also at Noise, the band's first album was released in the same year: Gates to Purgatory , which became very popular in the underground.

In the early days, the band played with occult symbolism, which earned them a reputation for worshiping Satanism . As with many other metal bands of the 1980s, however, this was not an expression of staunch Satanism. The fact that the guitarist Gerald “Preacher” Warnecke was studying theology at the time and now works as a Protestant pastor in Cologne makes it clear that the texts with occult content could not be taken so seriously. Kasparek, in turn, stated that he was not religious and that for the band it was more of a political symbol and the devil was not an evil figure, but a rebel who questions everything. However, he thinks playing with esoteric things is dangerous. Because this was misunderstood, the lyrics on the 1985 follow-up Branded and Exiled became a bit clearer. This was the first time Majk Moti could be heard on guitar, as was the live bootleg Black Demons on Stage from the same year. Already at this point in time the band could refer to a numerically not inconsiderable, steadily growing crowd.

Image change, the golden age of piracy

In 1987 Under Jolly Roger was released , arguably the most important album in the band's history, as it initiated an image change away from the occult to the historical. However, piracy as a new lyrical theme was not specifically taken up, but originally came up rather casually. Although the album was still musically reminiscent of the first two musical editions, the title song (after which the stage show was also laid out) gave the band a new image as "metal pirates". The development of the following albums led, especially through Rolf Kasparek, to research more intensively the historical topics in the texts, which were initially treated very superficially. The album received mostly negative reviews, but that didn't hurt its commercial success.

In the following period from 1988 to 1992 (the albums Port Royal , Death or Glory (from which the song "Riding The Storm" was licensed for the video game Brütal Legend ), Blazon Stone and Pile of Skulls ) Running Wild predominantly mediated in the lyrics historical content. In addition to the band's image, the following texts about pirates such as “Calico Jack” Rackham , Klaus Störtebeker or the rather unknown Henry Jennings , the band also processed the Wars of the Roses , the Battle of Waterloo or the colonization of the New World by the Conquistadors .

Constant development into a solo project

Running wild fan with fan shirt in the nightclub Fantasy, 1994

Around the beginning of the 1990s, Rolf Kasparek began to be increasingly interested in conspiracy theories , which was also evident in the band's lyrics from 1994 and the album Black Hand Inn . The purely critical-historical treatises increasingly gave way to the idea of ​​a story directed by a small group. Other esoteric topics also came more and more to the fore, for example the longest running wild song Genesis (The Making and Fall of Man) was written for Black Hand Inn , which for 15 minutes contained the content of Zecharia Sitchin's bestseller The 12th Planet reproduces.

The changes in the line-up also became more frequent and were intended to initiate the development of Running Wild into a solo project by Rolf Kasparek in very small, but noticeable steps. The only constant (with the exception of the album Victory , which was released in 2000 ) remained the songs that were thematically related to the pirate era.

In 1993, former Running Wild members formed the band X-Wild .

"Good and Evil" trilogy: Masquerade, The Rivalry and Victory

In 1995 Running Wild released Masquerade, the first album in a contiguous trilogy, which was continued in The Rivalry (1998) and Victory (2000). In terms of content, these three albums dealt with the struggle between good and evil, with Masquerade standing for the “de-masking of evil”, The Rivalry for the direct conflict between good and evil and Victory for the triumph of good over evil. Rolf Kasparek emphasized several times that it was just a "loose trilogy" and that both the albums and the individual songs were designed in such a way that they can stand on their own.

This trilogy also marked the end of the collaboration with the German drummer Jörg Michael, who after the tour switched to the Finnish band Stratovarius , in which he had been a member since 1995.

Latest albums

The Brotherhood was released in 2002 and, despite moderate reviews, became one of the band's most successful albums. In 2005 the successor Rogues en Vogue was released and caused divided opinions, although this album was much more varied and diverse than its predecessor and therefore received better reviews. On the one hand, the renewed sterile production was criticized, although the alleged drum computer "Angelo Sasso" was replaced by Matthias Liebetruth. On the other hand, this album, like The Brotherhood , was composed and recorded by Kasparek in his own Jolly Roger studio . In 2007 three of the four band members started the glam rock project Toxic Taste, in which drummer Liebetruth took over the vocals. An album called Toxification was released in 2008.

On July 30th, 2009 Running Wild gave their preliminary farewell concert at Wacken Open Air . Band boss and front man Rolf Kasparek wanted to concentrate more on other things in life. On October 21, 2011, SPV posted a video message from Kasparek on their YouTube channel announcing a new studio album titled Shadowmaker , which was released on April 20, 2012.

