Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Boogaloo / Zagreb / Croatia
Concert date: April 5, 2011
Attendance: 130
Grave Digger, the classic old-school heavy metal band from Germany, are showing zero signs of cooling off. Despite the stubborn drama that came with a guitarist change (in September 2009 the phenomenal Manni Schmidt left the band over differences in creative vision), Grave Digger bounced back fast after bringing in Domain member Axel Ritt, and they put out a new studio album, “The Clans Will Rise Again” (2010), as early as autumn 2010 – RockLine review HERE.
The new European tour didn’t exactly start out rosy for the “gravediggers”. Both support acts, Sister Sin and Grand Magus, had to pull out of the tour because of serious illnesses among band members. So the Bochum metallers called in their German countrymen Orden Ogan to plug the hole.
The band’s originally announced Zagreb show for April 6, 2011 was moved to April 5, 2011, and at the same time it doubled as a replacement for the cancelled Ljubljana date. Lucky thing, too, because who knows who would have shown up at all, given that the far more notorious Slayer and Megadeth were raising hell in Zagreb’s Arena on April 6, 2011.
However you slice it, the venue was still completely empty at half past eight in the evening. When the local boys Infernal Tenebra, technical death metallers from Istria, hit the stage, there were maybe fifteen people in Boogaloo, watching from a great distance to see what was going on up there. In half an hour the guys delivered a set that showed they’ve been part of the metal scene for a long time and are a seasoned crew. The sound was more than excellent for the band, and not too loud either, despite the totally empty hall. What saved the day was above all the curtain with the Orden Ogan logo behind the guys, which kept the sound from scattering. The quartet of Darko Etinger (guitar, vocals), Ivo Petrović (guitar), Paolo Grižonić (bass) and Sandi Orbanić (drums) released their studio debut “The Essence Of Chaos” in 2007, and we already got to see them back in 2008 in Komen at the Metal Mania Open Air festival. The guys came across as a death metal outfit devoted to exploring the more complex and technically demanding material that the legacy led by Death brings. At the same time, Darko’s growl vocals are the factor with which Infernal Tenebra confidently shut down any question of competence. It fits the dark vistas of a dark band like a glove. Technically they rank higher, and the songs have a touch of unpredictable atmospheric turns, created above all by a witty, dynamic rhythm section. The drum work is especially worth singling out, along with the vivid weaving of double bass drum pedals into the spiced-up transitional passages. The combination of melodic passages with merciless, half-step-down massive raging, in a progressive, ever-shifting vein (it fleetingly recalls the approach of bands like Quo Vadis), painted a great performance by a band that definitely stands out in the death metal genre on Croatian soil today.
Orden Ogan “put things in their place”. With them came that classic heavy metal label, with the recognizable essence of Teutonic cosmetics that bands of German origin simply cook up. A band of the same vintage and approach as their countrymen Stormwarrior, and also the slightly younger, well-known “Blind Guardian copycats” Savage Circus, drew some fifty heads below the stage, and the singer immediately cracked them up with a vivid remark: “Welcome to one of the most intimate nights of our tour!” The band presented their freshly released studio album “Easton Hope” (AFM Records, 2010) and put smiles on the faces of fans of sharp, German-style power metal. Still nobody around, the hall totally hollowed out, yet a few heads happily whirled to the rock-solid rhythms. Orden Ogan aren’t new to this either, their beginnings reach back to the mid-nineties. Despite numerous lineup changes and member swaps over the course of their career, the new album is already their sixth, and from the first second to the last of a polished set the guys came across as hardened stage animals who know how to use every inch of stage space to bring their music to the audience even more authentically. The quintet proved an excellent choice as openers for the legends Grave Digger and surely picked up a few new fans in Zagreb.
Around 20 minutes to eleven, the stage finally wrapped itself in the image of the Scottish Highlands’ mountain expanses, announcing the arrival of the legends of German metal. Grave Digger sensibly tied the content of the new album to the album “Tunes Of War” (1996), reviving in the first part of the show that classic record, still considered one of Grave Digger’s most recognizable, mixed in with new songs. Naturally, the classics took the lead: The Bruce (The Lion King), The Ballad Of Mary (Queen Of Scots), Killing Time, the obligatory In The Dark Of The Sun and the indispensable Rebbellion (The Clans Are Marching).
