SilentScream213 For me, Grave Digger were one of those bands that were always good, but not quite good enough. They were competent, but they were missing that X factor. The first run of the band in the 80’s had very little going for it, “generic” being the best descriptor I can think of. After their reformation in the 90’s, they came back with a lot more power, and hit their stride starting with Tunes of War. From there on out, they delivered some great songs, but the albums as a whole were still short of remarkable.

Enter Excalibur. Grave Digger’s 3rd medieval concept album, this one storying the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Look, I dunno what happened here. Suddenly, the band is churning out banger after banger, with some of the most powerful, anthemic choruses I’ve heard. Drumming and riffing here is faster and heavier than ever, and even their usually unbearable slow tracks are magnificent here.

One thing that helps for sure is the undeniably dark sound of the album (by Power Metal standards, that is). Lyrically, of course it is full of epic heroism and gallantry just as much as it is death, betrayal, and longing. But the sound of the music accentuates that dark tone – the riffs are decidedly aggressive, and backed by pummeling double bass, you really feel the suspense of knights putting their life on the line. There is a ton of raw Speed Metal influence here.

Another point towards heaviness is the vocal style of Chris (or as he is named on this album, Sir Chris "Parcival" Boltendahl). He opts for a very grumbly warble, gruff and probably more befitting of a Thrash Metal band than Power Metal. I will say it’s an acquired taste, but the reason it works exceptionally well here is all the choruses are multi-layered, incredibly well harmonized near-choral levels of gang vocals. These choruses are ridiculously anthemic and epic, by far some of the catchiest I’ve heard in the genre. As far as I understand, multiple backing vocalists, including the great Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) were brought in to help create these epic choruses. Chris’ usual grunting yell handling verse duties while brilliantly melodic gang vocals emphasize the choruses create a perfect contrast that helps you appreciate each vocal style even more.

The focus on Arthurian Legend makes the album that much more enjoyable. I will confess, I was only passively privy to the tales before listening, but the album got me so interested that I did a deep dive to learn all about the characters. Isn’t it wonderful how much we can learn from music? In any case, Grave Digger pulled all the stops here, and finally released an album that deserves to go down in the Power Metal canon as one of the greats.

lukretion After completing the “Middle Ages trilogy” with their previous three albums, Tunes of War, Knights of the Cross and Excalibur, German veterans Grave Digger turn the page and seek inspiration in the horror genre that had already given them song material in the past (Heart of Darkness). Inevitably, The Grave Digger is a darker album, containing a lower dose of epicness and bombast and placing instead a stronger emphasis on gloomy atmospheres and grittiness. For those who, like me, loved the majestic themes of the previous three albums, this new sound might feel a bit like a let-down. Gone are the catchy singalong choruses, the medieval folk influences and the history-infused storytelling. Instead, we are treated with an impressively grim and heavy dose of guitar riffs, double-bass drumming and shouted vocals by Grave Digger's mastermind Chris Boltendahl.

The album works well for what it’s meant to offer: a relentless collection of 1980s-inspired heavy metal tunes built to take no prisoners in live concerts. The record is very effective in its simplicity. New band addition Manni Schmidt (ex-Rage) provides a vast array of fun and powerful guitar riffs. Stefan Arnold’s drumming is metronomically fast and precise and works well in conjunction with Jens Becker’s no-frill bass grooves. Chris Boltendahl rips and roars with his inimitable vocal tone, effectively conjuring up the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired horrors his lyrics talk about. There are some interesting keyboard interjections appearing here and there in the songs, but these are mostly used to create ambience (I particularly dig the spooky intro to “Raven”). The songwriting heavy lifting here is done almost entirely by the impressively solid guitar work and the tight and steady rhythmic section.

There aren’t many surprises among the eleven tracks of the album (twelve including the rather forgettable bonus track “Black Cat”). Most songs follow the canonical verse-prechours-chorus structure with very few detours. Half of the album tracks are based on breakneck tempos that I am sure went down a treat in open air live shows (“Spirits of the Dead”; “King Pest”), but there are also mid-tempos (“Raven”, “The House”, “Sacred Fire”) and even the obligatory ballad (the insipid and overlong “Silence”). The songwriting quality is fairly homogeneous, which is both good and bad. Good because the album does not contain any obvious filler (although tracks that appear in the second-half of the record, like “Sacred Fire”, “Funeral Procession” and “Silence”, feel slightly unnecessary given that the album’s main message had already been conveyed – and better – by the preceding first-half). Bad because there are very few standout moments on this record, songs that end up defining a band’s discography in the hearts and minds of fans (it is no coincidence that in the three live albums that Grave Digger have published so far since 2001 only a couple of songs have been taken from this record). The one song that stands out is the haunting mid-tempo “The House” where Grave Digger almost flirt with doom. The atmosphere of this song is truly chilling and I love how Boltendahl alternates between his usual gruffy vocal style and clean vocals on the lysergic chorus. The track also stands out for the elaborated orchestral finale that adds a layer of complexity and sophistication to it.

