Wild obsession

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Wild obsession
Studio album by

Publication
(s)

December 1, 1989

admission

1989

Label (s) Steamhammer / SPV

Format (s)

CD, LP, MC

Genre (s)

Heavy metal , hard rock , power metal , hair metal

Title (number)

10

running time

44:46

occupation
  • Singing: Charlie Chicken
  • E-bass: Volker Krawczak
  • Keyboard: George Hahn

production

Ulli Pösselt, Axel Rudi Pell

Studio (s)

RA.SH Studio, Gelsenkirchen

chronology
- Wild obsession Nasty Reputation
(1991)
Template: Infobox music album / maintenance / no artist

Wild Obsession is the first studio album by German heavy metal guitarist Axel Rudi Pell .

History of origin

After the strike back album of his original band Steeler, the guitarist Axel Rudi Pell had expected a surge in popularity for the band, which was already in the top metal ranks in Germany. Instead, the 1988 album Undercover Animal disappointed him because it was too obviously aimed at the masses. He liked the harshness inherent in Strike Back . Steeler went on tour with Saxon after the Undercover Animal release, but during this time Pell made the decision to leave Steeler to avoid stagnation and not have to compromise. He was "tired of the hiccups caused by five egos who all want their song on the album," he later explained after similar experiences with his employed musicians. In fact, on November 11th, he got off before a scheduled rehearsal. Six weeks earlier, drummer Jan Yildiral had been fired against Pell's will. Steeler could not contain himself after these exits and soon broke up. On April 10, 1989, Axel Rudi Pell released a cassette entitled " Demo " which already contained the later album songs Broken Heart , Cold as Ice and (Don't Trust the) Promised Dreams . The cassette was recorded with Rüdiger König on keyboards and Karl Holthaus on vocals. The versions differed clearly from the later album versions. The Broken Heart version later appeared on the compilation The Ballads (1993).

The planned solo album should "sound hard, but have nothing to do with Thrash ". An instrumental album was out of the question from the start. The accompanying musicians had already been selected: Karl Holthaus, who had sung the first Steeler demo , was to take over the vocals , Jan Yildiral was to take over the drums, Pell wanted to operate the bass himself and keyboardist Rüdiger König was to complete the line-up. Ultimately, in addition to Pell, the musicians Jörg Michael (drums), Charlie Huhn (vocals), George Hahn (keyboard) and Steeler co-founder Volker Krawczak (bass) were involved in the album (of the announced musicians only Rüdiger König had at least one more use as a background singer ). It was produced by Axel Rudi Pell himself, at the side of Ulli Pösselt . It was recorded in Gelsenkirchen in the RA.SH studio. Each instrument was recorded individually, starting with the drums, which were "guided" by Pell's guitar playing, then adding the bass and rhythm guitar. Including the mix , the whole thing lasted a week - not least because of a small budget.

It was released on December 1, 1989 by the Steamhammer / SPV label in the then common formats CD, LP and MC.

Track list

  1. Wild Cat (Axel Rudi Pell / Charlie Huhn) - 3:38
  2. Call of the Wild Dogs (Axel Rudi Pell / Charlie Huhn) - 3:50
  3. Slave of Love (Axel Rudi Pell / Charlie Huhn) - 4:39
  4. Cold as Ice (Axel Rudi Pell) - 6:20
  5. Broken Heart (Axel Rudi Pell) - 5:07
  6. Call Her Princess (Axel Rudi Pell) - 3:22
  7. Snake Eyes (Axel Rudi Pell) - 5:12
  8. Hear You Calling Me (Axel Rudi Pell, Charlie Huhn) - 4:54
  9. Return of the Calyph from the Apocalypse of Babylon (Axel Rudi Pell) ( Instrumental ) - 0:50
  10. (Don't Trust the) Promised Dreams (Axel Rudi Pell) - 6:26

Singles

As a foretaste of the album, the single Hear You Calling Me ( B-side : (Don't Trust the) Promised Dreams ) was released on November 20, 1989 and the single Broken Heart (B-side: Wild Cat ) on November 25, 1989. released.

reception

A Laut.de critic judged in Pell's biography that, apart from the vocals , Wild Obsession did not show any significant differences to works by the band Steeler , to which Pell had been a member before his solo career. The sound was "only partially" convincing.

