adg211288 Germany’s Grave Digger are by this time, if there was any doubt before, metal legends. Having started in 1980 and releasing their first demo in 1982, 2012 marks both thirty years of Grave Digger releasing music and also the release of their fifteenth full-length studio album, Clash of the Gods. Having produced a trio of speed metal influenced traditional metal albums in the eighties Grave Digger reinvented themselves as a more commercial band called Digger, flopped completely, and resurfaced as Grave Digger again in the early nineties, now playing with more of a power metal direction in mind. That’s where they’ve been ever since, and produced some killer albums along the way.

So basically Clash of the Gods is Grave Digger doing what they do best, traditional metal influenced power metal topped off by Chris Boltendahl’s rough vocals (for power metal) that have been a key part of the Grave Digger sound since the band’s inception. Indeed, he is the only original member, although most of the line-up has been stable since the nineties, with the exception of the guitarist position, which has changed a bit and is now held by Axel "Ironfinger" Ritt, who first performed on the previous Grave Digger album The Clans Will Rise Again (2010). We’re talking guitar driven power metal, with some songs which sit more in heavy metal territory and music that ranges from the melodic, the aggressive and the epic. Clash of the Gods also contains some occasional and vague folk touches, but again anyone who at least knows the pretty much metal standard Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching) will know that’s nothing new for Grave Digger either.

As such, Clash of the Gods is a solid addition to the Grave Digger discography, although I can’t say that it is one of the group’s best albums. As with some of the group’s other albums there are songs which are absolutely killer, while others are decent enough but filler in comparison, failing to move me in any way. On Clash of the Gods we get some great stuff like Walls of Sorrow, Death Angel & The Grave Digger and the title track, but also some of the weaker stuff like Hell Dog or Medusa. But overall Clash of the Gods is, as I said, another solid Grave Digger release that won’t disappoint the fans, but with such a sizeable discography out there that contains better albums such as Tunes of War (1996) and Excalibur (1999), this one isn’t the best starting point and I doubt will win you over if the band never clicked with you previously. However for being generally more killer than filler, Clash of the Gods is easily deserving as a great album tier rating.

8.1/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))