Customer Reviews

The Brotherhood

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is another thunderstrike from R.W frontman
Kasparek ; the man refuses to slow down or surrender
to trends - and damn it is he ever good !!
There is a huge discussion on the R.W-forums
about the identity the drummer on this
and the previous album ( Victory ). Regardless ;
the drumsound is once again so well-engineered that
it's almost spooky = Fast,precise and well-harmonized
with , most notably , the bass-guitar. Rolf's lead is , once again , awesome- bringing over a great blend of catchiness,
heavyweight and speed. The sound is somewhat rawer
and a little more oldfashioned compared to
f.i. the "Victory"-album , but still - this is doubtless
powermetal the way it should be played.
Instead of a usual R.W-intro the playlist starts with
" Welcome to hell " - a great midtempo piece
with impressive vocals. Other highlights include
the titletrack , Sibirian Winter ( which , read this slowly ,
IS GUARANTEED TO SWEEP YOUR FREAKIN FEETS AWAY !!!!.
This 6 minute instrumental kicks the daylight out of anything
in the genre. Awesome !!!! ),
Pirate Song ( which is a great follow-up to the fast
singalong-structures on the 94'-album " Black Han Inn " ),
and the mighty epos " The Ghost ".
If You liked BHI,Victory and those masterpieces ; You will
definitely enjoy Brotherhood ! A true and honest masterpiece -
and a effectful blow against the growing number of
dilettants within this genre of music.
Unfortunately I could not get the Digipak-version with
the additional 2 songs ; if You can - get it.
Enjoy this marvellous german metal foundry !

Running Wild's latest recording, "The Brotherhood" is another metal masterwork from this band from Germany. The classic Running Wild sound is back, and most welcome at a time when few bands are producing traditional Euro-style metal music. If you are already a fan, you will not be disappointed. The heart and soul of the band, guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist, Rolf Kasparek is musically as solid as ever. Familiar song themes for the band remain, pirates, religion, war and battle.

Although their music has evolved over the years, it has not softened or lost its impact. This can't be said of very many metal bands from the 80's, if indeed they are still around. These songs are as powerful and energetic as any they have ever done. Musically, the band does not really break any new ground. The music features many familiar groves and rhythms used on earlier recordings, but you never feel that the band is "recycling". As a long-time fan, I found the music to be exactly as expected, new but very "familiar", with the tempo of the songs a bit slower than their most recent recordings. The signature guitar sound is raw, and clean, and the drumming very crisp indeed.

Highlights include "Soulstrippers" which rocks to an AC/DC like groove. "Dr.Horror" features some chunky riffing to a pounding rhythm. "Crossfire" has churning guitars, and plenty of harmonic squeals. "Detonator" features staggered riffing and nice down and dirty solo. My favorite track is "Ghost", a song with the desert as a theme. It has such great imagery that you can almost feel the desert wind blowing and the sand below your feet. If possible get the version of with the bonus tracks. Both "Powerride" and "Faceless" are strong uptempo numbers that should not be missed.

Running Wild is a great band, producing some of the heaviest metal music, for nearly two decades. Times are tough for the genre, and hopefully this under appreciated band will continue for many years to come. Long live the true metal.

How many times can you go to the perverbial well and come up with a bucket of water? That's the question Rock'n Rolf Kasparek, the pirate leader of German Heavy Metal sensations Running Wild have been trying to get to the bottom of for over 20 years. It looks like they still don't have an answer though because they tread into familiar territory yet again with high success. This particular album has a few more rockers and a few less speed metal anthems but the mix is still within Running Wild specifications.

The album is rich sounding, drives hard and has a strong level of songwriting. It is no where near as good as Running Wild's best albums such as Black Hand Inn and Pile Of Skulls so if you long for the glory days and won't accept anything else you will certainly be disappointed but if you take the album on it's own merits you will be more than satisfied and there are a few places where the album DOES reach the level of RW's most sucessfull efforts.

P.S. Bonus Tracks Powerride and Faceless are both good so try to get the limited edition if possible.