Another Running Wild album was released in October 2013, Resilient .

At Wacken Open Air 2015 the band gave their first concert in 6 years.

Her next album, Rapid Foray , was released on August 26, 2016 .

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Death or Glory
  DE 45 December 4th, 1989 (18 weeks)
Blazon Stone
  DE 22nd 04/22/1991 (14 weeks)
  CH 16 04/21/1991 (8 weeks)
Pile of skulls
  DE 54 11/23/1992 (10 weeks)
Black Hand Inn
  DE 54 04/18/1994 (10 weeks)
  CH 50 04/24/1994 (1 week)
Masquerade
  DE 54 11/13/1995 (7 weeks)
The rivalry
  DE 19th 02/23/1998 (5 weeks)
Victory
  DE 26th 01/24/2000 (4 weeks)
The Brotherhood
  DE 23 03/11/2002 (3 weeks)
live
  DE 100 12/02/2002 (1 week)
Rogues en Vogue
  DE 39 03/07/2005 (2 weeks)
The Final Jolly Roger
  DE 52 07/11/2011 (1 week)
Shadowmaker
  DE 12 05/04/2012 (1 week)
  AT 61 05/04/2012 (1 week)
Resilient
  DE 25th October 18, 2013 (1 week)
Rapid Foray
  DE 2 02.09.2016 (3 weeks)
  AT 35 09/09/2016 (1 week)
  CH 30th 09/04/2016 (1 week)
Singles
Little Big Horn
  DE 30th 03/25/1991 (9 weeks)
Lead or Gold
  DE 97 10/12/1992 (3 weeks)

Studio albums

Split releases

Compilations

  • 1991: The First Years of Piracy [new recordings of songs from the first three albums]
  • 1998: The Story of Jolly Roger [only in Japan]
  • 2002: The Legendary Tales [box with the albums The Rivalry , Victory and The Brotherhood ]
  • 2003: 20 Years in History
  • 2006: Best of Adrian [best of the albums released by GUN Records]
  • 2016: Riding the Storm - Very Best of the Noise Years 1983 - 1995

Live publications

Singles

  • 1984: Victim of States Power
  • 1989: Bad to the Bone
  • 1990: Wild Animal
  • 1991: Little Big Horn
  • 1992: Lead or Gold
  • 1994: The Privateer
  • 2000: Revolution [1-Track-Promo-CD]
  • 2019: Crossing the Blades

Video albums

  • 1990: Death or Glory Tour (VHS)
  • 2002: Live (DVD)
  • 2011: The Final Jolly Roger - Live at Wacken Open Air 2009 (DVD)

Tribute albums

  • 2005: The Revivalry - A Tribute to Running Wild
  • 2005: Rough Diamonds - A Tribute to Running Wild [available as a free download from the official website]
  • 2010: ReUnation - A Tribute to Running Wild

Membership development

swell

  1. a b c Brian Rademacher: Interview with Rolf "Rock 'N' Rolf" Kasparek .
  2. Mascot Case: Interview with Adrian from RUNNING WILD. In: metal.de. Retrieved August 17, 2019 .
  3. ^ Ian Christe: Sound of the Beast. The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal . ItBooks, 2004, ISBN 978-0-380-81127-4 , pp. 244 .
  4. Michael Moynihan , Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos . Extended and revised edition. Index Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-936878-00-4 , pp. 31 .
  5. ^ J. Bennett: Procreation of the Wicked: The Making of Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales . In: Albert Mudrian (Ed.): Precious Metal. Decibel presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces . Da Capo Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-306-81806-6 , pp. 43 .
  6. PT. I - THE BEGINNING .
  7. Martin Fust: 02/1996 Martin Fust Rolf Kasparek. 1996, accessed March 11, 2010 .
  8. metal.de: TOXIC TASTE - Sensation: 3/4 Running Wild! (accessed on August 14, 2012)
  9. ^ Video message of October 21, 2011 , Rolf Kasparek's video message, which was published on October 21.
  10. RUNNING WILD: New Album Title Revealed. Blabbermouth, July 10, 2013, accessed July 13, 2013 .
  11. RUNNING WILD - the official website: new album "Rapid Foray" out now! Running Wild, September 9, 2016, accessed January 11, 2018 .
  12. Chart sources: DE AT CH

Web links