Review by ZeroSymbolic7188 for Running Wild - Gates to Purgatory (1984)

No seriously, this sucks. It's fuckin' weird to listen to, because you can hear little flashes of the Piratey stuff they would become more well known for later on. I don't like that shit either for the record. There's also something just strange about the production on this that I can't put my finger on. The best way I would describe this; Venom but without the committment to the bit that Venom had. I wasn't there in 1984, so this is just my conjecturing, but this sounds like an album that was made because the band felt they had to make it. They just don't sound into it, or like they were enjoying themselves. It's lyrically full of satan stuff, and that's not who Running Wild are. You can hear the lack of genuinity. I don't think they had fun making it, and I damn sure don't have fun listening to it.