Weigh Anchor!

hello fellow metallians, i take it if you are reading this you must be a true metal head or you would not be on this page. we all know and love running wild. i would rank them as one of the all time long standing most influential metal bands of all time. rolf should have his name right up there with the top visionaries of traditional and power metal. i mean alongside names like king diamond, udo dirkschneider, kai hansen, and so on. with not one bad album in his amazingly long career rolf is a metal mastermind. sure we all remember the classics like death or glory and blackhand inn, those albums were amazing. but ive found out along the way that alot of people judge this band harshly because all their albums do not sound like black hand inn. we the fans are taken by the cool as hell pirate themes and larger than life power riffs but people they have not sold out. sure there are some differences but all things aside they are still the running wild i have loved and followed for years. now if you want to talk about sell outs talk about metallica, i mean after classics like ride the lightning and puppets they throw this new weird as hell st anger at us, now that is a sell out. any way back to the basics. fans just listen to the amazing songs this cd has to offer. rock'n rolf now is taking over all the guitar work, untill now i did not realize just what an amazing guitarist he was. listen to tracks 2'3'and 4. these are hard hitting riffs that are catchy as hell and mellodic with a pirate or civil sort of feel and exactly what running wild should be. running wild have allways been blessed with the talent of being able to release album after album of catchy mellodic awesome 5 star records. victory saw a change in the band with new drummer sossa. the drums were hard to describe but kept a neat rythm that galloped along the cool riffs nicely, the 2nd song on victory is one of their best songs of all time. now i like the death or glory days better but that was then folks and this is now. this album(the brotherhood) really shows just how talentad a songwriter and just how much of an acclompished guitarist that rock'n rolf truly is. i would like to see a return to the early 90's roots but i will surely settle for what running wild is currently pursuing. metallians if you like me live for power metal, and if power chords and sing along choruses and mystical epic song structures along with imaginative story telling nearly gives you an orgasm then check out this album and support one of the most talented brothers in our metal world today, rock'n rolf, i salute you. your friend in metal, brandon whitson of north carolina

This album was a surprise to me, cuz I wasn't expecting such a rocker after the disappointing "Victory". Well I was wrong! Highlights are Siberian Winter (in your face kickass metal), Dr. Horror, and The Ghost (up there with the best of the epics Running Wild ever wrote).

Another cool release from Running Wild. Some really good cuts as usual from the band. Very high quality sound is my favorite as well. Starting out Welcome to Hell is a rocker and the jam for Siberian Winter is very cool! I think Detonator is my favorite song off the album....I just love the hell out of this song! I finish by saying it's a cool freaking album and I'm glad to add it to my Running Wild collection.

2002's The Brotherhood was the 12th studio from metal's original swashbucklers Running Wild. The long-running German band took some heat for their previous album Victory (which I still enjoyed), so The Brotherhood has a "back to basics" sound that should please most Running Wild fans.

It's not a full-on pirate metal fest like Under Jolly Roger or Port Royal, but those themes are revisited on The Brotherhood. I also hear an Accept vibe on some of these songs (especially "Crossfire"), but I guess Running Wild did always seem like the happy medium between Helloween and Accept. Anyway, this is a totally solid album. Nothing you haven't heard before, but if you dig the Running Wild sound you should get a kick out of anthems like "Welcome to Hell," the title track and the epic "The Ghosts."

The Brotherhood is another very solid, very enjoyable melodic power metal album from Running Wild, and one that ought to please most fans of bands like Grave Digger, Pretty Maids, Sabaton and the like. It's just a shame this was one of the final studio albums Running Wild would release (unless the metal gods are good and they un-retire).

Edition Notes: The Brotherhood is also available with the band's The Rivalry and Victory albums - all three in digipacks - in the Legendary Tales box set. The version of The Brotherhood that's included contains two bonus tracks, new studio songs "Powerride" and "Faceless."

In the world of metal bands are either criticized for never changing or strung up and ridiculed when they do try something different. Running Wild at first was the butt of jokes because they never changed their sound. They recorded nine albums (Gates to Purgatory through Masquerade) of pretty much the same type of power/speed metal. Now with The Brotherhood, the band is getting blasted for trying something different.

So what makes this album different? Well like the last album Victory, The Brotherhood (for a lack of a better word) is "groovy", just to more of a degree. This is not the sonic speed metal assault of the past.

Because of this the songs are actually more diverse. This diversity is also something new that we never heard on a Running Wild disc before. I hate to say it but when I listen to even stellar discs as Blazon Stone and Black Hand Inn, I get tired of the albums half-way through because all the songs end up sounding the same. Not with The Brotherhood. Aside from the occasional weak song, I can listen to The Brotherhood straight through.

The album opens with Welcome to Hell (sorry, not a Venom cover) which is reminiscent of Wild of old. This is just a fantastic speed metal monster with a killer riff. Rock N' Rolf in an interview said he got the idea for this song when someone asked him what he would say to greet an alien that was visiting earth. His response would of course be 'welcome to hell'. LMAO....you gotta love those Germans!

The next song Soulstrippers, as well as the song Crossfire, is when the grooviness kicks in. Some die hard fans end up hating these songs but I found them to my liking. They have more a standard rock groove to them and mixed with Rolf's ever likable "pirate" vocals....its just music to my ears.

