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BACK
GRAVE
DIGGER
Take Hold of the Ring
Master of the Ring
By Mark Morton
The concept album. When bands embark on these complex,
thematic endeavours, the results can be dicey. While most come off
as pompous, overblown epics that are difficult to swallow in their
entirety after one listen, others, when approached correctly, can
mark the grandiose cornerstone of a band’s career (such as
Queensryche’s Operation: mindcrime, Cradle of Filth’s
Cruelty and the Beast, Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle
Earth, Jag Panzer’s Thane to the Throne, and W.A.S.P.’s
The Crimson Idol). Some bands seem to make entire careers out of
concept pieces, most notably King Diamond, Savatage, Ayreon, Rhapsody,
and Virgin Steele, to name a few. Germany’s Grave Digger have
also joined this list, to a point, for unlike the majority of theme-based
bands that explore and implement new musical tactics to evolve the
band beyond their origins (and thus barely resembling the band they
once were), Grave Digger remains surprisingly grounded. Yes, they
experiment with new sounds and stylistic elements, but they merely
add them to their arsenal of metallic weaponry, and do not use them
as a replacement for the foundation already laid. When listening
to their latest Nuclear Blast opus Rheingold, traces of their debut,
Heavy Metal Breakdown, remain vividly intact, and that album was
released in 1984, nearly 20 years ago!
Grave Digger’s adventure into the realm of concept albums begins
in 1996, when they released their seventh studio effort, Tunes of
War, a story rooted in Scottish history, most likely strongly influenced
by the film Braveheart. Following that came Knights of the Cross,
which discussed the Templar Knights and the Crusades. Then they
released Excalibur, which really needs no explanation. The three
discs became known as the band’s Middle Ages trilogy, but then
a split with longtime guitarist Uwe Lewis occurred, and the band
needed to break in a new guitarist (Manni Schmidt, formerly of Rage).
Founding member Chris Boltendahl used the time to work through personal
demons by essentially writing about demons in a collection of dark,
horror tales on the 2001 release The Grave Digger. Now, with minds
clear and vision focused, Grave Digger settles back into the world
of central themes with Rheingold, the band’s 11th studio album,
based on the classic German legend The Ring of the Nibelungs (the
same legend made world famous in Richard Wagner’s opera).
Drummer Stefan Arnold (who joined the band for Tunes of War) offers
insight on the band’s return to concept albums. "He needed
a break, honestly," says Stefan, regarding Chris’s tribulations
following Excalibur. "After the ugly thing with Uwe [he tried
to steal the band name and make Grave Digger his own], and Chris
had given up alcohol and drugs, the past three years have been really
hard for him."
He explains the specific trouble with Uwe, who had been a member
of the band since their reformation in 1992 after a five-year hiatus.
"It was so stupid, really. Manni, Jens and myself are all substitutable,
but Chris…he is Grave Digger. It’s the same with Rolf
from Running Wild, Peavy from Rage—these singers are characteristic
of their bands; so it is with Accept, Saxon, et cetera. How can
anyone be so arrogant as to say, ‘Hey, I’m the guitarist,
I’m Grave Digger!’ Sorry! I’ve been with the band
since 1995, and from my viewpoint, it was always half and half.
It’s sick, because Uwe is still talking in interviews when
promoting his new band about how he ‘is’ Grave Digger,
but was such a gentleman he gave Chris the name—that is such
the biggest bullshit. It would have been a good idea to make The
Grave Digger a concept album, but it came out as a collection of
Chris’s horror visions and stories he wrote himself. Now his
mind is free, he doesn’t care what Uwe is doing, and we have
a great new guitarist, and everything couldn’t go better at
the moment."
So how did the idea come about to base an album on a 300-year-old
Germanic legend that spotlights golden treasure, Norse gods, dwarfs,
dragons, and magic weaponry?
"The Rheingold saga is the biggest German story ever written,
and Richard Wagner created a major opera around it, so we thought
we should do it…because it was so great," says Stefan.
"We actually went to the opera, the whole band in suit and
tie, in Cologne, and it was really incredible to watch. Chris was
reading the saga nights, and sat together with the keyboardist and
worked out what parts of the Ring of the Nibelungs they would use
that would be most important to help the fans understand the story.
Obviously, that took a long time to do, because the book is really
long. One of the goals when we do a concept record is to bring old
instrumentation together with our music. We mixed a full orchestra
with the guitars on Rheingold. A lot of parts were taken from Wagner’s
work. Our keyboardist is a studied classical pianist, so he really
had the job of working out the classical parts with the guitars.
We found the perfect mixture of classical music and heavy metal.
We didn’t want the fans to get bored with all the violins and
horns."
When asked if Stefan viewed classical composers as the originators
of heavy metal, the comparison between genres was evident, especially
after the creation of Rheingold.
"You know, Joey DeMaio [of Manowar] once said in an interview,
‘Richard Wagner is the godfather of heavy metal.’ In my
opinion, there are a lot of similarities, especially in the power
and energy of classical music, that can be compared to heavy metal.
Maybe Wagner would have loved the new album. There’s really
no other style of music that can integrate such deep classical elements
and retain its genre."
Not only is Rheingold a blend of classical and traditional metal,
but as previously stated, it is also a harmonious unity of Grave
Digger’s past and present stylistic elements. Stefan enthusiastically
agrees.
"We pride ourselves on keeping the old-school Grave Digger
and new-school Grave Digger sounds together, combined. All the songs
have something fun about them. That is why I play in this band.
It has nothing to do with money. For all of us, it’s a great
honour to play in the band, as well as to write songs with these
guys. I always look forward to discovering something new when we
work together."
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