RUNNING WILD - Gates To Purgatory Picture-LP
Legendary debut from 1984 celebrating its 40th anneversary in 2024 • Extremely limited edition of only 500 copies world wide • Come in a quality sleeve with lyrics and a nice poster • This album has sold 250.000 copies until this day • Produced by Horst Müller (a.o. Celtic Frost, Kreator)
The 40th anniversary of Running Wild’s “Gates to Purgatory” as a deluxe Picture-LP (limited to 500 copies worldwide). Comes with an insert and an huge poster of the artwork. German Speed Metal never sounded better! Somewhere in the underground scene in the early 80’s Metal scene of Europe came a ton of new bands that were more extreme and heavier, thus began the evil battle of sound, if we can use this term. Running Wild started out as a quite low-fi quality band to become one of the biggest metal band in Germany, thanks to their originality concept of piracy in the late 80’s. Running Wild were on a way different mindset back in 1984, they wanted to sound black and heavy, and this is exactly what we get from their early material, which appears to be their most enjoyable one. The true essence of Heavy Metal was present and this is why many Metal fans consider the first album “Gates to Purgatory” a true masterpiece. The album was released in late 1984, not so long after their first EP called “Victim of States Power”. The first press contained eight tracks for a total running time of 33 minutes, which is what we get on this Picture-LP as well. The content of this album has always been separated into two main categories, the first one being the Heavy Metal tracks and the second being the Speed Metal songs. The variety of sound makes it impossible to dislike this record. What is really a cool plus about the album in general is its sound production, it has the perfect vibe and every instrument is audible due to the good mixing job done on it. The lyrical content is also typical of what you can find on a 80’s German Speed Metal record, the evil and anti-religion stuff. Altogether, the first full-length of Running Wild fits the definition of old school Heavy Metal like a glove. Just take a look at the album cover and how bad ass it is. It is without any questions that we recommend this timeless masterpiece to fans of old school Heavy Metal.