Blazon Stone

Blazon Stone is the sixth album by German heavy metal band Running Wild, released in 1991. According to Rolf Kasparek in an interview to a Brazilian heavy metal/hard rock magazine (Roadie Crew, ed. #41, June 2002), Blazon Stone is the best-selling album by the band, in the 1990s. It is also their first album with both guitarist Axel Morgan and drummer AC.

Blazon Stone
Studio album by Running Wild
Released	4 April 1991
Recorded	December 1990 – January 1991
Studio	Studio M, Hanover
Genre	Heavy metal, power metal
Length	49:27
Label	Noise
Producer	Rolf Kasparek, Karl-Ulrich Walterbach
Running Wild chronology
Death or Glory (1989) Blazon Stone (1991) The First Years of Piracy (1991)
Singles from Blazon Stone
"Little Big Horn" Released: 28 February 1991

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	7/10[2]
Rock Hard	9.0/10[3]

Track listing

All tracks written by Rolf Kasparek except where noted

Side A

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Blazon Stone"		6:30
2.	"Lonewolf"		4:49
3.	"Slavery"		5:15
4.	"Fire & Ice"	AC	4:09
5.	"Little Big Horn"		5:00

Side B

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
6.	"White Masque"		4:17
7.	"Rolling Wheels"	Becker	5:33
8.	"Bloody Red Rose"		5:06
9.	"Straight to Hell"	Becker	3:50
10.	"Heads or Tails"		4:58
Total length:			49:27

CD bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Over the Rainbow" (instrumental)	Becker	1:55
2.	"Billy the Kid"	Kasparek, Dreffein	4:47
3.	"Genocide (The Killing of the Buffalo)" (Thin Lizzy cover)	Phil Lynott	4:47
Total length:			60:56

1995 bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Over the Rainbow" (instrumental)	Becker	1:55
2.	"Billy the Kid"		4:47
3.	"Genocide (The Killing of the Buffalo)" (Thin Lizzy cover)	Phil Lynott	4:47
4.	"Dancing on a Minefield"		4:59
Total length:			65:58

Notes

• 1st press CD release and Polish pressings features the three bonus tracks "Over the Rainbow", "Billy the Kid" and a cover version of the Thin Lizzy song "Genocide". Later CD releases feature one or two bonus tracks
• The 1995 re-release includes the song "Dancing on a Minefield", which is also featured as a bonus track on the 1994 album Black Hand Inn
• The 2017 remastered release features all bonus tracks (excluding "Dancing on a Minefield"), plus the 2003 re-recorded versions of "Blazon Stone" and "Little Big Horn"

Personnel

• Rolf Kasparek – vocals, guitar
• Axel Morgan – guitars
• Jens Becker – bass
• Rüdiger "AC" Dreffein – drums

Additional Musicians

• Kalle Bösel – backing vocals
• Jan Olav, Martina Wiegendt, Sven Pöschmann, Michael Herwig, Jens Butterwick, Raymond Kana, Oliver Losshagen and Ladislav Křížek – backing vocals on "Little Big Horn" and "Heads or Tails"

Production

• Jan Němec – engineer, mixing
• Karl-Ulrich Walterbach – executive producer
• Thorsten Herbig – photography
• Rock 'n' Rolf – producer
• Andreas Marschall – pover art (front and back covers)
• Horst Herrndorff – pover art (back cover)

Charts

Chart (1991)	Peak position
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[4]	24
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[5]	22
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[6]	16

References

1. Huey, Steve. "Running Wild – Blazon Stone review". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
2. Popoff, Martin (1 August 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 372. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.
3. Götz Kühnemund. (1991). "Running Wild 'Blazon Stone'". Rock Hard. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
4. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
5. "Offiziellecharts.de – Running Wild – Blazon Stone" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
6. "Swisscharts.com – Running Wild – Blazon Stone". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 September 2020.