Grave Digger - Excalibur (1999) - A blueprint of Grave Digger standards - 76% (29/09/11)

Many fans and even critics justify the popular opinion that this album might be the best Grave Digger record ever done. This album was also by far the Grave Digger record that got the highest chart position ever. Many tracks from the album are still played live by the band on a regular basis. To keep it short, this album is probably the most famous and respected one the legendary Teutonic metal icons Grave Digger have ever done.

That's the popular opinion but my view of the facts is a little bit different. I must admit that apart of a few great folk influences with bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy sounds in a couple of songs like the fast banger and still slightly diversified opener "Pendragon" or the often overseen album highlight "The Final War" and some majestic choirs and backing vocals performed by leading German metal musicians as in the catchy and yet epic single "The Round Table (Forever)" or the majestic "Avalon", aspects that have though both been present on the last two records and first two parts of the middle ages trilogy, Grave Digger offer nothing new on this album.

While the first four tracks of the album are the strongest part of the record and include catchy choruses and some epic moments, the band can't keep up with this quality for the rest of the album and promising topics as the ordinary "Morgane Le Fay" or the mediocre half ballad "Emerald Eyes" fall off the edge and bore with the usual patterns, ideas and melodies. These tracks all have one hundred percent Grave Digger trademarks but don't try out anything fresh or surprising.

Even though the album has an epic flow, the certain something that would justify the album's status is completely missing for me. I would even go as far and say that this record is not only among the average but even the weaker albums of the band. The album is still a solid old school heavy metal album with a lyrically interesting concept and few well done efforts but it feels stretched and lacks of imagination. I would have preferred a shorter and more consistent record or a truly experimental and detailed opus magnum but the final result we got here is somewhere between those worlds and by sounding exactly like a classic Grave Digger blueprint, this album sounds almost lost and faceless as if the contextual concept and the pressure to lead the once innovating medieval trilogy to an end would have been two weights on the band that seem to have blocked the sense of creativity, freshness and authenticity of the different musicians. In the end, I would suggest you to purchase the album if you want to complete the band's entire trilogy but if you want to buy it as a single album apart from the two previous ones, I would honestly give the advice to go for one of the two previous ones or even the upcoming three records rather than for this one here.