I’ve lost count now of how many Grave Digger albums I’ve covered in the past fifteen or so years – and full disclosure: I’m apparently too lazy to look it up – but the number isn’t all that important anyway, because I can pretty much sum each of those reviews up with some variation of this: “Grave Digger does what Grave Digger does.” For forty years now, Grave Digger has done what Grave Digger does, and there’s no reason for them not to. It’s not broken, so… well, you know…
Because Grave Digger does what Grave Digger does.
Which leads us to 2025’s version, The Bone Collector. Eschewing the grandiosity of recent albums, this one harks back to simpler times, but without the rawest edges of the first few efforts from the Way Back Days. There are no folk instruments, no historical drama, no power-y symphonic tendencies or vocal choirs. Boltendahl also keeps his voice down in his gravelly midrange, as he mostly has since rebooting the band in the 90s, vs. the Udo-esque screams in the Heavy Metal Breakdown era.
In returning to a more pure trad-metal form, Bone Collector does up the heaviness a notch, or more accurately, allows it to shine through more, unencumbered by coloration — even adding a dash of near-death growling on “Mirror Of Hate.” Ultimately, that return to form is just this album’s shade of grey, this talking point, but it serves that purpose well enough. Devoid of whatever additions, The Bone Collector remains a solid Grave Digger offering, which is to say that it’s built of riffy Germanic metal propelled by flying double-kick drum patterns and lifted up with hooky choruses custom-made for singalongs in the muddy fields of Wacken. Again… when it’s not broken, why fix it? Paint a new shade of grey on it, and let’s talk about that.
The title track kicks everything off, with chunky, chugging riffs from newcomer, ex-Orden Ogan axeman Tobias Kersting. From there, we’re treated to five straight Grave Digger rippers, with highlights in the dancing riffery of “The Rich, The Poor, The Dying” and the steamroller drive of “Killing Is My Pleasure” (and pleasure is good, I suppose). “Mirror Of Hate” slows the proceedings down, bordering on balladry even as it offsets that with those growls in the chorus. And it’s in that turning point that Bone Collector starts to taper off a bit, with the best parts of the back half (the midtempo stomp of “Graveyard Kings,” the solid “Forever Evil & Buried Alive”) feeling a little more like retreads of the first side. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Grave Digger record without a ballad best left skipped, this time in the form of “Whispers Of The Damned.” In the pantheon of Grave Digger ballads, this one’s better than a lot, but compared to the solid riff-heavy heft of the more metallic numbers before it, it’s just another example of the band’s weakest side, but at least it’s one saved for last and easily avoidable.
So in the end, with a new guitarist and a slight-but-noticeable new shade of grey in the emphasis on trad-metal (vs. thematic, power-leaning bombast), The Bone Collector is a Grave Digger album, enjoyable and professional and all the things that come with it. For my money, the changes are positive ones — I like the simplicity, and while I certainly appreciate pomp and flash and historical inspiration, there’s always something refreshing about a more straight-ahead heavy metal approach. Still, Grave Digger does what Grave Digger does – if you’re on board, then you’re sure to (ahem) dig it, and if you haven’t cared about any of the other twenty or so albums released under this name, then now you have another chance to try. Maybe this is the one…