Today in 1993 Grave Digger released the album The Reaper Gladbeck, North Rhine-Westphalia,Germany Heavy/Power Metal Status:Active Years active: 1980-1986, 1986-1987 (as Digger), 1988-1991 (as Hawaii), 1991-present Grave Digger is a legendary German heavy/power metal band formed by Chris Boltendahl (vocals), Peter Masson (guitar), Willi Lackmann (bass guitar) and Albert Eckardt (drums) in 1980 in Gladbeck, a small town in Germany. Grave Diggers famed debut album Heavy Metal Breakdown in 1984 already produced some undying classics, such as the true Grave Digger anthem Heavy Metal Breakdown and the powerful ballad Yesterday. After their second studio album Witch Hunter was completed, Eckardt left the band and was replaced by C.F. Brank. After the third studio album War Games released in 1986, the guitarist Peter Masson departed from the band, his place to be taken by Uwe Lulis. In addition, the band changed their name from Grave Digger to Digger and their style changed from heavy metal to hard rock according to such bands as Scorpions, Bon Jovi and Van Halen. This concept was a drastical flop, hence why the frontman Chris Boltendahl announced the end of their career as a band after Diggers album Stronger Than Ever. However, the band returned in 1993 with the comeback album The Reaper. Grave Digger now consisted of Chris Boltendahl, Uwe Lulis and two new members, Tomi Göttlich (bass) and Jörg Michael (drums). The Reaper was a back to the roots album with the bands name being Grave Digger again and the style being heavy metal. On the top of that, a compilation entitled The Best of the Eighties was released along with the new album to represent the earlier songs of Grave Digger. The EP Symphony of Death been released in 1994, Jörg Michael left the band and was replaced by the new drummer Frank Ullrich for the upcoming tour. He also played the drums on Grave Diggers album Heart of Darkness (released in 1995). Ullrich didnt stay with the band for long though, as the year 1996 saw the coming of their new drummer Stefan Arnold, who has been playing the drums in Grave Digger ever since. The year 1996 also saw the beginning of Grave Diggers famous The Middle Ages Trilogy, which consists of three concept albums: Tunes of War, Knights of the Cross and Excalibur. While Tunes of War is the first part of the trilogy dealing with Scotlands long fight and several attempts for independency, the second part Knights of the Cross (1998) tells the historical tale of the crusades and more specifically about the rise and fall of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (more commonly known as the Knights Templar). Knights of the Cross also introduced Jens Becker as the new bassist, and he has been the Grave Diggers bassist ever since. The trilogy was completed in 1999 with the final part, Excalibur, which is about the myth of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The world tour supporting this trilogy introduced a keyboardist for Grave Digger for the first time - his name was Hans-Peter Kratzenburg who thus became a permanent member of the band. During live shows and in promotional pictures Kratzenburg is often seen dressed up as The Reaper character. In the year 2000 Grave Digger celebrated their 20th anniversary with a concert consisting of various old and new Grave Digger songs. This concert also ended one chapter as Uwe Lulis parted ways with the band. A new guitarist, Manni Schmidt, was found. The guitarist and record label having been changed, Grave Digger released a self-titled album called The Grave Digger in the year 2001. Many consider this album to be the darkest and heaviest Grave Digger record so far. Its songs were inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Next year brought the first live release of Grave Digger - Tunes of Wacken was released both in cd and dvd format. The next studio concept album appeared in 2003. Rheingold dealt with the opera Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner. After the world tour that followed the release of Rheingold, a new studio album The Last Supper occurred. The Last Supper isnt wholly a concept album, but many songs deal with the last days of Jesus. