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Rating:
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Grave Digger - The Clans Will Rise Again
1 October 2010
01. Days Of Revenge
02. Paid In Blood
03. Hammer Of The Scots
04. Highland Farewell
05. The Clans Will Rise Again
06. Rebels
07. Valley Of Tears
08. Execution
09. Whom The Gods Love Die Young
10. Spider
11. The Piper Mcleod
12. Coming Home
13. When Rain Turns To Blood
14. Watch Me Die [limited edition bonus]
Grave Digger used to mean a lot to me having been a big chapter in my metal life, especially with albums like Tunes Of War, Excalibur and Knights Of The Cross. You know, when you're younger the epic feeling they bring forth with such power and lyricism transports you straight into the eye of the battle and its various faces. Such experiences haunt you and even nowadays while outside with good fellas whenever the DJ speeds in a Grave Digger song we raise beers and sing along as if time stood still, we even try to immitate Boltendahl for fuck's sake!
Tunes Of War, I listened to it almost at the time it came out and Grave Digger became one of my first metal hard-ons. Chris Boltendahl's voice had something obscure, this unique sparkle either you love or hate, I loved it. The theme was epic, rough, deep inside the flames of war, with emotional ups and downs and this goddamn movie Braveheart had completed the overall scenery. I wasn't actually aware of what Grave Digger were up to after The Grave Digger came out, I had only listened to single songs from the later releases that just didn't have this glimpse of glory from the past, but I'm not here to judge them as I haven't listened to them as a whole. Fourteen years after The Clans Will Rise Again, or so the title says, but what for? I have the answer, for the glory of nothing.
Grave Digger have fallen from grace, not even a theme from their resonating past can save them, they simply can't awaken the glory of old times, only ghosts live here. The ideas are as dead as the mascot that haunts their covers, the same figure haunts the band itself at the moment, preparing their grave while the bagpipes perform a marche funèbre, at least to my ears; and there's nothing epic about a funeral.
The album has a strong marching air and the fierce "Paid In Blood" makes you feel almost like home, giving you great expectations that slowly get lost in mediocrity as the one song succeeds the other while having not much to say. There are definitely some stand-out compositions that appear here and there, yet they get lost in the mud of battle. The band may know hot to play really well and all members blend wonderfully together. Yet, a successful musicianship doesn't mean anything if there's no inspiration, no passion, no triumphant sing-along passages, just cheap memoirs of something once great. Most of the songs are not memorable, they don't stick in mind since there's almost nothing worth remembering. After all, you know what to expect, the same old story played over and over and over again, you've listened to it before and in a far better shape, years ago, but you still recall it at the very first chance. Generic but above all unispired Grave Digger seeking the gold they once held. One of the strong cards of the band used to be the fabulous and filled with emotion ballads, even Chris' obscure voice seemed angelic in there. This time, "When Rain Turns To Blood" doesn't even come close to opuses just like "The Ballad Of Mary" or "Emerald Eyes". Not even the beautiful solos can save the shit-uation, this is just a barren land of fury and power with touches of emotion that get lost in the overall outcome.
The only real highlights have to be the speeding "Paid In Blood", the sense of freedom lying in "Rebel" and the walk-hard road while "Coming Home". Apart from that some moments of sunshine have to be the solo in "Spider", the refrain and the solo from "Whom The Gods Love Die Young" and maybe "Hammer Of The Scots".
According to my ears the clans shouldn't have risen again, they should have sit down or anything else but rise, had they used another lyrical topic the album would have been definitely better, yet since they acted this way the comparison was inevitable and they lost the bet. Proceed at your own risk, after all the final decision is yours and I really hope you will like The Clans Will Rise Again so as not to weep upon the loss of money.
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Performance:
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9 |
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Songwriting:
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6 |
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Originality:
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6 |
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Production:
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9 |
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Written on 01.10.2010 by
DerRozzengarten
"It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind."
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Comments
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14
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 JÄY - 01.10.2010 at 08:03
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| If thats true... color me a sad panda |
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Paragraphs 3, 4 and 6 summarize my opinion on this band nicely.
I think this band can be described in three words: mediocrity, predictability, unoriginality.
Sorry if I mention it one more time but I wish to tell the reviewer that I see very well where he's coming from. |
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| I would have agreed with this review had it been written for any of their previous three releases, but The Clans Will Rise Again was a pleasant surprise for me. I like the album pretty much. Their best since Rheingold in my opinion. |
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Written by RavenKing on 01.10.2010 at 13:58
Sorry if I mention it one more time but I wish to tell the reviewer that I see very well where he's coming from.
What do you mean?  |
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Written by DerRozzengarten on 02.10.2010 at 15:45
Written by RavenKing on 01.10.2010 at 13:58
Sorry if I mention it one more time but I wish to tell the reviewer that I see very well where he's coming from.
What do you mean?
