Pile of Skulls

Pile of Skulls
Studio album by Running Wild
Released 21 October 1992
Recorded June - August 1992
Genre Heavy metal, power metal
Label Noise
Producer Rolf Kasparek
Running Wild chronology
The First Years of Piracy
(1991)The First Years of Piracy1991		 Pile of Skulls
(1992)		 Black Hand Inn
(1994)Black Hand Inn1994
Singles from Pile of Skulls
  1. "Lead or Gold"
    Released: 7 September 1992
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]
Rock Hard9.0/10[2]

Pile of Skulls is the seventh studio album by Running Wild, released in 1992. It is their last album with guitarist Axel Morgan. It is the first album almost completely dominated by songwriting from band leader Rolf Kasparek but remains a fan favourite. The album has sold over 350,000 copies worldwide.

The song "Jennings' Revenge" tells about the exploits of pirate Henry Jennings.

The lyrics of "Treasure Island" are based on the book of the same title by 19th century author Robert Louis Stevenson.

Critical reception

Pile of Skulls was met with mostly positive reviews from critics. Steve Huey of All Music Guide called it one of Running Wild's strongest efforts. While calling it too ambitious, he thought Pile of Skulls combined the group's trademark pirate subject matter with a unifying concept about corruption and abuse of power throughout history.

In a 2013 interview, Rolf Kasparek spoke about the song "Bloody Island" from the 2013 album Resilient and explained that the demo version of the song would've been a great fit on the album.

Track listing

Music and lyrics written by Rolf Kasparek and Axel Morgan except where noted

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Whirlwind"4:52
2."Sinister Eyes"5:06
3."Black Wings of Death"5:17
4."Fistful of Dynamite"4:06
5."Roaring Thunder"5:56
Side B
No.TitleLength
6."Pile of Skulls"4:39
7."Lead or Gold"5:06
8."Jennings' Revenge"4:17
9."Treasure Island"11:14
Total length:50:35
The 2017 Remastered version contains a second disc, featuring the following songs
No.TitleLength
1."Beggars' Night" (1992 Alternate version)5:01
2."Hanged, Drawn and Quartered" (From the Lead or Gold EP)4:38
3."Win or Be Drowned" (From the Lead or Gold EP)4:17
4."Uaschitschum '92" (1992 Updated version)4:53
5."Whirlwind" (2003 Re-recorded version)4:54
6."Treasure Island" (2003 Re-recorded version)11:16

Personnel

Additional Musician
Production
  • Jan Němec – Engineering, Mixing
  • Thomas Körge – Engineering
  • Karl-U. Walterbach – Executive producer
  • Rock 'n' Rolf – Producer
  • Andreas Marschall – Cover art

Charts

Chart (1992) Peak
position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[3] 54

References

  1. ↑ Pile of Skulls at AllMusic
  2. ↑ Kühnemund, Götz (1992). "Review Album: Running Wild - Pile of Skulls review". Rock Hard (in German). No. 66. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  3. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Running Wild – Pile of Skulls" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.