Grave Digger – Ballads Of A Hangman (2009)

Grave Digger has been around for almost 30 year now, and they have been marked by their inconsistency between releases. “Ballads Of A Hangman” is one of those in between releases. While the band’s sound is more of an old school Heavy metal they also have some Speed metal influences here and there. The best part of their sound is that the stay away from many of the current Power metal clichés.

This album is an overall good release with some very good moments, but at some points I was lost thinking that I’ve been listening to the same song for 10 minutes or so. Most songs are very similar and they can get boring eventually. The vocals I have to say are one of the things I like the most about this band, the raspy style of Heavy metal vocals makes them a perfect fit for the music, and don’t annoy the listener too much (like, in my opinion, many Heavy metal bands).

The guitar work is very good, but I think it’s missing some more solo’s since I only notices a few of them here an there, and while the band does not want to sound Power metal, there are still needed to have a good Heavy metal song. The drumming very rhythmically marks the flow of the songs, and it never gets blazing fast, but it still provides enough kick for the faster parts of the songs. The keyboards are something that is not over done, or they got lost in the mixing, since I did not noticed them too much. Overall the band’s music has the old school feel to it, but it’s missing something, since the songs are ok, but I can’t find a brilliant song in this whole album.

I say that if you are a fan of older Heavy metal releases, you will enjoy this album. But if you are expecting a Power metal album go and look somewhere else.

Country: Germany