The new year is officially here and with the new year here, it will not be long before the first new music of the year drops. Next Friday, Jan. 17, Grave Digger will release its latest album, Bone Collector. The band’s 22nd (yes, 22nd) full-length studio recording, this 11-song record is the first great hard rock record of 2025. This is evidenced throughout the 71-minute record’s body in part through its featured musical arrangements, which will be addressed shortly. The lyrical themes that accompany that noted musical content makes for its own interest and will be discussed a little later. The record’s production rounds out its most important elements and will also be examined later. Each item noted is key in its own way to the whole of the album. All things considered they make Bone Collector a record that Grave Digger fans and hard rock audiences in general will appreciate.
Bone Collector, the forthcoming latest album from Grave Digger is the year’s first great new hard rock album. The album’s success comes in no small part through its featured musical arrangements. Throughout the course of the album’s hour-plus run time, the arrangements expertly blend elements of vintage metal and hard rock with modern hard rock leanings for a whole that ensures plenty of engagement and entertainment for every listener. Right from the record’s outset, listeners get clear vintage Iron Maiden vibes for instance in the album’s title track while a later track, such as ‘Mirror of Hate’ has clearly more modern leanings. ‘Made of Madness,’ which comes even later in the album’s run, offers audiences something even more modern leaning with a bit of a black metal type guitar riff that also still throws back to some older metal influences. The whole heaviness herein makes this song one of Bone Collector’s most notable musical offerings. The band even goes the doom metal route in the album’s closer, ‘Whispers of the Damned’ while also throwing back to some classic Motorhead styling in the album’s second entry, ‘The Rich The Poor The Dying.’ Simply put, the musical arrangements featured throughout Bone Collector offer listeners plenty of familiarity while also generating plenty of diversity from beginning to end. The result therein is a musical picture that forms a solid foundation for this album.
Speaking of ‘The Rich The Poor The Dying,’ that song is just one of the works that exemplifies the importance of this album’s lyrical themes. Here in this song, audiences get a clear commentary about the economic stratification of the world. It is an indictment of the haves that also encourages the have nots to stand up, unite and topple the kingdoms of that one percent. It is a familiar topic across the musical universe (especially within the rock, hard rock and metal communities) but is no less impactful here than in so many other cases.
‘Mirror of Hate’ offers a seemingly equally familiar music as it seems to tackle the topic of mental health. This is inferred as front man Chris Boltendahl sings in the song’s lead verse and chorus, “I see the scars/The wounds I have made/The pain I have inflicted/Love’s a drug I can’t refuse/A dangerous addiction I’m willing to lose/Visions feed my rage/A distorted image/On a life’s empty stage/Blind to kindness/Deaf to grace/My endless desire/is a twisted embrace/Love and pain/An eternal flame/Joy and sorrow will remain.” He continues, “The mirror of hate/staring back at me/Reflection of anger/Burns endlessly/A torrent of fury/Storming in my veins/The mirror of hate/Drives me insane.” Again, this seems to hint at someone examining one’s self and not liking the result of that examination. It comes across as that classic inner battle tale that has been told so many times. Therein is more familiarity that is welcome even here.
The band does not only touch on social matters in its new album, lyrically speaking. It also goes old school hard rock and metal in the late entry, ‘Riders of Doom.’ Just as the title infers, the song is ,lyrically, about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Boltendahl even goes so far as to sing in the song’s chorus, “Through the haunted forest/Where the lost souls loom/Beware of the terror/Fear the riders of doom.” He even outright says those riders are the horsemen in the song’s opening verse, singing, “Beneath the blood moon’s glow/Four horsemen/They rise/Infernal guardians/With piercing eyes.” This is the kind of doom metal writing that is sure to appeal to a certain group of listeners. Interestingly enough, the musical arrangement here is more of a vintage sludge/doom type of approach, so it all works. When this and the other themes examined here are considered alongside the rest of the album’s lyrical themes, the whole therein makes for its own share of interest in this record. When the overall lyrical content pairs with the album’s musical arrangements that whole makes for even more engagement and entertainment.
Putting the finishing touch to Bone Collector is the album’s production. The album is a heavy work from beginning to end. Between Boltendah’s Lemmy Kilmister-esque vocal delivery style and the varying, equally heavy instrumentation in each song, lots of attention had to be paid to balancing everything throughout the album. Those behind the boards are to be credited with taking that time to make sure no one musician’s performance overshadowed that of his band mates at any point. The result of those painstaking efforts is a record that is just as engaging and entertaining for its aesthetic aspect as for its content. All things considered, they make Bone Collector the first great new hard rock and metal album of 2025.
Bone Collector, the 22nd new album from Grave Digger, is a strong new offering from the veteran hard rock act. The album’s success comes in part through its featured musical arrangements. The arrangements deliver lots of familiarity and diversity from beginning to end. That familiarity comes in arrangements whose styling has been used in Grave Digger’s existing catalog and in the catalogs of so many of the band’s contemporaries. From one song to the next, the style and sound changes even therein. The result is a presentation that will keep listeners engaged and entertained in itself. The lyrical themes delivered alongside the album’s musical arrangements make for their own interest because of their familiarity. From social commentary to equally familiar hard rock fare, the lyrical material presented here is sure to engage and entertain audiences in its own right. The record’s production puts the finishing touch to the whole of this presentation. That is because of the positive aesthetic that it ensures. Each element examined here is important in its own way to the whole of Bone Collector. All things considered they make this album another largely successful offering from Grave Digger that the band’s established audiences will appreciate just as much as more casual hard rock audiences.
Bone Collector is scheduled for release Jan. 17 through Rock of Angels Records/Reigning Phoenix Music. The band is scheduled to launch a European tour in support of its new album Jan. 16 in Sieburg, Germany. The tour is scheduled to run through Aug. 29 in Naestved, Denmark. The tour’s schedule is noted below:
GRAVE DIGGER Live!
45th Anniversary Tour:
16.01.25 · (DE) Siegburg // Kubana Live Club
17.01.25 · (DE) München // Backstage
18.01.25 · (DE) Glauchau // Alte Spinnerei
23.01.25 · (DE) Stuttgart // Im Wizemann
24.01.25 · (DE) Hamburg // Markthalle
25.01.25 · (DE) Andernach // JUZ Live Club
26.01.25 · (CH) Pratteln // Z7 Konzertfabrik
30.01.25 · (DE) Aschaffenburg // Colos-Saal
31.01.25 · (DE) Nürnberg // Hirsch
01.02.25 · (DE) Memmingen // Kaminwerk
02.02.25 · (DE) Mannheim // 7er Club
05.02.25 · (DE) Hannover // MusikZentrum
06.02.25 · (DE) Berlin // Hole 44
07.02.25 · (DE) Neuruppin // Kulturhaus
08.02.25 · (DE) Essen // Turock
17.04.25 · (DE) Blieskastel-Bierbach // Pirminiushalle
03.05.25 · (DE) Wilferdingen // No Playback Festival
10.05.25 · (DE) Gladbeck // Metal Bash Open Air
30.05.25 · (DE) Oberscheidweiler // Resäcker Open Air
11.07.25 · (DE) Bissingen // Wisdom Tooth Festival
12.07.25 · (DE) Balingen // RVBang Festival
18.07.25 · (IT) Cremona // Luppolo In Rock
30.07. – 02.08.25 · (DE) Wacken // Wacken Open Air
29.08.25 · (DK) Næstved // Næstved Metalfest
More information on Grave Digger’s new album and tour is available along with all of the band’s latest news at:
Website: http://www.grave-digger-clan/de
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gravediggerofficial
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GRAVEDIGGERclan