Release date: May 29, 2020
Label: Napalm Records
Production: Grave Digger
Length: 53:42
Genre: heavy metal/power metal
Rating: 8/10
“Fields of Blood” is the 20th album from German heavy metal institution Grave Digger. With it, one of Germany’s oldest metal bands celebrates 40 years in the game, which is certainly a respectable milestone, especially considering they were written off completely at the end of the eighties. An anniversary like that was reason enough to rush out a follow-up to “The Living Dead” (2018) and give birth to the third part of their saga about bloody Scottish history, first conceptualized on the classic “Tunes of War” (1996), which many even consider the peak of their discography.
Right before the new album was recorded, the news hit Grave Digger fans that longtime drummer Stefan Arnold had left the band. Frontman Chris Boltendahl didn’t go looking for a replacement. Instead he simply sat keyboardist Marcus Kniep down behind the kit, so Kniep now has a double instrumental duty, and Grave Digger are a four-piece for the first time since 1996. That news wasn’t nearly as surprising, though, as the decision to craft yet another chapter of the “Tunes of War” saga, especially after the rather unconvincing “The Clans Will Rise Again” (2010), which let down plenty of longtime fans of this cult German band with the one-of-a-kind voice. Boltendahl knows full well that the so-called “medieval trilogy” (the aforementioned “Tunes of War,” “Knights of the Cross” from 1998 and “Excalibur” from 1999) is still their most revered creative era, which is why he so happily keeps returning to that period when picking a concept.
The opening instrumental “The Clansman’s Journey” is a metal version of the Scottish anthem better known as “Margaret,” which of course can’t be missing from any concept album about Scottish history. “All For the Kingdom” is a classic, full-speed-ahead Grave Digger track that’s also a power metal ‘anthem’ with an almost predictable multi-voice chorus. A quality solo from guitarist Axel Ritt spices it up a little, and he is slowly but surely stepping out of the long shadow of his two predecessors. “Lions of the Sea,” which also came out as a single and video, is about Scotland’s rich seafaring history and the clashes with the Vikings, even though the lion has always been an English national symbol. It’s a track that doesn’t leave much of an impression, mostly thanks to a pretty clichéd, power metal rabble-rousing chorus.
“Freedom” turns out a bit more interesting. It’s dedicated to Scottish national hero William Wallace, better known as Braveheart. It has a good instrumental intro that puts Becker’s bass lines front and center, though in the end it’s yet another fairly typical Grave Digger effort, with raging double bass drums, standard guitar phrases and one more predictable chorus. It’s one of the better moments on the album, but in terms of quality it of course doesn’t come close to the thematically related classic “Braveheart” from “Tunes of War.” “The Heart of Scotland,” the story of Scottish king Robert the Bruce, who kept fighting the English invaders after Wallace’s death, is the first track on the album where Grave Digger manages to conjure up the dark atmosphere that usually marks their best work. They pull it off mainly with good Celtic-tinged arrangements, a juicy guitar solo and an epic chorus that, for a change, doesn’t sound overly cheap.
“Thousand Tears,” a snapshot from the tragic life of Mary, Queen of Scots, is a quality ballad with the occasional bagpipe touch. Boltendahl sings it in clean vocals for a change, while Noora Louhimo of Battle Beast joins him as a guest female voice. The vocal duet turns out surprisingly well, although longtime Grave Digger fans will probably still prefer to listen to the “Tunes of War” ballad “Ballad of Mary (Queen of Scots).”
“Union of the Crown,” a good approximation of some of the “Tunes of War” material, leans mostly on its epic chorus, though we wouldn’t have missed the pretty clichéd power metal “oh-oh-oh-oh” build-up in the pre-chorus one bit. “My Final Fight” is interesting: in the opening section, thanks to the driving riff and rhythmic elements, it sounds like some forgotten Running Wild “pirate metal” track. That lasts right up until Boltendahl’s distinctive vocal growl kicks in and completely changes the ambience of the song.
“Gathering of the Clans” (on purpose?) features an almost identical riff to the “Tunes of War” classic “The Dark of the Sun.” That makes it a fairly generic and “safe” Grave Digger track, where the only real surprise is the unexpected burst of bagpipes. The closing multi-voice chorus sounds less like a battle hymn of proud Scottish clans and more like drunks singing in a Scottish pub, so it’s lucky they only used it once. “Barbarian,” the term the English loved to use for their Scottish rivals even late in the Middle Ages, is – despite its considerable simplicity – yet another pretty good approximation of the “Tunes of War” atmosphere.
The title track, a full ten minutes long, is a kind of epic peak of this album, where Grave Digger finally manages to get close to the quality level of their “medieval trilogy.” After an instrumental intro with Scottish bagpipes that ends in a Queen-style guitar sound, a classic Grave Digger battle march kicks in, successfully topped off by an epic chorus. The keyboards, barely audible through most of the album, are a bit more noticeable this time, while Boltendahl finally shows a bit more vocal variety than we’ve been used to from him over the last few years. Ritt, meanwhile, proves his guitar progress with commendable guitar harmonies. Becker also shines with thick bass lines, as one of the few German metal bassists worthy of respect. “Requiem for the Fallen” is a dramatic instrumental with piercing orchestral arrangements that could easily have come out as the uninterrupted closing part of the title track, but apparently Grave Digger didn’t want to “tire out” its fans with too long a stopover in symphonic prog metal.
With “Fields of Blood,” Grave Digger has at least partly made up for some of the below-par albums it put out over the past ten years. Compared to its predecessor “The Living Dead” (2018), “Fields of Blood” is also a noticeable turn for the better. Despite some surprisingly inspired moments, mostly in the second half of the album, “Fields of Blood” still doesn’t mark a return to the quality of the German “gravediggers” at their best, so any Grave Digger fans who had unrealistically high expectations going in will surely be a little disappointed. Still, thanks to the successful closing stretch, especially the peak of the title track, it’s a very solid effort with a few nostalgic moments that recall their best creative years.
Review by: Peter Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. The Clansman’s Journey (1:27)
2. All for the Kingdom (4:10)
3. Lions of the Sea (3:58)
4. Freedom (4:53)
5. The Heart of Scotland (5:19)
6. Thousand Tears (4:57)
7. Union of the Crown (3:58)
8. My Final Fight (4:09)
9. Gathering of the Clans (3:57)
10. Barbarian (3:42)
11. Fields of Blood (10:10)
12. Requiem for the Fallen (3:00)
Grave Digger:
Chris Boltendahl – vocals
Axel “Ironfinger” Ritt – guitar
Jens Becker – bass
Marcus Kniep – drums
Guest vocalist:
Noora Louhimo – vocals on “Thousand Tears”
