Twenty years and 13 albums later, Grave Digger continues to create well thought out material with "The Last Supper". Yes, it’s another concept record by these German legends, telling the story of Jesus Christ and last days before his crucifiction.

Grave Digger’s sound and music in very distinctive, German sounding, and something they established 20 years ago when they started. You get the fast paced speed metal tracks (‘Desert Rose', 'Hell to Pay'), a few mid paced Accept style headbangers like 'Grave in the No Man’s Land' which is one of their best in this vein, once and a while a ballad like 'Always and Eternally', a few slower Sabbathy plodders (ie; 'Crucified'), and on their later albums from the 90’s a couple Euro/Helloween style double bass arrangements. "The Last Supper" is a bit more modern sounding, somewhat repetitious and flat at times in the riff and arrangement department, and not one of their more creative musically compared to their last epic "Rheingold".

Singer Chris Boltendahl maintains his stylistic vocals, being gritty yet melodic, full of character as he annunciates each word, a quality only few achieve. Manni Schmidt continues their sound nicely while including the necessary thought out harmonies and melodies for each song yet like I said the songs themselves, and not all, just sound a bit redeundant.

The artwork for "The Last Supper" and booklet may be their best and is a great accompaniment to the music and lyrics, an all around nice presentation.

After many years the seasoned reaper has not succumbed to his own shovel yet.