GRAVE DIGGER — The Grave Digger (review)

GRAVE DIGGER — The Grave Digger album cover

Album · 2001 · Power Metal

3/5 · 2021-03-21
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]