The album enjoys a dry but powerful and clean production by Jörg Umbreit and Vincent Sorg, the owners of Principal Studios (Germany) where the material of The Grave Digger was recorded. I really like the production work that the duo made on this record. It has a modern feel but it is not overproduced as many power metal albums that came out at that time were.

All in all, The Grave Digger is a solid album of 1980s infused heavy metal. It’s doomy and gritty, but it is not as epic or catchy as the band’s material on the previous three albums (and indeed I would not even consider this a power metal album, to be honest). But that formula had perhaps started to become a bit old, so it is refreshing to see that, nine albums in, this band of veterans were still willing to try and mix things up.

[Also published on https://www.metal-archives.com]

DippoMagoo Few bands can claim to be either as prolific or as consistent as German heavy/power metal band Grave Digger. They’re up there with Rage as two of the most active and consistently great power metal bands, over an extremely long career. Celebrating their 38th anniversary earlier this year, Grave Digger has released 18 albums to date, managing to fit in at least once every two years since 1993’s The Reaper. They technically missed one in between 2014 and 2017 but did release a re-recordings compilation at that time, so one can hardly accuse the band of slacking off. Less than two years after the release of Healed By Metal, the band is back with their nineteenth full-length release, The Living Dead, set for release this week. Their past few releases have been very strong, with the band seemingly turning back the clock to produce music every bit on par with some of their best work in the 90’s and early 2000’s, so I was excited to hear what this new release would bring, and it’s safe to say: Grave Digger isn’t just surviving, they’re thriving, in a big way!

The band has developed their own signature sound over the past 38 years, playing one of the heaviest, most hard-hitting brands of power metal out there, with all their albums having some excellent guitar work and the ever rough and powerful vocals of Chris Boltendahl. Their past few releases, in particular, felt very similar to some of their classics from the 90’s, bringing back a lot of the raw intensity of those releases while adding in a bit more melody to make it just a bit more accessible and more modern sounding. All of this continues with The Living Dead, which once again contains a seamless blend between the band’s speedy power metal and slower heavy metal tracks, striking a perfect balance between the two, while also balancing nicely between heavy and melodic passages. I found Healed by Metal, in particular, had some huge choruses, and it generally felt like the band was making an effort to make their music just a bit more melodic, without sacrificing any of the riffs, and if anything The Living Dead has gone even further in that direction, featuring some of their biggest, most epic choruses ever, while still being as heavy and intense and fans of the band would expect. There’s certainly a ton of tracks here that will instantly remind fans of the band’s classic works while being just a bit more epic and catchy than usual. There are a few passages throughout the album that feel particularly fresh, and then there’s one specific track at the end that really takes things to a whole new level when it comes to surprising listeners, and I’ll get to that one in a while. Suffice to say, it surprised me in a great way. Performances are obviously strong across the board, and though longtime drummer Stefan Arnold parted ways with the band before the release of the album, he delivered one last great performance before doing so.

Obviously, one element of Grave Digger that will never change, because it just wouldn’t be Grave Digger without it at this point, is the voice of Chris Boltendahl. He has a very raw, raspy voice that sounds rather unique within power metal, and he brings a level of aggression and intensity not often found within the genre, yet he manages to make it work equally well on the faster, more power metal focused tracks, as well as the slower, more heavy metal tracks. His voice sounds as strong as ever on Fear of the Living Dead, and he does an amazing job on some of the bigger choruses, proving he still has what it takes to carry a band as well as anyone in the genre.

For a band that’s been around so long, you’d expect Grave Digger to struggle with songwriting at least a little bit, and yet that really isn’t the case. They had a bit of a rough stretch from 2005-2009 with a couple of slightly weaker albums, but they returned to form nicely in 2010 with The Clans Will Rise Again, and have been on another great run ever since. The streak continues with The Living Dead, which is consistently excellent from top to bottom, while still having a few particularly strong tracks that rank among my favorites by the band. First up is one such highlight, that being the title track. The track opens with a baby’s lullaby gone wrong before the riffs kick in and it turns into the kind of hard-hitting, speedy opener the band excels at. It slows down during the verses but still keeps the energy up with some great riffs, before speeding up again, for a huge, extremely epic chorus, which certainly stands among the band’s best in that department in quite some time. It manages to be equal parts, intense, epic, melodic and super catchy, and definitely gets the album off to an amazing start.

Next is “Blade of the Immortal”, a slower but equally hard-hitting track, with some very punishing riffs right off the bat, as well as another super epic and fun chorus, and an excellent instrumental section which has some rather unique melodies coming from Grave Digger. Overall, it’s an excellent track which blends classic Grave Digger with some fresh sounds in a great way. After that, the pace picks up again with “When Death Passes By”, another heavy track which stays pretty fast-paced throughout, delivering another fast and super fun chorus, as well as some excellent lead riffs and very fun verses. It’s certainly one of the more classic feeling songs on the album, in a great way. Some surprises come on “Shadow of the Warrior”, an epic track which starts out with a soft acoustic section, featuring some surprisingly calm vocals from Chris, before the riffs kick in and it starts moving at a nice pace, without going full speed. It has another very melodic, super catchy chorus, which ranks as one of the best on the album, and it has some more rather unique and awesome melodies during its solo section. Another excellent track.

