Metal Reviews

I think it's completely fair. I don't like the album, and I feel that I explained exactly why in the review. Yes, I'm a big fan of this band all the way back to Gates to Purgatory, but this album is much below the standard this band has set over the years. I have almost every RW album in my portable MP3 player. Listening to this album only motivates me to listen to older material. And when I do that, there is no comparison in terms of quality.



You gave it a perfect score! Of course it's overstated. I wouldn't call any RW release perfect. I saw this exact same review of your on the band's official site, so I assume you're affiliated with that site? Naturally a review on the band's website cannot be negative, but to say this album is perfect is way over the top! Rogues is not a spectacular album, nor is it a shitty album. It is a mediocre album in my opinion. I will admit, I had this same "fanboy" type of reaction to The Brotherhood when it first came out. Like I said, I would quote that album around 65 today. That's why I took lots of time to come up with word to say for this album. I'm a huge fan of the band, but I wanted to write a realistic review, not a "fanboy" review that spins evrything in a positive light. I'm not saying this to be an ass at all, but I see the same reaction in you to this album as I had to The Brotherhood. After a year or two has passed, we should discuss this album again and see if you still hold it in such high regard. I defended The Brotherhood to no end when I first reviewed it, then strangely enough, rarely listened to it again after I reviewed it. When I did listen to it again, I found myself skipping around A LOT on that CD. Only then did I realize that I rushed to praise a favorite band of mine prematurely.



Not neccesarily, just give me something good Rolf!! I liked a lot of the mid tempo stuff that he has released in the past, but the material on Rogues falls flat for me. Sure, a return to speed metal would eb great, but I don't seriously expect that to happen. Whatever he does, I expect it to be good. Unfortunately, he has hit the wall of mediocrity with this album.

Immortal,

So you happen to agree exactly with Holy Terror and you think the same exact 4 album are incredible and all 9 of the other albums are complete crap? Interesting. :?

I don't fully agree as you can see on my previous posts... though I consider their early albums to be their strongest...

Mike,

I'll give you credit for answering my post. I still think 40-55 points for this release is just assinine. You are not supposed to compair to other RW releases, you are supposed to compair to other releases in general.

Anyway, I will respect it to the extent that I can.

BTW, yes I am definitely a big RW fan and I admit that and on the review I used my "Matt The Pirate" moniker so everyone could obviously see I was a strong RW fan. I thought that was only fair.

As far as affiliated with the Running Wild site I doubt the homepage for some band in Germany is affiliated with a 36 year old accountant from San Diego, CA. :?

Would be nice though.

M the P

Mike, just like after few years you realised how rediculous it was to give Brotherhood 93/100, Victory 91/100, Death or Glory 98/100, you will realise how equally ridiculous it is to give such low scores like 55/100 and 40/100. Two wrongs don't make it right, you can't fix those overrated scores by a ridiculously low score. I wish there was some consistancy among the album ratings..

My 55 here isn't low just to make up for a high quote in the past. Yes, I admit that my quote of 93 for Brotherhood is too high, but can't change that. As for Death or Glory, maybe I that shouldn't have been a 98, but I would still have trouble giving that a 90+.

At any rate, I feel that this is a medicore album. On our scale, that should receive a score in the 50's, and it did. Whether or not you feel this album is more that "medicore" is up to you, but the number I gave this album represents my opinion; not a mathematical correction for the 93 I gave The Brotherhood.

maybe it was on a subconscious level. I was really not too impressed with Death or Glory, and even if I did love it, I wouldn't give it over 90/100. and sorry, but 55 to any normal person implies that it sucks, not "mediocre"--there is something wrong with this site's breakdown of scores--makes numerical system almost pointless and useless. If you have 50-60 as mediocre (or should I say "medium" whatever the fuck that means) then might as well change your ratings system, because it makes no sense. Use words instead of numbers. 60-70 should be mediocre


here let me make a better system:

100----legendary/perfect
95-99--masterpiece
88-94--outstanding/excellent
75-87--very good
65-74--fair
50-64--below average
35-49--not good/bad
0-34--junk

Loot & Plunder rating system is much more colorful than that.

Gates to Purgatory 86/100
Branded for Exile 83/100
Death or Glory 97/100
Black Hand Inn 96/100

Those are my ratings. I have every other album of there's and I do not enjoy any of them as I find them to be boring and repetitive. Under Jolly Roger is probably the best of the crappy ones....and it bores the hell out of me. Why is this so hard for people to understand. Very inconsistent band......and don't ever compare this band to Motorhead, or Overkill as these bands have twice the talent that Running WIld had. Jesus christ just look at all the past members he's had in the band. HOw can any band hope to be consistent with the line up changing every fucking year....that and putting an album out every year is probably not the best way to make music.

I hold firm on my belief that Running WIld ( though one of the big four early powermetal bands) is completely useless now and has become a heavy metal relic....like Exodus, Priest, etc, etc. They're more for nostalgia than good new music. Sad.....but ultimately true.

