Savageland

Savageland is the best X-Wild album in the whol(r)e world. It has the power and anger of the album So What? and the melodies from Running Wild's Death or Glory. The perfect album...

In theory, having ex-RUNNING WILD members team up with an Udo clone to play no-frills German power metal works. In theory. In practice however, this album does not work at all. First off, the singing is definitely an acquired taste. I don't mind Udo's voice on classic ACCEPT albums, but this soundalike just does not work well hereon. The bigger disappointment is the music. RUNNING WILD has had plenty of talented musicians among their ranks, but on 'Savageland' these guys really sound like they're just going through the motions. Running Wild typically has more guitar hooks in the first 30 seconds of a song than this entire album contains. 'Savageland' isn't awful, but it just plods along, doing nothing interesting musically. The story-concept doesn't help either; being yet another half-baked fantasy story that comes across as 1/3 Road Warrior, 1/3 Dune, and 1/3 Braveheart, which equals 100% hokey. Anyone wanting a fix of good ol' fashioned German power metal would be better off tracking down releases by bands like Running Wild, early Accept, Atlain, Not Fragile, Galloglass, etc etc etc. Don't get caught up on the idea that these guys are gonna sound like classic RUNNING WILD... given the boring music on this album, there may be a good reason that Rolf made these guys walk the plank.

If you mix Accept and Running Wild and make them more focused, you'll get this concept album. Has some insanely catchy songs. Don't pass it up!