There’s a couple tracks here will silly lyrics, as expected. The first of these is “The Power of Metal”, a fairly fast and hard-hitting track, which again mixes classic Grave Digger riffs with a big chorus. The lyrics get in the way slightly during the verses but are funnier than anything, and the chorus is amazing, so it’s still a great track overall. The other track with kinda silly lyrics is “Fist in Your Face”, which stays silly throughout, but thankfully it’s an excellent track musically, with some extremely powerful riffs and is an example of the band playing slow paced but energetic classic heavy metal at its best. In between those two are two more excellent tracks in “Hymn of the Damned”, another very classic sounding speedy power metal track with raw sounding riffs and a huge, epic chorus, and “What War Left Behind”, a very thrashy power metal track, which may be the most classic sounding track on the whole album It’s certainly very raw fast and energetic, in an awesome way.

Moving to the final stretch of the album, “Insane Pain” is another very raw and heavy track, which stays fairly fast during the verses, but slows down for a fun chorus. It’s not one of my favorite tracks here, but it’s still excellent and has some great riffs. There’s a very good bonus track called “Glory or Grave”, which is very speedy, hard-hitting and has an extremely epic and catchy chorus, so it definitely fits in perfectly with the rest of the album. One song that doesn’t quite fit in, but is a pleasant surprise, is the closing track “Zombie Dance”, released as the second single, after the title track. It’s a mid-paced, slightly upbeat heavy metal track with some heavy riffs during the verses, and a stupidly catchy chorus, but what really makes it stand out is the fact that the band called in Austrian Russkaja to provide some folk influences to the music, delivering some epic chants as well as some backing music that strikes a balance between folk and polka, giving the song its aforementioned “Dance”, which also factors into the lyrics during the chorus. It gets even weirder during the middle section, and overall it’s a very bizarre experiment, which somehow works out perfectly and is probably the most unique and surprising thing the band has done in at least 15 years.

Overall, The Living Dead is an amazing album from heavy/power metal veterans Grave Digger, which continues a big resurgence they started eight years ago, and if anything, takes things even further, thanks to a delightful mix of the kind of classic, hard-hitting power metal and heavy metal the band excels at with some of the more melodic tendencies the band has picked up on more recent albums, as well as one hell of an epic surprise in the closing track. Obviously, it’s a must buy for any existing fans of the band and in case there’s anyone looking for an aggressive mix heavy/power metal who hasn’t heard of Grave Digger yet, this would certainly be a great album to start with.

originally written for myglobalmind.com: https://myglobalmind.com/2018/09/22/grave-digger-the-living-dead-review/

Warthur Sometimes it takes just one ingredient to be not to your taste or slightly off-kilter to ruin a musical performance for you. Take the example of Grave Digger's Excalibur; for the most part, the musical backing is tight, solid German-style power metal and pretty enjoyable for it. It all goes a bit wrong when vocalist Chris Boltendahl (taking on the "Sir Parcival" nom de guerre for this release) issues forth his vocals; these are in a harsh, brash, heavily accented style which throws me out of my enjoyment of the music, being both not especially to my taste and stylistically not really feeling like a natural fit with the music.

adg211288 With a total of seventeen prior albums under their belt, Grave Digger is one of Germany's most prolific heavy/power metal bands. With Healed by Metal (2017) they're now on their eighteenth full-length release. It's the follow-up to Exhumation - The Early Years (2015), an album of re-recorded material that for me represents the only major blip on the band's track record of delivering albums of a consistently high quality. In terms of actual new studio albums though this is the follow-up to the excellent Return of the Reaper (2014), which I feel is one of the band's best releases. So I go into Healed by Metal with the hope that Exhumation was just a misguided idea and that Grave Digger will still be riding the same high that allowed them to deliver Return of the Reaper a few years ago.

There's definitely enough killer material on offer here to confirm that to be the case, with an early highlight coming in the form of When Night Falls, which may just be my favourite song from the album. This is a surprisingly short release from Grave Digger as it only comes in at around thirty-six minutes without bonus tracks and most individual tracks sit between the three to four minute mark except for the closing Laughing with the Dead which passes five. It's a no frills attached, get in and get the job done brand of songwriting on Healed by Metal and it works well as the album makes me want to listen to it again immediately, with its catchiest choruses still going through my head the way they do. The music itself is classic Grave Digger style heavy/power metal with their trademark edge, though I do think that some parts of the same come across as a little more polished this time, especially regarding some of the lead guitar melodies. Further highlights for me include Call for War, Kill Ritual and Hallelujah.

There's also a portion of the album though that makes me consider Healed by Metal to be a small step down from Return of the Reaper. The opening title track in particular comes across as being a bit cheesy, as any metal song about metal itself tends to be, and doesn't really hook me into the album too well. Things flow better from When Night Falls onward but I'd have to call out Ten Commandments of Metal as another lesser number. Neither is bad but compared to the highlights they do feel like filler, which brings me back around to the album's length. It really could have done with one or two more songs.

A solid release from Grave Digger, Healed by Metal is certain to please fans of their past work and despite some issues it more than satisfies me after I was disappointed by the re-recordings album.