Grave Digger - Return of the Reaper

(CD Album Review)

****
German old schoolers return with a classic!

Although Chris Boltendahl isn't quite as well known as some Heavy Metal soldiers as Lemmy, Steve Harris, Chuck Billy or whoever else you care to think of but the man is a veteran. Having started Grave Digger in 1980 and about to release this their sixteenth studio album! The man has ridden the storm and probably has as many scars as stories. 'Return of the Reaper' is a modern Heavy Metal classic. Like all great traditional bands Grave Digger have retained what was great about their sound while picking up a few influences from newer types of Metal on the way. It's a traditional Heavy Metal album with a few hints of Thrash and a superb modern production. Opening with the double punch of 'Hell Funeral' and 'War God' each show cases the band at the top of their game.

Each member on fire on their instruments. Both songs are full of hooks and big riffs and chorus'! Then we have the brilliant 'Tattooed Rider' which sounds somewhere between Judas Priest's 'Hell Patrol' and 'Turbo Lover' it's an anthem. We're then back with the double peddling storm of 'Resurrection Day'. Season of the witch is a mid paced track that builds in it's story telling and has a chorus that you can just picture the crowd at Wacken screaming along to... it's glorious!.

Like Iron Maiden's 'Brave new World', Overkill's 'Ironbound' or Motorhead's 'Inferno' there sometimes comes along an album where a band don't really do anything different but everything great about them is on display and turned up to eleven and it all just comes together to make an awesome album that just plays itself. This is what we have here, granted it sort falls off a bit towards the end there are one or two tracks that fall into "filler territory" 'Satan's Host' but even then they are hardly stinker's. The album however finishes with an awesome... well I suppose a ballad. A reflective piano led song that builds to an epic finish! This is a fantastic slice of unapologetic Heavy Metal and I love it.