I wasn’t very kind or inspired by Grave Digger’s recent EP ‘Home at Last’; my whole premise of that review was to hope that this coming album would be a much improved experience. In one respect, I am happier, there is more material that strikes the right chord with yours truly, but there are some “difficult” moments that also test your endurance and following the same path as the recently released EP.

Straight from the top ‘Gods of Terror’ begins up tempo and reminds me of recent Grave Digger material. The most unfortunate thing about this album after the opening tune is that you have to endure 2 or 3 more boring tracks before you finally rekindle any interest. One of these saviour tracks is ‘Walls of Sorrow’ that breathes loads of energy, even above the overbearing keyboards. There is no doubt Grave Digger can still write some anthems that are just begging to be sung around the European festival circuit this summer and ‘Clash of the Gods’ has a couple of them in tow. However, I do get the impression that they are trying to combine their efforts with something that say Blind Guardian did over 17 years ago, there is a danger in my mind that complacency takes a hold, but credit to these long active German’s, it DOES work, it just needs to be more frequent.

After the positives, more negatives continue to rear themselves, especially with the album title track. Whilst being epic in nature with a story to tell it’s one of those tracks that goes on and on for what seems like an eternity, the lyrical and vocal parody/stigma attached to some power metal really doesn’t help my case either, it seems that the band are treading water…very slowly.

Grave Digger are never going to return to the style of their first three classic albums, they really don’t have any need too but they are still in danger of repeating themselves in respect to recent albums released, and really they have proven this with ‘Clash of the Gods’. There are some positives within ‘Clash of the Gods’ but it is still missing a real spark of excitement which is a real shame considering the ample material and experience on offer.

(6/10 Paul Maddison)

http://www.grave-digger.de