Trivia / Running Wild

• Approval of God: Fellow German power metal band Orden Ogan wrote a song entitled “We Are Pirates” as an explicit Shout-Out to Running Wild^note with former Running Wild guitarist Majk Moti even contributing the guest solo, who they cite as a musical influence. Apparently it took a hilariously long time for Rolf to finally listen to it, but he expressed his enjoyment of the tribute when he did.
• Creator Backlash: Rolf has admitted that he was getting rather burnt out from constantly writing new Running Wild albums and touring every year by the time of Victory‘s release, and considers the final three albums before the band’s tentative 2009 breakup “not [his] finest work”.
• Denial of Digital Distribution:
  • Initially, the only Running Wild albums available on streaming services were the first nine "golden era" releases, with all subsequent albums missing. This is likely because this is all that Noise Records, one of the first metal labels to make their whole catalog available for international streaming, held the rights to.
  • Steamhammer, to whom the band has been signed to since the reunion, would soon follow in adding the post-reunion albums and thus subverting this trope, but for unknown reasons, Resilient is still unavailable outside the EU. Additionally, the albums released on now-defunct GUN Records (The Rivalry through Rogues en Vogue) were completely missing from streaming anywhere until finally being made available again in December 2022 under the Legendary Tales compilation.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The original 1984 Victims of States Power EP and the band’s 1981-1983 demo tapes, with the former having fallen long out of print (and being included as part of the Gates to Purgatory reissue anyway) and the latter literally only circulating through tape trading in the first place.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: A limited edition of Masquerade came in a wooden box which featured the album, the Death or Glory VHS, and a treasure map. There was also an even rarer edition which came with a bottle of rum.
• No Export for You: Most of their albums were unavailable in North America until the advent of digital distribution and streaming.
• What Could Have Been: The song "Sinister Eyes" was planned to be released as a single. It had a cover art made for it and two remade songs for its b-sides, but for some reason never got an official release.
• Their song "Riding the Storm" from the Death or Glory album was featured on the Brütal Legend soundtrack.