The burning question, of course, was how well Axel Ritt fits in on stage. The man took over Grave Digger’s off-the-rack stage look from both predecessors, Uwe Lulis and Manni Schmidt. Compared to the two of them, though, the new guitarist stands out for a tendency to plant himself in the spotlight and in front of the camera lens. He’s also the most formally trained guitarist, especially technically, that Grave Digger have ever had in the lineup. Through restructured solos he’s brought to the sound a lot more hair-splittingly fast, textbook “scale running” up the guitar neck. Axel really can’t hide that. Even though the riffing sound is richly backed with sharp compression and a massive wall built that way, you can feel it has become more polished, more precise, even somewhat more melodic, almost too pretty.
The rhythm section is crushing as ever, with Stefan Arnold devastating on the rolling double pedal. The sonic picture was masterfully filled out, and you really couldn’t miss the second guitar this time either. Chris Botlendahl sang excellently. His distinctive croak, backed by a pronounced echo effect from the mixing desk, sounded fresh throughout the whole set and not worn for a second. Of course the guys are tuned a half step down, which helps the band’s boss and this charismatic stage entertainer confidently drive the set home.
There were barely 130 to 140 people, and the band still played full tilt and bombarded the little crowd with every means available. A band in top form, then. And Axel Ritt, or “Mr. White Stripes”, as band boss Chris Boltendahl introduced him to the crowd because of the black-and-white stripes on his guitars, earned the right to add something of his own to the solos. Excalibur, for instance, grew into a real little sea of scales in the solo, while the heart of the solo in Knights Of The Cross stayed unchanged even after Axel joined the crew. How much of “his own” is in there, let your ears judge, but I think that with a guitarist like Axel Ritt, Grave Digger have lost some of their original bite, sharpness and Teutonic directness. In the second part, the medley stitched together from “Rheingold” (2003) and “Heart Of Darkness” (1995) really lit things up, since those songs haven’t been in the band’s live set for a long time, and the classic Morgane Le Fay from “Excalibur” was a nice change of pace too. As expected, Grave Digger closed the show with the classics The Roundtable (“Excalibur”, 1999) and the prehistoric relic Heavy Metal Breakdown. They scratched the song Hello Of Dissillusion, from “Ballads Of A Hangman”, from the encore. Probably because of the low turnout..
Let me draw the line here. Grave Digger remain worth seeing in their new lineup, and their Zagreb show justified that 100%. If you’ve been a fan for a few months, a year, or two at most, the change on guitar won’t touch you. Longtime fans and connoisseurs of the band will have more of a headache with it, especially on future studio albums, where the level of generic sound and self-repetition will surely creep up a notch further.
Why the poor turnout? Besides the mess around the promo phase (rescheduled dates), you have to factor in that Grave Digger have never been a band with a lot of support in Croatia. Two years ago barely a crowd of three hundred came to see them at Boogaloo. Then there’s the fact that there are too many concerts, tours are more frequent and bigger than they used to be, and wallets got too shallow long ago for the average heavy metal enthusiast to hit every show that interests them. Still, the band is so seasoned and well-drilled that it simply can’t fail on stage. Chris Boltendahl, with his charisma and convincing, authoritative leadership, quickly won the crowd over. Even if it was a handful of a hundred-odd people. A few times every single hand went up in the air and the crowd was visibly enjoying the show. The sound was very solid, not perfect, but very, very solid. Given how great the small crowd was with the band, it’s worth mentioning that this time only the most devoted followers came to see Grave Digger in Zagreb, among them even a little group from Split.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
This report was created in collaboration between RockLine and Rock Hard Slovenija.
Setlist
GRAVE DIGGER: PART I. – Scottish History Set: 1. Days of Revenge (intro) 1. Paid in Blood 2. The Dark of the Sun 3. Hammer of the Scots 4. The Bruce (The Lion King) 5. The Ballad of Mary (Queen of Scots) 6. Highland Farewell 7. Killing Time 8. Whom the Gods Love Die Young 9.Rebellion (The Clans are Marching) PART II. – Grave Digger History Set: 11. The Gallows Pole (intro) 12. Ballad of a Hangman 13. Morgane Le Fay 14. MEDLEY: – Twilight of the Gods – Circle of Witches – The Grave Dancer – Twilight of the Gods (outro) 15. The Last Supper 16. Excalibur 17. Knights of the Cross —encore— 18.The Round Table (Forever) 19.Heavy Metal Breakdown ORDEN OGAN: 1. Rise and Ruin (intro) 2. To New Shores of Sadness 2. Farewell 3. Welcome Liberty 4. Easton Hope 5. We Are Pirates 6. Angels War
Photo gallery
