Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Grave Digger
Label: Napalm Records
Release: 2008
Rating: 3.5/5
The “Pray” EP is an overture of a pre-release, meant to lure the crowd in and get as many people as possible fired up for the new Grave Digger studio album “Ballads Of A Hangman” (2009). The EP came out in November 2008, a good two months before the studio album dropped. So the dust had to be properly kicked up a little ahead of the new album’s release.
The EP’s lead title single is actually the most melodic track on “Ballads Of A Hangman”. Despite its stripped-down, devilishly deadly guitar pattern, that very riff also carries the main melodic line, in a way that’s utterly trivial for your receptors and gets under your skin fast. With that melodic touch it recalls the lost “Liberty Or Death” song, and you could get the wrong idea about what to expect from the new album. Mind you, we’re already splitting hairs here, because a Grave Digger album is a Grave Digger album. There are no dramatic departures between them. But if we do start carving into the details, “Ballads Of A Hangman” is once again more riff-driven and direct in its production (within the generally known “digger opus” directness) than its symphonically polished predecessor, so it’s a sort of flirtation with the roots, i.e. the album “The Grave Digger” and whatever followed it by release year. In the chorus, Pray features a simple echo of “Pray!!!!” assembled from many of Boltendahl’s growls stacked on top of each other, which sounds incredibly authoritative and gives the listener a sense of submissive obedience to this noisy-beyond-all-limits “command” in the chorus. A typical bullseye that has the potential to be embraced quickly by the band’s fans as one of their own, which at the same time opens the door for Pray to join the once-iron repertoire of the band’s live shows.
Two more tracks are included on this EP, which had no room on the new album, which makes this EP an all the more essential buy for every true Grave Digger fan. Both are excellent tracks, with that typical commanding rasp front and center, considerably more “violent” (read: less melodic in this case) than Pray, with stripped-down rawness, a riff pushed hard to the front as in any typical Grave Digger composition, and a wonderfully red-hot live-sounding production. The novelty this EP brings, and also a herald of the new album, is of course the immediate active involvement of new member Thilo Hermann. Active because he co-wrote all three tracks with Boltendahl and Schmidt, and his “equal” studio status is definitely felt in his solo contributions too, which means Grave Digger have put the whole music community on notice that for the first time in their career they can boast multiple guitar duels in their songs, which is certainly a contribution to the expressive, characterful, hermetically concrete-solid Grave Digger approach. So the two remaining Grave Digger tracks on the “Pray” EP, which the guys later didn’t place on the album, are When The Sun Goes Down and My Blood Will Live Forever, and since they unleash even more aggression than Pray, they actually serve as an even more fitting preview of the overall look and atmosphere of the album “Ballads Of A Hangman” (2009).
The band is also known for liking to play other artists’ material. This time they took on a cover of the Motorhead classic Overkill. This cover also appears only on this EP. How the song Overkill is set up at its core probably doesn’t need explaining, but the fact is that this basic “Motorhead template” fits Grave Digger perfectly. They’ve venomously “quadrupled” the noise of the Motorhead classic, cranked the rhythm’s speed with the deep-hitting double bass drum pedal pushed to the max, Boltendahl is once again extremely noisily menacing, and the whole thing is wrapped in that typical digger production of red-hot Teutonic riff sawdust. So, if you want advice on how to make Motorhead even noisier in the studio than they already are, ask Grave Digger. Clearly, the guys have the best recipe for it. It would be interesting if Grave Digger took on the entire “Overkill” album.
As I mentioned, true fans of the Grave Digger sound won’t be turning their noses up at this EP at all. It will be a must for completing their collection of Grave Digger albums. As always, the band uses it to carefully feel out the pulse of the environment into which “Ballads Of A Hangman” was released shortly after the new year 2009.
Lineup
Chris Boltendahl – vocals
Manni Schmidt – guitar
Thilo Hermann – guitar
Hans Peter Katzenburg – keyboards
Jens Becker – bass guitar
Stefan Arnold – drums
Production
Grave Digger
Track list
1. Pray
2. Overkill
3. My Blood Will Live Forever
4. When The Sun Goes Down
