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Here we go with another Running Wild homage from Sweden's Blazon Stone. Their fifth album, Hymns of Triumph and Death, takes the formula Running Wild started back in 1987 (and is still doing today) and executes it perfectly. Up-tempo drumming and power metal guitars engage in a back and forth duel below the gravelly bellows about the sea ("Hellbound for the Ocean" "Wavebreakers"), metal ("Iron Fist of Rock") and general bad behavior ("Cheating the Reaper" "Wild Horde"). The songwriting is excellent and there are plenty of things that will stick in your head from the shouted choruses on "Dance of the Dead" to the pure '80s riffing of "Cheating the Reaper".

If your band is going to emulate another band/style/era, you really need to come up with solid songs otherwise you'll sound like a rip-off. Blazon Stone have taken that adage to heart and while they sound a lot like Running Wild, you won't care because the songs on Hymns of Triumph and Death are that good. Raise your tankards of ale high, ye pirate metal-loving lads and lasses (sorry, "Wavebreakers" was playing while I wrote this and I couldn't help myself).