I meant that I mentioned all those things about Grave Digger a few times already. |
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I enjoy the album. There are about 5 or 6 songs I think are great. Coming Home has one of Grave Diggers best ever chorus sections and solo sections. RebelS<--- also has a fantastic chorus and solo. Paid In Blood, Hammer of the Scots and Highland Farewell are also very good. I think the new guitarist is a welcome change, he definitely sounds like a Grave Digger guitarist, but does some things that havent been heard for a few albums. I dont expect Grave Digger to change and I am happy with this album 
EDIT - I should add I think its their best since Rheingold. 6 seems a tad harsh in my opinion but each to their own. If you buy a new Grave Digger album expecting a shift in focus then you will always be disappointed. If you buy it hoping for some more Grave Digger style songs then you will most likely enjoy it. It's a bit like HammerFall  never expect |
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Written by YoreLore on 02.10.2010 at 20:04
I enjoy the album. There are about 5 or 6 songs I think are great. Coming Home has one of Grave Diggers best ever chorus sections and solo sections. RebelS<--- also has a fantastic chorus and solo. Paid In Blood, Hammer of the Scots and Highland Farewell are also very good. I think the new guitarist is a welcome change, he definitely sounds like a Grave Digger guitarist, but does some things that havent been heard for a few albums. I dont expect Grave Digger to change and I am happy with this album
EDIT - I should add I think its their best since Rheingold. 6 seems a tad harsh in my opinion but each to their own. If you buy a new Grave Digger album expecting a shift in focus then you will always be disappointed. If you buy it hoping for some more Grave Digger style songs then you will most likely enjoy it. It's a bit like HammerFall never expect
I like almost the same songs  yeah, the new guitarist is very good and i pretty much enjoyed his solos, although in some songs i pretty much enjoyed only them, i had great expectations from digger digging the past. I didn't expect them to change, nobody does expect this i suppose, i just wanted them more inspired and with more passion to blow my mind like you said, i was expecting for some more grave digger style songs, but like i said i expected them with something more to say, actually much more and i really think if they had another topic the album sound would have been different according to the theme like they always did, this time there was no new theme, something from the past and i think they had covered it in a brilliant way, something that didn't happen this time to my ears. but yeah, i'm glad you said "each to their own" and you didn't get in here to bombard me just because we have some differences in this album |
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Written by DerRozzengarten on 02.10.2010 at 23:12
Written by YoreLore on 02.10.2010 at 20:04
I enjoy the album. There are about 5 or 6 songs I think are great. Coming Home has one of Grave Diggers best ever chorus sections and solo sections. RebelS<--- also has a fantastic chorus and solo. Paid In Blood, Hammer of the Scots and Highland Farewell are also very good. I think the new guitarist is a welcome change, he definitely sounds like a Grave Digger guitarist, but does some things that havent been heard for a few albums. I dont expect Grave Digger to change and I am happy with this album
EDIT - I should add I think its their best since Rheingold. 6 seems a tad harsh in my opinion but each to their own. If you buy a new Grave Digger album expecting a shift in focus then you will always be disappointed. If you buy it hoping for some more Grave Digger style songs then you will most likely enjoy it. It's a bit like HammerFall never expect
I like almost the same songs yeah, the new guitarist is very good and i pretty much enjoyed his solos, although in some songs i pretty much enjoyed only them, i had great expectations from digger digging the past. I didn't expect them to change, nobody does expect this i suppose, i just wanted them more inspired and with more passion to blow my mind like you said, i was expecting for some more grave digger style songs, but like i said i expected them with something more to say, actually much more and i really think if they had another topic the album sound would have been different according to the theme like they always did, this time there was no new theme, something from the past and i think they had covered it in a brilliant way, something that didn't happen this time to my ears. but yeah, i'm glad you said "each to their own" and you didn't get in here to bombard me just because we have some differences in this album
I understand what you mean. When a band that already has been branded as a band with few creative ideas in the last few years releases another album with a similar theme to a 15 year old album, then you might think they have more ideas to explore with that idea or you might think they have REALLY run out of ideas!
Im Scottish though, so I am a sucker for this sort of thing |
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Written by YoreLore on 03.10.2010 at 01:14
I understand what you mean. When a band that already has been branded as a band with few creative ideas in the last few years releases another album with a similar theme to a 15 year old album, then you might think they have more ideas to explore with that idea or you might think they have REALLY run out of ideas!
Im Scottish though, so I am a sucker for this sort of thing
Hehe, more than fair enough i didn't enjoy the bagpipe though as i did in tunes of war, back then it had something special, this time it seemed over-polished or something  |
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| I thought it sounded ok. The production is of higher quality on this album but I still prefer the not so clean style of Tunes of War. Works really well with songs like William Wallace and The Battle of Flodden |
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Written by YoreLore on 03.10.2010 at 02:15
I thought it sounded ok. The production is of higher quality on this album but I still prefer the not so clean style of Tunes of War. Works really well with songs like William Wallace and The Battle of Flodden
Yeah, the not so clean sound is as if you were in the battlefield and from the surrounding place the bagpipers spread their tunes  |
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Lol the way it was meant to sound
All this talk has made me put Tunes of War on. Awesome! |
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Written by YoreLore on 03.10.2010 at 02:31
Lol the way it was meant to sound
All this talk has made me put Tunes of War on. Awesome!
Yeah, just like it should!!
Great! Come to fight with me at Falkirk, send them back where they belong!  (well, if it had a sword, an axe or something, i would have put that  ) |
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| I quite liked this album but when you compare it to classics like Tunes of War it pales in comparison. This one's better than the previous 2 albums I think, perhaps even The Last Supper. While they used the same theme on Tunes of War, I think this one offers the same theme in a different way to how it was done on Tunes of War. 6 is too harsh I think, but good review. |
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