Tuesday, October 31: Grave Digger, "Culloden Muir"
Upon the band’s reactivation in the early ‘90s, Uwe Lulis kept pushing Grave Digger in a heavier and more aggressive direction, and that largely suited Chris Boltendahl since, for better or worse, he could only sound like himself. But even so, Tunes of War was a major recalibration, recasting this bunch of Teutonic lunatics as English history majors, so there was always going to be something ridiculous and hilarious about all of this. And ridiculous and hilarious it was, but the speed and crunch of “Culloden Muir” totally worked even with Boltendahl’s fraggled gargling constantly threatening to derail everything. Of course, the looming possibility of everything falling to shambles before the end of the tune was fundamental to Grave Digger’s initial appeal, so it was actually a bit endearing to hear that there was really no stopping the inherent chaos in Boltendahl’s frantic gurgling. What was far more shocking was that they basically pulled it off- nobody would’ve looked to these guys for concept albums about Scottish independence and Arthurian legends, but as “Culloden Muir” showed, when the band leaned and committed they were in fine pummeling form.
