Running Wild - Black Hand Inn - guest review
Running Wild - Black Hand Inn - guest review
Tracklist
01. The Curse02. Black Hand Inn
03. Mr. Deadhead
04. Soulless
05. The Privateer
06. Fight The Fire Of Hate
07. The Phantom Of The Black Hand Hill
08. Freewind Rider
09. Powder And Iron
10. Dragonmen
11. Genesis (The Making And Fall Of Man)
12. Dancing On A Minefield [bonus]
13. Poisoned Blood [bonus]
Guest review by
MahoDM February 18, 2022
As heavy metal was dying due to the rise of grunge, Running Wild continued to make even better music than before.
Black Hand Inn is certainly the pinnacle of Running Wild, although they have many unique LPs, such as Death Or Glory. Nevertheless, the band fell into a small financial crisis as they expected much greater popularity thanks to their "most expensive" record.
The concept is that each song is a story by John Xenir and a part of his life, the fate of which is described in the prologue (the first track), the second and the seventh songs. The whole theory is explained on the German Wikipedia, if anyone might be interested. The song "Fight The Fire Of Hate" also refers to Nazi Germany, and "Mr. Deadhead" is dedicated to politicians in general.
On this album, Rolf came up another package of creative and delightful riffs, and beautiful solos. The drums of Jörg Michael and bass played by Bodo complete the songs with great efficiency, whilst the vocals sound sharp as always. Every song is dynamic and overflowing in melodies, however, the highlights are "Fight The Fire Of Hate", "The Phantom Of Black Hand Hill" and last but not least "Genesis (The Making And Fall Of Man)", where the opening and closing 1½ minutes can be skipped.
The last 15-minute killer piece of art called “Genesis (The Making And The Fall Of Man)” is heavily inspired by Sitchin’s The 12th Planet. Rock 'n' Rolf was writing this song for one and a half year, and the length and complexity made it impossible for the drummer to play his drum track in one shot. That says something.
The album was recorded in legendary Horus Sound Studio which also brought to life albums like Agent Orange, both Keepers... by Helloween, and a few Gamma Ray albums. This meant for Running Wild that they could use innovative technology (at that time pretty rare - Pro Tools) that made the LP sound perfect.
Black Hand Inn is a heavy metal masterpiece, something between thrash and power metal, and I recommend it to every metalhead.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 10 |
Written by MahoDM | February 18, 2022
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments:
7
Visited by
32 users
 Posts: 3444 |
Posts: 3444
Congrats on your first review! I finally listened to this album in full and it's fantastic  Quote: That's really interesting, by the way
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 Posts: 6690 |
Posts: 6690
Good review I enjoy this album immensely, it has some of the best riffs in metal, with tremendous speed and melody. This album and Death Or Glory are both amongst the best albums heavy metal has to offer, and the two best pirate themed albums in existence.
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| Posts: 143 |
Posts: 143 Written by AndyMetalFreak on 21.02.2022 at 20:38 I agree tho I hope RW or Blazon Stone will surprise us (postitively) in future
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| Posts: 3444 |
Posts: 3444 Written by AndyMetalFreak on 21.02.2022 at 20:38 What's the other album you mean? This one here is Black Hand Inn
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| Posts: 6690 |
Posts: 6690 Written by F3ynman on 21.02.2022 at 23:26 Sorry I meant this one and Death Or Glory my bad  That one is certainly worth checking out too.
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Posts: 807  |
Posts: 807
For me the 5 nearly perfect RW albums are 1. BHI (9.9), 2. DoG (9.6), 3. PR (9.4), 4. PoS(9.3) and 5. Masquerade (9.1)
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