Running Wild

European metal festival veterans Running Wild have moved more than five million albums across a career now stretching beyond three decades. The German power-and-speed metal unit surfaced in the middle of the 1970s with an aggressive sound that briefly toyed with satanic motifs. Their third full-length, Under Jolly Roger from 1987, marked a decisive turn away from earlier darkness toward a melodic yet still forceful approach steeped in pirate and seafaring imagery. Once that identity locked in, the band leaned fully into pirate-metal territory across such key releases as Port Royal in 1988, Black Hand Inn in 1994, Rogues en Vogue in 2005, and Rapid Foray in 2016. Guitarist and chief songwriter Rolf Kasparek remained the only unchanging member while dozens of others passed through the ranks.

Kasparek formed the four-piece in Hamburg in 1976 alongside guitarist Preacher—who left after the debut and later became a vicar—bassist Stephan, and drummer Hasche. The group began as Granite Hart before adopting the name Running Wild in 1979, borrowed from a Judas Priest track issued the previous year. Their earliest demos appeared in 1982, leading to a deal with Noise Records and the ominous debut Gates of Purgatory two years later. A thematically similar follow-up, Branded and Exiled, arrived in 1985. An opening slot for Mötley Crüe in 1986 raised their profile among European metal acts and paved the way for an American tour.

Under Jolly Roger finally broke the band internationally by introducing the flamboyant pirate persona that would later shape the 2000s pirate-metal subgenre. That success fixed the group’s thematic course for the next twenty years; albums such as Port Royal (1988), Pile of Skulls (1992), and Masquerade (1995) continued to draw on historical and often nautical storylines. Frequent personnel shifts never halted momentum, and Running Wild carried a series of narrative-driven studio records plus several live sets into the new millennium. In early 2011 the quartet declared that their last concert would take place at Wacken Open Air that July; the performance was captured on the CD/DVD The Final Jolly Roger. Kasparek nevertheless revived the project later the same year and signed with SPV/Steamhammer.

The relaunched lineup delivered Shadowmaker in 2012 and Resilient the following year. Rapid Foray, their sixteenth studio album, surfaced in 2016. Two years later Noise Records issued the box set Pieces of Eight, compiling every single the band recorded for the label together with the re-recorded anthology The First Years of Piracy and an expanded vinyl edition of the live album Ready for Boarding. Crossing the Blades, a four-track EP featuring a high-energy version of KISS’s “Strutter,” followed in 2019. Running Wild returned in October 2021 with Blood on Blood, their seventeenth studio long-player. Former guitarist Majk Moti, real name Michael Kupper, who served in the band from 1985 to 1990, passed away on February 16, 2023 at age 65.