The title track and the epic closer the Ghost show Rolf at his most "Iron Maiden" like creativeness to make long yet likeable metal monsters.

Some may notice that this album lacks "pirate" material. All is not lost as the song Pirate Song is here. Now this is a terrific speed number with great tongue-in-cheek pirate lyrics. One of Wild's best songs. The instrumental "Siberian Winter" is also terrific.

Like I mentioned before...I liked this new groove and diversity but I am a little upset over one thing. Yes, like with the album Victory, the drums are programmed (ala Drum Machine). I will admit however that for a drum machine, these drums don't sound too terribly bad. These drums sound MUCH better than the stale drums on the Victory album. If only Rolf would get a real drummer perhaps this album could have been more widely accepted. Even with the drums the production on this album is really good with the guitars being the highlight. You just can't help but love Wild's trademark guitar sound. No one else on earth sounds like 'em.

I can see why some fans were upset but there should not be so much hate for this album. The songs are really good. I feel many people are still holding the "drum machine" thing against Rolf and are blinded by that aspect to actually find that the album is good. If you're a Wild fan and are open minded for a little "groove" and forgiving for the drum machine, then please give The Brotherhood a spin.

NOTE: If you can, pick up the limited edition with bonus tracks as the songs Faceless and Powerride are speed metal monsters that are a must! They are fantastic songs that could have easily replaced weaker tracks like Dr. Horror that appear on the album.

In the world of metal bands are either criticized for never changing or strung up when they do try something different. Running Wild at first was being ridiculed because they never changed their sound. They recorded nine albums (Gates to Purgatory through Masquerade) of pretty much the same type of power/speed metal. Now with The Brotherhood, the band is getting blasted for trying something different.

So what makes this album different? Well like the last album Victory, The Brotherhood (for a lack of a better word) is "groovy", just to more of a degree. This is not the sonic speed metal assault of the past.

Because of this the songs are actually more diverse. This diversity is also something new that we never heard on a Running Wild disc before. I hate to say it but when I listen to even stellar discs as Blazon Stone and Black Hand Inn, I get tired of the albums half-way through because all the songs end up sounding the same. Not with The Brotherhood. Aside from the occasional weak song, I can listen to The Brotherhood straight through.

The album opens with Welcome to Hell (sorry, not a Venom cover) which is reminiscent of Wild of old. This is just a fantastic speed metal monster with a killer riff. Rock N' Rolf in an interview said he got the idea for this song when someone asked him what he would say to greet an alien that was visiting earth. His response would of course be 'welcome to hell'. LMAO....you gotta love those Germans!

The next song Soulstrippers, as well as the song Crossfire, is when the grooviness kicks in. Some die hard fans end up hating these songs but I found them to my liking. They have more a standard rock groove to them and mixed with Rolf's ever likable "pirate" vocals....its just music to my ears.

The title track and the epic closer the Ghost show Rolf at his most "Iron Maiden" like creativeness to make long yet likeable metal monsters.

Some may notice that this album lacks "pirate" material. All is not lost as the song Pirate Song is here. Now this is a terrific speed number with great tongue-in-cheek pirate lyrics. One of Wild's best songs. The instrumental "Siberian Winter" is also terrific.

Like I mentioned before...I liked this new groove and diversity but I am a little upset over one thing. Yes, like with the album Victory, the drums are programmed (ala Drum Machine). I will admit however that for a drum machine, these drums don't sound too terribly bad. These drums sound MUCH better than the stale drums on the Victory album. If only Rolf would get a real drummer perhaps this album could have been more widely accepted. Even with the drums the production on this album is really good with the guitars being the highlight. You just can't help but love Wild's trademark guitar sound. No one else on earth sounds like 'em.

I can see why some fans were upset but there should not be so much hate for this album. The songs are really good. I feel many people are still holding the "drum machine" thing against Rolf and are blinded by that aspect to actually find that the album is good. If you're a Wild fan and are open minded for a little "groove" and forgiving for the drum machine, then please give The Brotherhood a spin.

NOTE: If you can, pick up the limited edition with bonus tracks as the songs Faceless and Powerride are speed metal monsters that are a must! They are fantastic songs that could have easily replaced weaker tracks like Dr. Horror that appear on the album.

It is hard to believe it, but their time has gone. This album comes straight from R'N'R head. There is no one else but him here. Album has couple great songs, but overall it is boring. If you are a real fan like me of his previous work , you will be disappointed here. This is more something like routine(it needed to happen) than oriented to hook up old and even new fans. Explore his previous work from Under Jolly Rogger thru Rivalry.