In the Rock Hard Encyclopedia published by Holger Stratmann, there is talk of "exuberant reviews". Years earlier, Stratmann also criticized the resemblance to Steeler in the then current magazine issue - with the exception of the vocals. According to Pell's statements, he imagined a "tough solo album". Wild Cat was completely in the Steeler style, Call of the Wild Dogs sounded almost stolen and Call Her Princess was a remake of the original Steeler version. The other pieces are overall better and more varied than the comparison band. Only the greasy Snake Eyes is a total failure. The deciding factor for almost 8 out of 10 possible points was the fact that "excessive guitar dummies were dispensed with in favor of the songs".

From today's review Kevin Hathaway wrote on blackwindmetal.com that Pell's debut album is very reminiscent of Steeler and embodies typical metal of the 1980s with “effeminate” vocals, squeaky guitars and clichéd lyrics.

Chris Glaub took the opposite point of view in Break Out . He was surprised that Wild Obsession didn't sound like Steeler at all.

Martin Popoff found it in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal. Volume 2: The Eighties that different styles such as Rainbow , Accept and Shred Metal are competently mixed on the album . Occasionally the music has a slightly screeching sound. You can hear typical German Metal that borders on Hair Metal. Chicken's singing sounds more eccentric than usual and similar to Steve Walsh . He also sounds more theatrical than usual. He awarded it seven out of ten points.

Matthias Herr, actually a friend of the harder metal varieties, decided in his Heavy Metal Lexicon that it was one of “the best German hard rock debuts ” that he knows.

Ten years later, the Steeler number Call Her Princess and the ballad Snake Eyes , which Stratmann found out of the question, were the only songs performed live from this album.

In Germany alone, 6,000 units were sold within the first few days of sales and 22,000 units within the first year.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Götz Kühnemund: Axel Rudi Pell . One more guitar hero? In: Metal Hammer / Crash . Anniversary edition. March 1989, p. 55 .
  2. ↑ a b Axel Rudi Pell . In: Metal Hammer / Crash . International hard rock & heavy metal poster magazine. January 1989, News, p. 8 .
  3. ↑ Michael Steidinger: Axel Rudi Pell . In: Iron Pages . The World City Mag. No. 46 (October / November), 1998, pp. 12 .
  4. ↑ a b Holger Stratmann (Ed.): Rock Hard Enzyklopädie . 700 of the most interesting rock bands from the last 30 years. Rock Hard GmbH, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 , Pell, Axel Rudi, p. 295 .
  5. ↑ a b Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Arno Hofmann et al. (Ed.): Heavy Metal Made in Germany . 1st edition. IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-931624-08-0 , Steeler, p. 166 ff .
  6. ↑ The Ballads. Discogs , accessed May 4, 2015 .
  7. ↑ a b c Chris Glaub: Axel Rudi Pell . Out of the Darkness - Into the Light. In: Break Out . The Heavy Rock Magazine. August 1991, p. 47 .
  8. ↑ Axel Rudi Pell. Total bullshit. Interview. (No longer available online.) In: metal.de. January 17, 2014, archived from the original on May 4, 2015 ; accessed on May 4, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metal.de
  9. ↑ Wild Obsession by Axel Rudi Pell. Published December 1, 1989. In: archive.org. September 20, 2012, accessed May 4, 2015 .
  10. ↑ laut.de-biography Axel Rudi Pell Retrieved on April 24, 2015.
  11. ↑ Holger Stratmann: Axel Rudi Pell . Wild obsession. In: Rock Hard . No. 36 , February 1989, p. 49 .
  12. ↑ Kevin Hathaway: Axel Rudi Pell - Wild Obsession. In: blackwindmetal.com. January 21, 2014, accessed May 4, 2015 .
  13. ^ Martin Popoff : The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal . tape 2 : The Eighties. . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2005, ISBN 1-894959-31-0 , p. 259 .
  14. ^ Matthias Herr: Matthias Herr's Heavy Metal Lexicon . tape 3 . Verlag Matthias Herr, Berlin-Kreuzberg September 1991, Axel Rudi Pell, p. 97 f .
  15. ^ Matthias Breusch: Axel Rudi Pell . Bochum, colliery. In: Rock Hard . No. 141 , February 1999, live… and dangerous, p. 134 f .
  16. ^ Andreas Schöwe: Axel Rudi Pell . 'Nasty Reputation'. In: Metal Hammer . The international hard rock & heavy metal poster magazine. May 1991, p. 139 .

Web links