Band:	Running Wild
Album:	Rapid Foray
Style:	Heavy metal, Power metal
Release date:	August 26, 2016
Guest review by:	R.Baldur

01. Black Skies, Red Flag
02. Warmongers
03. Stick To Your Guns
04. Rapid Foray
05. By The Blood In Your Heart
06. The Depth Of The Sea - Nautilus [instrumental]
07. Black Bart
08. Hellectrified
09. Blood Moon Rising
10. Into The West
11. Last Of The Mohicans

Running Wild's special dialect of metal has always been a musical wonder to me. Is it possible to forget albums such as Death Or Glory? Rapid Foray, the 15th return of the German pirates to the deck of their ship, is a precious and original album that reminds me of heavy metal's peak.

Rapid Foray seems to me to have a hills-and-valleys process; I mean, if you want to hear the uppermost peak of Rapid Foray, you should not bore yourself with judgment, and the two opening songs are actually at the base of Rapid Foray's musical curve. The album slopes upward to reach its maximum. In the two first tracks of the album, we hear the usual process we know from Running Wild, the fast and fussy guitar riffs and the bandwidth weighted in terms of frequency. Of course, at the beginning of the album in "Black Skies, Red Flag," you can embrace the peak of Rulf's singing; though its sound is somewhat aged, it's still overwhelming and it winds up the ship's sails.

From the third track of the album, the sound of the rhythmic riffs reminds me of the heyday of 1980s heavy metal that flows in the blood of every headbanger and forces it into the throng. But whatever you look for in the Rapid Foray story, you will not find anything other than a pirate adventure, the adventures that flow through to the album's end like an hourglass.

Moving onto the fourth track, also the album's title track, we find the vast sea, a wooden ship, relentless guitar playing, and a beautiful bass solo. In my opinion, we have just gotten to the top of the album's sine curve, and you should hear the next track: "By The Blood In Your Heart" has a heavy cadence pulled by delicate vocals, rhythms that are slower but more musically made, with triumphant performance drawing out their well-known Scottish tunes.

I think we're getting to the peak of the album, moving to the amazing "The Depth Of The Sea - Nautilus" with its superb solo, an example of that special dialect of German heavy metal I mentioned earlier. Saturated Heavy Metal. "Black Bart" has that uncontrollable Running Wild metal, an aggressive and rhythmic adventure with patriotic atmosphere.

Are the sails high? The Rapid Curve is at the exact same point, and we are referring back to the early rhythms of the album. Of course Running Wild is rushing a little! The sandy grains of the hourglass have all drained away, and the fast pace of the guitar is strengthened, and the leads and rhythms are together fraternal. The drum rhythms at the same time guide Rapid Foray with competent simplicity.

"Last Of The Mohicans," which has few counterparts in heavy metal, is a beautiful improvisation and noisy like "Beggar's Night," actually a return to the curve's zero point. The substance of this triangular curve is, of course, in the middle, but the end should not be neglected in its place.

Eventually, the Running Wild etiquette in Rapid Foray is summarized in three concepts: heavy metal does not die? solo moves? the flag is still high?