Shadowmaker

Album review

Shadowmaker is the 14th record by German heavy metal band Running Wild, a comeback album released seven years after their previous effort, Rogues en Vogue (2005), and three years after the band called it quits in July 2009. While working on four new tracks for a compilation album, bandleader Rolf Kasparek felt he enjoyed writing songs again, which led to the band's reunion in October 2011. Only two of the ten new songs revel in the band's trademark pirate imagery ("Riding on the Tide," "Sailing Fire"), while other tracks revolve around topics such as the Apocalypse ("Into the Black," "Black Shadow") and Dracula, as portrayed in Bram Stoker's novel and the Christopher Lee movies (the eight-minute "Dracula"). The album entered the German charts at number 12 and is available as a limited edition with a bonus DVD (which features a making-of clip and "track by track commentary" by Kasparek) and in a box set edition featuring the DVD, the album on both CD and vinyl, and a 30-page book on the history of the band.

© Christian Genzel /TiVo