Nostalgic ride through morbid backdrop

Ok, let's stay out of the earth. Grave Digger has made in the heyday of the Teutonic Metals a name, as the target audience still so manageable how grateful and serious competition was low. In this musically fertile niche of evolution of rock music could flourish as an excellent metal band, where one simply was only slightly harder than the usual (pseudo-) rock bands of this time and not also hired completely botched.
The three later titled as Middle Age Trilogy albums to the Combo Frontgröhler Boltendahl legitimately succeeded after the big break and entry into the upper class of the ever-growing metal market. At this great success the band indeed could then no longer build really well commercially, but unfortunately artistically. On the legendary boredom album "The Grave Digger" followed by six more studio albums that were knitted largely to an identical pattern. Mostly in vain they tried here to copy the secret of success of the Middle Ages plates. Could any of these discs Although a regular basis or even boast several songs that quite the stuff had a classic, unfortunately cavorted often more than just a musical cucumber in the track lists from which you still do not know today what the grave digger of his time thereby probably might have thought. The rest of the season each Silberling was by default filled with not objectionable songs that although all somehow sounded like Grave Digger, but after a few runs out already attracted no Grim Reaper behind the stove.
Sometimes the albums the ratio of firecrackers to laughter was surprisingly good, such as the penultimate "The Clans Will Rise Again", sometimes it was, however, also quite bad as the last "Clash of the Gods". Still, at least one really good hammer-song were the Diggers on each still so weak album always guarantee! (The self-titled Poe tribute The Gravedigger was the exception that proves the rule. Here) As a result of this strategy, any deterioration in quality never went to the detriment of the subsequent album. But now they seem to have realized that the passage of time has incessantly gnawed on for success and that while you scratch already on dregs of his creative repertoire, becomes harder every time to compose the much needed hits that are good enough, the rest of an album in the upper midfield and ideally to lift a little further.

That is why we rehearse now with "The Return of the Reaper" the clearance and no longer even tried to accommodate any individual frills in the songs. What I find a bit unfortunate, because I think Gravedigger had always their best moments, when they managed to use these frills really. The current long-player is what Metal purists probably like to dub with "Straight" or "True," I would like, however, to rewrite "pretty boring in the long run" with. 100% metal from a more relaxed time when you do not even felt compelled to reinvent the always newer, better, more epic Metal anthem for the next album. A revival of the `93er album The Reaper should despite the title here is not expected, because the bad habits of the hysterical screeching vocals, the trademark of the band was twenty years ago, it does not fall on the new shekel, for example back again. Instead ans honored The Reaper the current Reaper return rather reminiscent of 2001's disc The Gravedigger.
A big advantage of the current disc is that it has been recognized its shortcomings and not even more frantically tried to copy old successes. This raises the often-praised enthusiasm immensely that overstrained originality of recent years however, so final adoption in the well-deserved retirement. The result now leaves not a single piece more on that gets stuck in the ear, on the other hand you will also no longer bothered with pieces that sound so embarrassing that one, shaking his head, the ears must endure. Instead, here we create a solid track list that scares anyone, but taketh away in return for no enthusiasm storms. All neatly rehearsed filler without pesky experiments, but also with no outstanding highlights. All songs can be found somehow in the intersection of That's okay and Pretty good.
Pieces like the umpteenth transfigured romanticism of biker subculture Tattooed Rider or Totentanz-Ode Dia de los Muertos tend thereby rather to the upper edge of the central panel, others like the sung witches Apocalypse Season of the Witch, or necromancy-hit Resurrection Day go more to the bottom. Ultimately, the disc has but a single bad song (whereby the final ballad Nothing to Believe already leaning dangerously far out of the window here) and you can hear quite a few times before it disappears into the bay. But for this album has just no tracks of the caliber that you simply put in his favorite rotations, or because of it would but dig out the next few years every now and then the CD.

A little bonus learns the CD but still through the bonus disc. Here can be found after two other representatives of the mediocre middle class-Metals a whole bunch of acoustic songs rehearsed in snazzy Swing variants. This has 3 years ago quite well stood the pieces of Gamma Ray and although the song selection is not continuous happy, these pieces are the highlight of the current publication. (Except for the all-time botch "Yesterday", so really, I ask you!)

CONCLUSION:
Grave Digger have themselves placed so low with their new longplayer the bar that they do not tear a single time.
The listener is therefore being offered a perfect performance, but also no great feats.
Who at that time "The Grave Digger" might, from whatever reason, will therefore be found in "Return of the Reaper 'favor.
Anyone who hoped to one or the other song that stands out from the crowd, will be rather disappointed.