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Blood on Blood is the eighteenth album from venerable German power metal stalwarts Running Wild. It’s hard to imagine anyone not knowing who these guys are at this point, but all you really need to know is they pretty much invented pirate-themed metal back in the ‘80s and have been mining that ever-diminishing vein of ideas for well over 30 years. Running Wild are too well practiced by now to release anything that doesn’t sound good, and Blood on Blood certainly has that going for it. Rock ‘n’ Rolf’s gravelly vocals still sound the same and the production is crystal clear. Beyond that, Blood on Blood is a perfectly competent power metal album that is so aggressively generic it is almost beyond description. Every riff, every vocal line, every lyrical theme has been recycled from earlier in Running Wild’s career. "Wings of Fire" and "Say Your Prayers" are the kind of mid-tempo anthems that characterized classic albums like Port Royal and Under Jolly Roger but sound like little more than discarded alternate versions of other, better songs. The same goes for "Crossing the Blades" and "Blood on Blood" right down to the sound cliché effect of crossed swords at the end of the latter. The ballad "One Night, One Day" is so cloying and forcefully melodramatic, it is unlistenable. In my review of 2016’s Rapid Foray, I said Running Wild seemed to be running out of ideas and, with Blood on Blood, I can say the well is, in fact, dry as a skull and crossbones.