Customer Reviews

Ballads Of A Hangman

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The best thing they've released since Rheingold, this is classic Grave Digger here. With 2 killer guitarists on board this time around, I like the songwriting & song structures better than on the last few albums. A few more speedy tunes, blazing guitar solos abound. We even get a special guest visit from Veronica Freeman of Benedictum on the only "slow" song, a nice, very tastefully done duet. Killer highlight tracks would be Hell of Disillusion, The Shadow of Your Soul & Sorrow of the Dead.

Grave Digger have been around since 1984, but I first heard of them with their "Excalibur" album that they released on Nuclear Blast. the album I am reviewing now is "Ballads of a Hangman" on Napalm. Chris Boltendahl is a very competent singer. it is too bad that Manni Schmidt left after the recording of this album, and I hope that somebody gets the guitarist position. there is a keyboardist in this band, but I hear more guitar than I do the keyboard. one minor complaint is I didn't get the bonus track of "Jailbreak" which is originally by Thin Lizzy, but then again, I got the regular jewel box instead of the digipak. I would have loved to hear the cover of that song. Thilo Hermann (Running Wild guitarist) guest stars on this album. I have to say that the solos are killer. if you like power metal, you have to check this album out. an interesting side note on this album. it does have a ballad on it. no. 6 "Lonely the Innocence Dies", and it is executed fairly well.

Writing a Grave Digger review is fairly easy. Since these guys have altered their sound very little over the years, we all know what to expect. So when it comes to a new Grave Digger album, the question is pretty much, did the Grave Digger formula result in good, mediocre or blah songs this time around.
Well, with Ballads Of A Hangman fans shouldn't be disappointed. There are some great metal tunes to be found here, the title track and Pray being just two examples. Filler seems to be at a minimum. To my ears, only one or two songs didn't do too much for me. There doesn't seem to be an overall concept to this album like most of their past ones, but maybe there is one and it just slipped me by. Death and dying seem to play a big part though. There's a cover of Motorhead's Overkill(on the digipak version anyhow), while decent, it's easy to see why it's a bonus track. There's an extended version of Pray, but the extension is only a few seconds more and seems a bit unnecessary. My version doesn't have the cover of Jailbreak, and I would certainly have liked to hear that.
Basically, it's Grave Digger we're talking about here-plain and simple. If you're a fan, you're gonna get this and will probably like it. If you're not a fan, this isn't gonna convert you, and you're probably not reading this review anyway.

Well it does usually happen to most bands who have been around for a while...they put out great albums for years & then slide whether it be for 1 album or a few, & Grave Digger was somewhat on that path but w/ this latest piece of power metal mastery the boys are back on the metal throne! The only thing keeping me from giving this CD 5 stars is that the CD sounds like Grave Digger that WE FANS know & love..nothing new...just back to what we expect! I suppose I'd give it 4 & 1/2 stars (if it was allowed) for the addition of female vocals (Veronica Freeman of Benedictum) on the track "Lonely the Innocence Dies" because that's really the only new/different thing that the band has done on this CD. Bottom line, BEST Grave Digger album since 'Rheingold'...hands down!