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Grave Digger, the band released a live dvd & cd recording 25 to Live of a concert in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the next year an EP entitled Yesterday was released. It consists of a remake and an orchestra version of the Grave Digger classic Yesterday (originally released on their debut album), a cover of Led Zeppelins song No Quarter and a new original composition The Reapers Dance. In the year 2007 Grave Digger released the studio album Liberty or Death. On October 8th 2007, the band revealed Thilo Hermann (ex-guitarist of Faithful Breath, Risk and Running Wild) as their second guitarist. This marked the first time for Grave Digger as a six-member band and with two guitarists. Grave Digger also signed a record deal with a new label called Napalm Records, and with this enforced line-up Grave Digger brought up two recordings: Pray EP was released on 28th of November 2008, and the latest studio album entitled Ballads of a Hangman was released on 9th of January 2009. The Pray EP contains four songs, one being an extended version of the song Pray (the regular version found on the Ballads of a Hangman album), while the other songs of the EP are a cover version of Motörheads classic tune Overkill and two new original compositions. However, shortly after Ballads of a Hangman was released, Grave Digger announced to part ways with Thilo Hermann, explaining that it was too difficult for a sixth member to become integrated to a well-attuned team. Also differences in the musical aspects were being mentioned as one factor for separating from Hermann. In addition, soon after Hermanns departure many disagreements also appeared between Manni Schmidt and Chris Boltendahl, and this caused also Manni Schmidt to exit from Grave Digger in the Fall of 2009. For at least the rest of the shows in 2009, Grave Digger will replace Manni with Axel Ritt (from the German heavy metal band Domain). According to their statement on their official website, Grave Digger will make the final decision about the replacing guitarist in the beginning of January 2010. A number of compilations has also been released, such as Lost Tunes from the Vault and Masterpieces. Chris Boltendahl - Vocals Uwe Lulis - Guitars Tomi Göttlich - Bass Jörg Michael - Drums Guest/Session Billy King Vocals (backing) Rolf Köhler (R.I.P. 2007) Vocals (backing) Piet Sielck Guitars (lead) (11), Effects, Keyboards (1, 13) 1. Tribute to Death (1:28) 2. The Reaper (4:16) 3. Ride On (3:32) 4. Shadows of a Moonless Night (3:55) 5. Play Your Game (And Kill) (3:25) 6. Wedding Day (3:53) 7. Spy of MasOn (3:59) 8. Under My Flag (4:46) 9. Fight the Fight (2:46) 10. Legion of the Lost (Part 2) (6:18) 11. And The Devil Plays Piano (4:01) 12. Ruler Mr. H. (3:38) 13. The Madness Continues (1:32) Total Time: 47:33 Re-released in 2002 as part of compilation The History: Part One together with Heart of Darkness album Re-mastered and re-released again in 2006 as part of GUN Records re-release series of Grave Digger Piet Sielck wrote music for intro & outro: Tribute to Death & The Madness Continues Produced by Chris Boltendahl & Uwe Lulis Mixed, engineered and co-produced by Piet Sielck Recorded & Mixed at Karo Studios, Brackel / Hamburg from 6th of August until 8th of September 1993 René Bonsink - Photography Classic Blues Solo in And the Devil Plays Piano by Piet Sielck Backing Vocals by Rolf Kohler, Billy King and Chris Boltendahl Effects - Piet Sielck Cover and innersleeve concept by Boltendahl / Marthen / Gottlich Cover layout by Peter Dell Cover and innersleeve pictures are prints from woodcrafts by Alfred Rethel / Dresden, 1849 Executive producer - Wolfgang Funk The Reaper is fifth studio album by the German Power metal/Speed metal band Grave Digger. It was released on 2 November 1993 for the label GUN Records. This was the bands return after a long hiatus, released seven years after their previous album War Games. A new line-up was formed except for the band leader, Chris Boltendahl and guitar player Uwe Lulis. The latter had convinced Boltendahl to release a new album in the first place, which was why he later on tried to get the name Grave Digger when he parted from the rest of the band (after the release of Excalibur). In this album there was a change towards darker lyrics and faster songs, as well as the start of the trend of featuring the Grim Reaper on the cover. The album cover image itself is a Dance of Death woodcut by 19th century German artist Alfred Rethel. Much of the material was written in the late 1980s, during Boltendahls short-lived project, Hawaii. youtube/watch?v=nhQy3oPPlXU
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 17:46:20 +0000
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