Anyone that thinks Exodus and Priest have achieved "useless relic" status has obviously not seen them live lately. Exodus is just blowing away everyone that has the misfortune of having to follow them on stage lately and Priest? I hope I have one-tenth of their energy and talent when I get that old!

With the use of a p2p I have sampled the song "Dead Man's Road" to see what everyone is going on about and I actually really like the song, is the rest of the album on par with this song? This question being for both people who like and hate this album.

I don't have the CD yet, but you can listen to many 1.5 minute samples here: http://www.running-wild.net/releases/ro ... -vogue.php

Thanks, I think I'll check it out and form my own opinion.

This record has GREAT songwriting, some of the choruses are aboslutely killer and some very great guitarsolos! Unfortunately the verses appear very unorginal and the "drums" sound very artifical. This drumsound would fit a Dire Straits record from the 80s, but definately not RW album. To sum everything together though 4/5

Ramstad...I saw Exodus over the summer....and wasnt too impressed. Last time I saw Priest was with Anthrax a couple of years ago.,....and I wasnt too impressed. Neither band has released anything that I'd want to listen to in 10 or more years...so if I do go see them in concert, its to hear all their old classics.....thus for me they are nostalgia bands that contribute nothing new to metal. Hence they are useless.

I posted this to RW forum. Just thought I would post it hear for people to see:



ROGUES TRACK LINUP


In my other thread I mentioned how Victory album starts off very slow and most of the good songs are late on the album. I really think this kind of pattern turns critcs off. Let's face it, critics usually only hear an album once or twice before reviewing and the early songs leave the biggest impression and often get listened to more just because of interruptions etc.

For Rogues, many have stated that Draw The Line is a bad first track. Now, regardless of the quality of the song I do agree this is not a good track to win over critics. Expecially since there is a large contingent out there just frothing at the mouth to lambaist RW for lack of speed and not enough pirate songs.

In addition, tons of reviews and opinions are already out there before any of these people have even heard the bonus tracks.

I am not suggesting Rolf do what I am suggesting below. Obviously he does not give a crap about pleasing the reviewers and rightfully so. If he builts an album a certain way then that is good enough for me. That said, I just wonder how many of the reviewers that shot down Rogues so quickly would have the guts to do so if the tracklist was something like this:

1. Libertalia
2. Angel Of Mercy
3. Skeleton Dance
4. Skull And Bones
5. Cannonball Tounge
6. Rogues En Vogue
7. Black Gold
8. Soul Vampires
9. The War
10. --
11. --

12. -- Bonus
13. -- Bonus

You can fill in the final four positions any way you like and my point is not at all that those are bad songs. My point is simply that everything the critics want out of RW is on this album but because a few of the tracks that fit the description of "everything that is supposedly wrong with RW" are starting off or early on the album and a few of the great classic tracks are BONUS and therefore not considered they can get away with pretending the whole album is nothing but Victory and The Brotherhood's worst songs re-made.

Take a good look at this linup and then think of what the critics say when they complain:

1. Album has no speed metal.
- O.K. this is shot down in flames right off the bat with Libertalia and Angel Of Mercy and all the other early songs have a reasonable pace as well.

2. Too many of these slow, boring, groovy rock and roll tunes.
- I think if they try to make this arguement they will look like idiots. RW never did all fast tunes so what are they going to say? Something like "Well, yeah most of the album pretty much rips along at a good pace but when you start getting up to the double digit tracks the album has a bunch of slow paced crap so therefore the whole thing sucks."

3. Rolf needs to do more pirate songs like the BHI days.
- Well, most RW albums only have a small hand full of pirate tracks. With this linup you have 2 absolutely killer pirate tracks within the first part of the album and you still have songs about Rogues, Skeletons, Black Gold and a War. What the hell do you want?


Again, I am not suggesting Rolf do this but it would take a lot of starch out of most of the harsh critics. Nobody holds bonus tracks against a band so by re-aranging the album and also hiding a few of the "Critic's whipping boy" tracks as bonus they would probably see the album totally different. The only real complaint they would have in their pocket is if they want to complain about the sound, the time signiture or some other technical bullshit.

M the P

nobody likes? :( :cry:

I personally think the quote system is ok, but no one uses it. I don't think it's possible to make a quoting system, everyone got his own, and if you just read the reviews, you'll get how good an album is. People should look at the style and description of the music rather than the quote, because it will help them much better to find good albums. The quote is more like a personal opinion, the rest of the review is not. If you can identify your taste with that of a reviewer, then you already know his quoting system, so you know what to get and what not.

1. That's not a problem. Like I said before, Just give me something good!!

2. The key here is a lot of these songs are boring, regardless of them being slow. I don' t mind slow and good. Victory, Masquerade, and Rivalry all have plenty of mid tempo, rockish songs. Sure, I'd love to have an all speed metal RW album, but that's never going to happen. As long as the mid tempo songs are good, I'm fine with that. I just think the quality of songs on this album has taken a turn south. They don't sound bad to me, but certainly I consider most of them to be mediocre.

3. Again, just give me something good! Pirate themed or not, just make it a good song.

Hails to that!