Grave Digger is a German band that was founded in the 80’s of the last century. During that period there was a huge rise of German heavy metal bands like Helloween, Accept and of course Grave Digger. During the last 20 years Grave Digger drove through metal world just as the same named car; the one with extreme big wheels (the Grave Digger); always hard and heavy.

In January 2007 they will release their new album Liberty Or Death. The album is inspired by and focused on freedom, war and peace. The band describes this album as the most elaborate record of their career. I agree with this, however I doubt whether fans of the early hour are happy with the musical direction of this album (a continuation of The Last Supper (2005)). The songs on Liberty Or Death are not the brutal metal of the early period anymore; the band throttles down with quite some symphonic influences, especially the guitar solos. For the metal fans, you can still enjoy of a lot metal songs.

The intro of the title song is huge bombastic, almost a mini symphonic masterpiece followed by Grave Digger`s metal riffs. Personally I think it is a pity that the metal riffs lose power when the song continues, the combination of the metal riffs and the symphonic elements are great. Especially the choruses of the songs of Liberty or Death sound (too) melodic. Only when Chris Boltendahl starts to sing, it is clear that this is the new album of Grave Digger. His typical metal voice and German accent are a very recognizable.

Remarkable are the guitar solos of ManniSchmidt, which are based on classical music; I like the way he plays his solos. The keyboards of H.P. Katzenburg emphasise the symphonic atmosphere on Liberty or Death. With `Ocean Of Blood`, `Highland Tears`, `The Terrible One` and `Shadow Land` the band speeds up with the strong rhythm foundation of Jens Becker (bass) and Stefan Arnold (drums).

Most songs are not very spectacular, it seems I heard the songs before. The choruses have a high sing-along level, which makes them quite commercial. A huge plus point is the great performance; great sound and solos. The voice of Chris Boltendahlare is sometimes very brutal (`Highland Tears`); unfortunately, it sounds as if it is too forced. With `Silent Revelation` the band slows down, but the song sounds very heavy with yet another great guitar solo. The song `Escape from Reality` is the last song (power ballad) but isn’t mentioned on the cd cover; well, at least not on the cover I received.

Liberty Or Death is an album that starts very promising, but Grave Digger doesn’t live up to the expectations. The album contains a lot of average metal songs, but I have to say that the performance and production is great. Favourite tracks are `Liberty of Death`, `Silent Revolution` and `Escape from Reality`. Because of the superb guitar solos I give the album a higher score.