Grave Digger
Home At Last

August 2012
Released: 2012, Napalm
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: JP

Grave Digger has a long-standing habit of releasing EP’s just before (or just after) the full-length albums drops. The cynic in me says that it is a marketing ploy by the label to sell fans another product. The realist is me understands the necessity of promotion and the fan in me thinks these EP’s, for the most part, are pretty cool. The types of songs that populate these EP’s often don’t make the cut. Remixes are fine, demos are nice, live songs are decent, cover tunes are fun, acoustic versions I can live with, even orchestral versions I can tolerate, with but if I’m going to buy an EP, it better damn well have something extra and worthwhile before I dish out my hard-earned cash. In my opinion, the value (to buy or not to buy) one of these pre-release EP’s lies solely on the quality of the new, unreleased, full-length studio tracks. All those extra types of songs are gravy but the EP has to have some meat on it's bones. HOME AT LAST is the last in a long line of Grave Digger EP’s and this one heralds the arrival of the next album, CLASH OF THE GODS.



This six track EP runs for 29 minutes and has one album track, two unreleased songs and three live tracks. The cover art is pretty cool too, tying in with the theme of ancient Greece. These EP’s really need a bit more analysis to see if it really worth making the purchase. Let’s (Heavy Metal) Break (it) Down. The first song on the EP is ‘Home At Last’. It's a cut from the upcoming album, the last song oddly enough. It has an epic feel, a catchy chorus and bodes very well for the new album. The next two songs are non-album tracks. ‘Ride Of The Savage Beast’ is the superior song I feel, it’s heavy, mean and the band is firing at full power. The next one is a slower to mid-tempo anthem, while good, is that is not all that catchy. With the title, ‘Heavy Metal Will Never Die’ you may know what you are going to get in terms of lyrical content. The lyrics (despite being pretty a heavily used thematic idea in Metal) are well-done but the music doesn’t keep pace. The last three songs are live tracks but are disappointing because they are just the audio versions of the last three songs from the THE CLANS ARE STILL MARCHING Live DVD from last year.



To summarize…assuming you are a Grave Digger fan you will get the new full-length CLASH OF THE GODS, and maybe you have the DVD already, so you need to ask yourself, do you want to buy HOME AT LAST for two unreleased tracks (one great, one average) for 8 minutes of new music? My quick overview says that it’s an average EP from a great band and teases us for the full-length later this summer.