Search - Running Wild :: 20 Years in History: Best of

Are the bonus tracks worth it...

Lunar Strain | United States | 11/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For metal collectors, "best of" packages can be both a blessing and a hinderance. The reason why is because record execs have it planned perfectly to include unreleased bonus tracks in the package to suck in the die hard fans to buy the set as well as passive fans. The same is here with "20 Years in History", a two disc best of compilation of Running Wild featuring 4 unreleased tracks. Two of the bonus tracks are re-recordings of Mordor and Branded and Exhiled, two tracks that originally appeared on their sophmore album. The othe two tracks are Prowling Werewolf and Apocalyptic Horsemen which are brand new songs that were written in the early days of the band but never recorded in the studio until now. These tracks sound interesting, but sadly they don't come out so hot. The reason being is the drums, which are obviously drum machines. I have nothing against drum machines as they can sound good if done right, but the drums on these four tracks sound absolutly terrible! Other than the rather lame bonus tracks, this "best of" compilation does a wonderful job at picking great tracks from every Running Wild studio album (from their debut Gates of Purgatory through The Brotherhood). There are two songs featured from every album (except Branded and Exhiled, which the re-recordings took the place of) and they are offered in new re-mixed forms. This is definitely another beautifly "best of" release from Sanctuary Records, but there was one thing I was disappointed in other than the bonus tracks. The Sanctuary "best of" releases of Helloween, Venom, and Motorhead contained detailed booklets with the history of the band in the form of liner notes. Nothing of that sort is found here other than various pictures. Overall this is still a great reelease for passive Running Wild fans and people wanting to sample what the band has to offer. As for die hard fans, it isn't worth getting unless you have to collect every studio track the band has ever recorded."

Miserable sounding collection of mutilated old songs

Kylix Obelix | 09/25/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It would be a huge understatement if I said how passionately I hate this disgusting collection of old songs that have been mutilated and buthered to death by digital technology and a band leader who hasn't that something which is not broken should not be fixed. First the CD itself: it epitomizes everything which is wrong with modern CDs: LOUDNESS. I had to use the output level control of my CD player to reduce the output by 10 db before I could find a comfortable volume level with my amplifier. The CD is disgustingly loud beyond belief. The second you hit play the music hits you like a brick. This is apparently the new style of metal. To hell with sound quality, just make it louder. Tone deaf metal heads will not care. The songs have been compressed to hell and back. There is ZERO dynamic range. There is no seperation between the instruments. The sound is digitally sterile, lifeless, flat and one-dimensional. I got ear-fatigue after listening for only two minutes.



Now for the songs: each and every single one of them sounds worse than the original versions. What was Rolf Kasparek thinking? Did he really think in his screwed up mind that he was improving the songs by simply adding new rhythm guitar tracks or new bass lines? The man has a screw loose. There is nothing new. The songs have simply been made louder, drums have been pushed back in the mix in alot of places and it just sounds like one big huge mess. There is no balance between the instruments. Stay far away from this disaster of a best-of collection. If you are a tone deaf metal head who just wants to drink beer, bang your head and have fun, go ahead and buy this. For anyone else: stay far away."

Great collection.

E. Gaumann | NAPLES, FL USA | 08/24/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Prowling Werewolf is *not* live. It's a rerecorded version of that unreleased song. Same with Apolyptic Horsemen. Both are like "The First Ten Years Of Piracy" songs; rerecorded by the new band. In fact almost *every* song on this compilation has been "reworked" (Rolf's words) or rerecorded. No great changes to the old stuff, but the sound's a bit 'newer'. If you liked "The First Ten Years" you'll like this and if you don't have any RW albums yet you could do far worse than starting here as there's a little bit of everything here."