Germany’s Grave Digger were one of the first ‘underground’ bands I ever saw live, way back in May 1986 at London’s Hammersmith Palais alongside Celtic Frost and Helloween. For someone firmly rooted in the ‘classic’ metal of Maiden, Priest, Accept et al (although I had already seen Metallica by then) it was a show that changed my perception of heavy metal almost over night, and for his part in it I’ve always held GD mainman and vocalist Chris Boltendahl in high regard as a heavy metal lifer and keeper of the flame.

Like anybody who has a career four and a half decades long, Chris has had some mishaps along the way which we don’t need to go into here; the fact that he’s still banging heads with the same ferocity he did when I saw him first nearly forty years ago deserves praise above all else, and it’s always a pleasure to unwrap a new Grave Digger album, safe in the knowledge that you know exactly what you’re going to get…

… And that’s exactly the case with Grave Digger in 2025. Bone Collector offers absolutely zero in the way of surprises, and even less if you’re a fan of any sort of heavy metal that seeks to redefine the gene beyond it’s primal roots. Standout tracks The Rich The Poor The Dying and The Devil’s Serenade offer variety only in as much as the former is a heavier take on the GD playbook, the latter a more melodic one. but that’s not really the point. The addition of Orden Ogan guitarist Tobias Kersting (also in Boltendahl’s Steelhammer project) apparently sparked a desire to head back to the band’s roots and you can certainly hear that on Riders of Doom and Made of Madness, although the production here does rob the material of some of the primitive bite required to signal a true attempt to rekindle some old fire.

In summary, Bone Collector will probably be marked down by history as a ‘second tier’ Grave Digger album, not least because of the shoddy artwork, a fans-only effort that won’t really be seen as among the band’s best efforts, but also one that let’s nobody down in it’s commitment to the heavy metal cause.

Bone Collector releases on January 17th.