by Sebastian Kluth
Par kluseba
German heavy metal veterans Grave Digger have gone through a significant change when former guitarist Axel Ritt departed the band after fourteen years and was replaced by Tobias Kersting who has already been involved in the singer's lacklustre solo project Chris Boltendahl's Steelhammer and its disappointing debut album Reborn in Flames. After releasing five singles in the last year alone, Grave Digger has now published its first studio album with the new guitarist. Bone Collector is the group's twenty-second regular studio album and has been released to celebrate the quartet's incredible forty-fifth anniversary. I would like to take this joyful occasion to congratulate the band on an absolutely stunning career.
Three things stand out on Bone Collector that includes eleven songs for a perfect running time of forty-seven minutes. First and foremost, the quality of this output is much better than Chris Boltendahl's Steelhammer's Reborn in Flames. This release here focuses on aggressive, energetic and tight guitar riffs that might remind of the group's records with former guitarist Manni Schmidt from The Grave Digger up to Ballads of a Hangman. The bass guitar sounds more dominant than usual as they add a heavy backbone and dark soundscapes to this particular album. The drum play is tight, precise and experienced as it fits perfectly to the classic heavy metal sound performed on here. Chris Boltendahl's rough vocals with a heavy accent sound as unique as ever. They might be an acquired taste for sure but give Grave Digger its unique identity.
Secondly, the consistent songwriting on this output focuses on mid-length heavy metal tracks between three minutes and six and a half minutes. There are no ambitious conceptual epics this time around. The band has also decided not to use atmospheric keyboard sounds on this output. The heavy, organic and timeless production blends in fittingly. This record could have been released forty years ago just as it could be released in forty years from here.
Thirdly, the quartet sounds particularly youthful on its forty-fifth anniversary. As a matter of fact, the quartet hasn't sounded this tight since The Last Supper twenty years ago. The new line-up sounds as if it had been playing together for decades. The chemistry between the different elements of the rhythm section is particularly precise. The energetic guitar play gives the band a tone that one hadn't heard in one and a half decades. The rough vocals shine even more than usual in these soundscapes and triumph with relentless energy.
If you are looking for particular highlights, you should listen to powerful opening title track "Bone Collector" that takes no prisoners at all and entertaining album closer "Whispers of the Damned" that fluidly develops from a power ballad into a gloomy heavy metal stomper that sounds much shorter than it actually is.
Grave Digger certainly doesn't reinvent heavy metal and picks up bits and pieces it has already been using multiple times in its illustrious past. The songwriting material is solid throughout but not distinctive enough to qualify this record as a highlight in the band's vast career. However, the line-up change is a significant step forward for the band since the chemistry of this quartet sounds stronger than what the band had been releasing on average in the past few years. Bone Collector might only be a good heavy metal album but it also shows much promise for the future and thus proves that this band still has much to say after forty-five remarkable years.
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