This was the first album in the band's recent history void of a lineup change. To my surprise, the relentless riffing and buzzsaw production mark this as what is certainly the heaviest Running Wild album to date. A great cover displays three heads of state (a papal figure, a magistrate, and a military commander) peeling their faces off to reveal demonic visages while summoning a devil-like figure. The album is fairly aggressive from beginning to end, crashing along with tracks like "Demonized", "Black Soul", "Wheel of Doom", and "Men in Black". It also presents what is probably one of their best songs ever "Lions of the Sea", a mandatory pirate epic. The album closer "Underworld" is also excellent. This album also contains a hint of the repetitiveness first apparent on 'Blazon Stone', as if Rolf were simply borrowing earlier Running Wild riffs and slightly changing them, but it's still not happening often enough to fault the album, which contains much more of a unique element (especially in the production). You'll want this too.

© 2000 pizarro