Grave Digger - Ballads Of A Hangman
Napalm Records
German Heavy Metal
11 songs (41'25)
Release year: 2009
Grave Digger, Napalm Records
Reviewed by Marty
Major event
Grave Digger's new album Ballads Of A Hangman is their very first album for their new label Napalm Records and also signifies a triumphant return to the tried and true formula of such classic albums as Tunes Of War and Excalibur. The addition of a second guitarist, Thilo Hermann (ex-Running Wild) has rejuvenated this band and along with guitarist Manni Schmidt and long time members Jens Becker (bass) and Stefan Arnold (drums), Grave Digger mastermind and lead vocalist Chris Boltendahl has rewound the clock back to the 90's and even a little further back into the 80's in delivering an album of ass-kicking German heavy metal; the likes of which this band has only touched upon with their more recent albums.

The opener The Gallow's Pole with Chris Boltendahl's ominous humming over clean guitar leads right into the title track Ballads Of Hangman which continues the same melody only with Accept style huge and majestic guitar harmonies before the song kicks into full Grave Digger throttle. This is a definite show opener for sure on the upcoming tour. Thick riffs and a speedy tempo drive this absolutely classic sounding Grave Digger track and is pure German heavy metal joy! The mayhem continues with Hell Of Disillusion, another ass-kicking German metal track with a big menacing chorus and the gravely and harsh vocal style of Chris Boltendahl. Before you can catch your breath, Sorrow Of The Dead brings more driving and speedy metal with Chris' demented growls and howls yet infuses a little more melody for the pre-chorus. Lonely The Innocence Dies sees a vocal duet between Chris and Benedictum's Veronica Freeman with a gut wrenching power ballad that slowly builds and gets faster and heavier by track's end. Into The War, The Shadow Of Your Soul, Funeral For A Fallen Angel and especially Stormrider offer more solid, riff driven heavy metal with big chanting choruses, hammering double bass and plenty of excellent lead guitar work by both Manni Schmidt and Thilo Hermann. Grave Of The Addicted is more of a mid tempo track yet even with the solid lead and harmony lead work, just falls a little short of the quality of the other scorchers on this album. The album closes with Pray, the first single released from the album back in December. Big and epic sounding with a huge chanting chorus, this one tones down the speed and aggression and is very different for Grave Digger yet works very well.

For me, this is the best Grave Digger album since Excalibur. I've had this promo for a while now and no Grave Digger album since Excalibur has had such heavy rotation in this reviewer's CD player. With an absolutely killer production, it's basically back to the basics of what made this band so great in the first place. Very little "experimentation" and less epic sounding than recent work, Chris Boltendahl and company have delivered an absolute gem of a heavy metal album. Their last album Liberty Or Death left me thinking that this band had just about run its course. I'm pleased to be proven dead wrong here. Classic in every way from the album artwork to the quality of the pure German heavy metal presented here, Grave Digger is far from the fate of the hangman's noose..........

Killing Songs :
Ballads Of A Hangman, Hell Of Disillusion, Sorrow Of The Dead, Stormrider and Pray
Marty quoted 86 / 100
Other albums by Grave Digger that we have reviewed:
Grave Digger - Clash of the Gods reviewed by Olivier and quoted 74 / 100
Grave Digger - The Clans Are Still Marching - Live at Wacken 2010 (DVD/CD) reviewed by Marty and quoted no quote
Grave Digger - Liberty Or Death reviewed by Chris and quoted 86 / 100
Grave Digger - The Last Supper reviewed by Mike and quoted 67 / 100
Grave Digger - Rheingold reviewed by Danny and quoted 99 / 100
To see all 8 reviews click here
4 readers voted
Average:
 88
Your quote was: 88.
Change your vote

There are 9 replies to this review. Last one on Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:23 am
View and Post comments