Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: VPK Mediapark, Ljubljana
Concert date: 02.02.2009
Attendance: 250
Ticket price: 23€
The legendary German heavy metal raiders Grave Digger were formed back in 1980 by Chris Boltendahl, today the only original member left. Alongside bands like Accept, Rage, Helloween and Running Wild, they’ve been a pillar of German heavy/power metal, and across their whole career they’ve kept up a high standard of consistently quality releases. For a good quarter century now they’ve stayed “true” and faithful to themselves, and the only slip in their entire career is the rename to Digger and the stab at mainstream rock/metal with their one album, Stronger Than Ever. Luckily, true to that album’s title, they soon came back stronger than before, and they recently put out their thirteenth studio album, Ballads of a Hangman. The tour for the record has brought the Diggers to our stages again, this time with fellow countrymen Taletellers and Scotland’s Alestorm along for the ride.
Only at the Slovenian date of the tour did we get to see one more act on stage: scene comebackers, the cult Ljubljana boogie metallers Lene kosti. The band was formed way back in 1978 by the Kavaš brothers, and in 1985 the charismatic frontman Milan Krušič joined. For their thirtieth anniversary, Lene kosti stretched their limbs again and set off on a fresh march across Slovenian stages. They blew the dust off their strings and sticks and gave the place a proper shake right from the start with the old-school anthem I Got the… Musically the band recalls the British Steel era of Judas Priest, and the Kavaš brothers in particular remind you of the Tipton/Downing duo, while Milan Krušič is the textbook definition of a metal frontman. It doesn’t happen all that often that the very first band on the bill fires up the crowd like this, but Milan managed to gather most of the people who had trickled into Cvetličarna by then right in front of the stage. As a bonus, Milan rewarded the crowd with Lene kosti T-shirts, and for the band’s classic Russian Girl he invited Grave Digger guitarist Manni Schmidt up on stage for a kazachok. Thirty years on, Lene kosti are anything but lazy, they come across fresh and rejuvenated on stage, and it’s great to see that in the general trend of long-dead legendary bands coming back, this is happening here at home too.
The next two bands proved that Lene kosti were actually the only (genre-wise) fitting support act for Grave Digger. Up second were Germany’s Taletellers, who play a not-so-successful brand of heavy metal/hard rock. They presented their debut Detonator, and even though their set was confident and energetic, they didn’t manage to get many heads banging. The guys do try hard with the posing and the old-school thrash gear, but they have absolutely nothing in common with the genre. The rhythm section is poor and pretty hollow, the riffs generic and half-baked, no matter how earnestly the two guitarists struck their “Maiden” poses with guitars held high. Singer Alan Costa didn’t impress with his vocals either, and the brainless lyrics like Bad Motherfucker were even more disappointing, not to mention the forced quasi-sing-“a long” ooo ooo parts, which only the backing vocalist on stage joined in on. The boys still have a ton of musical work ahead of them if they want to justify all that frantic stage energy.
The last opening act to come sailing onto the stage were the Scottish pirates Alestorm. The standard-bearers of “true Scottish pirate” metal, as they’ve crowned themselves, drew attention to themselves with their debut Captain Morgan’s Revenge, which they already showcased thoroughly at last year’s Metalcamp, which both the band and a few hotheads down front still remember. Alestorm also have a polished, confident and genuinely energetic live show, mostly thanks to singer/keyboardist Christopher Bowes, even though he’s still a few kilos short of a proper pirate look, maybe a scar or two, a wooden leg, a parrot, whatever. Guitarist Dani’s fingers danced nicely over the strings, but despite the band’s effort and extreme hyperactivity, all those folk tunes are already worn out by bands like Korpiklaani, Turisas and a whole sea of other imitators. Tracks like Captain Morgan’s Revenge, The Huntmaster, Wenches & Mead and Leviathan might sound interesting if you’ve got a storm of beer in you, but otherwise I can’t conclude anything other than that the only true pirate metallers are still Running Wild.
At eleven we finally got the lights going down and the intro to the “heavy metal breakdown” with the opening track of the new album Ballads of a Hangman, The Gallows Pole. The crowd finally came to life a bit more and gave a loud welcome to the members one by one, loudest of all for the charismatic guitarist Manni Schmidt, who led us into Ballad of a Hangman with some heavy German riffing. And last of all, “Grave Digger himself” flew onto the stage, the old man with the scythe, the boss of the band, Chris Boltendahl, and let loose his world-famous, sweet-sounding croak. It’s just incredible to see this 46-year-old, all skinny and gone gray, pushing out such throaty sounds. Grave Digger are still in top form! This time they sound a lot more alive live too, since Manni is joined by new guitarist Thilo Hermann (ex-Running Wild), who traded riffs and solos with Manni effectively and brilliantly for a good hour and a half. The bombastic, pompous, crushing rhythm section with Stefan Arnold behind the drums took us to Valhalla, and then to the hell of the new record, Hell of Disillusion. On the new songs the Schmidt/Hermann duo trade solos and trio parts phenomenally, the songs up to the album The Grave Digger get spectacularly soloed by Schimdt with those always-funny expressions on his face, while the older solos were mostly chewed through by master Hermann. The likeable Boltendahl prepared the first surprise of the night for us with Wedding Day, followed by the more or less standard classics of the band à la Silent Revolution, The Last Supper, Knights of the Cross, Excalibur and Rebellion. Still, Uncle Chris and his company pulled a few more surprises out of their sleeves in the form of Stormrider, Headbaning Man from the debut and the chilling Edgar Allan Poe-esque The House, where Chris shines fantastically with clean vocals. Shame he doesn’t use them more often, even though live it’s still the faster, epic, in-your-face blasts of old-school German heavy/power/speed steel that ignite best. While the setlist could have been mixed up a bit more, it was perfectly satisfactory, even though the excellent album Heart of Darkness was completely and unfairly overlooked. After a far too quickly passing hour and a half, the Grave Diggers stormed back onto the stage to chants of “Digger, Digger!” and sat down around a round table. The Round Table (Forever) was a surprise in the encore, followed by the mid-tempo epic from the new album, Pray, and a too-hasty finish with the obligatory anthem Heavy Metal Breakdown.
With their show at Cvetličarna, Grave Digger proved that even after such a long career they still swing their shovels with full force. Boltendahl and his little army aren’t slowing down and remain loyal to their heavy metal path. It’s just a pity that VPK wasn’t fuller, because then Grave Digger might have pushed themselves a little harder and come even more alive.
Photos: Jadran Tomšič
Setlist
Lene kosti: 1. I Got The… 2. Warrior 3. Stones Of Death 4. Iron Dragon 5. Russian Girl 6. Rock Power 7. Do Or Die Grave Digger: 1. The Gallows Pole (Intro) 2. Ballad of a Hangman 3. Valhalla 4. Hell of Disillusion 5. Wedding Day 6. Lionheart 7. Silent Revolution 8. Stormrider 9. The Last Supper 10. Headbanging Man 11. The House 12. Knights of the Cross 13. The Dark of the Sun 14. Excalibur 15. Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching) 16. The Round Table 17. Pray 18. Heavy Metal Breakdown
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