Chris Boltendahl is one of metal’s most tested veterans. The Grave Digger vocalist started his career in 1984 with the now classic album Heavy Metal Breakdown. He’s since weathered multiple lineup changes, the poor decision to change the band name to “Digger” and briefly switch musical direction and the lackluster metal scene of the 1990s. Despite a frequent change in players, Grave Digger has steadily released albums in the new century, including the recent The Clans Will Rise Again. The band is also planning to tour next February with a concert that features one block of songs from their “Scottish” history albums Tunes Of War and the newly released The Clans Will Rise Again and a block of their greatest hits.

Boltendahl spoke to About.com from Germany:

Justin M. Norton: As you’ve entered the 21st century each album shows more and more of a love of myth and history and European history in particular. How did you get into writing about these topics; they are much different than what the band wrote about when you were getting started in the early 1980s.
Chris Boltendahl: The legends and myths we’ve written about seem to work with Grave Digger’s music. Classic heavy metal mixed with legend and myth is a very good combination. I never thought about doing something different, and on the next album we’ll probably have another story.

How do you go about researching this material? Do you read about subjects, are there topics that particularly interest you? How do you dig into myth and legend when writing an album?
I have a friend that works at a university in Edinburgh (Scotland). I talk to him a lot and he gives me advice about where to look. I’ve also read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies.

Also, I do use the Internet . There are so many possibilities for research. I use them all.

What is the story of The Clans Will Rise Again?
It’s about the Scottish highlands and the stories there and the fight for independence. The roots run so deep and the people are very connected to this part of their country.

The new album liberally uses bagpipes, but you manage to use it tastefully. How did you figure out where to put the instrument?
Bagpipes are very useful for creating atmosphere. We aren’t a pagan metal band. We use it and classic instruments to create atmospheres. Mainly we play classical heavy metal or what we call true German heavy metal. These instruments help put new moods and sounds into the record.

You are the last original member of Grave Digger. What compels you to keep going after three decades?
Metal is the music I love. I grew up with it and now I’ve been doing it for 30 years with Grave Digger. I never thought about giving it up. Metal is a driving force in my body. Everything we do is honest and comes from heart and soul. We have a lot of energy because we now have some creative guys in the band with a lot of background.

Wacken takes place in your backyard. I imagine playing the festival was pretty exciting.
It was one of our career highlights. To play in front of 70,000 metalheads singing Tunes Of War made for an amazing evening. Everyone in Germany thought it was a glorious event. We’re going to put out a DVD in Europe at the end of February. We’ll also put in different pictures and some Scottish stuff. So it will be a live DVD combined with movie landscapes and music.

Will it also contain any of the band’s history, or will it be based around your Wacken performance?
The extras will include an interview with me about Grave Digger’s history. There will be some stories I’ve never told people. There will be a huge Wacken photo gallery, about 500 pictures. A few short iPhone movies will be there. There will also be a making-of documentary.

You’ve put out a lot of albums during the last decade. To what do you attribute your continued creativity? The fact that you’ve been able to juggle a few band members?
It’s simple. We love metal. We never feel forced to do it and we never try to copy ourselves. It’s a driving force.

Do you consider Grave Digger power metal or thrash metal?
It’s heavy metal, like Judas Priest or Iron Maiden or Accept.

Are people too obsessed with saying something is death metal or doom metal or sludge metal?
We grew up in the 1980s and there weren’t any of these trends. Everything was just heavy metal. Nowadays you can only tour with bands like yours. I remember in 1986 we went out with Helloween and they had a different style. You couldn’t do that these days. People just want to see a bunch of death metal bands or black metal bands. That’s something I don’t like.

Are you ever nostalgic for metal in the 1980s?
Making music in the '80s was a little easier. Now the field is so big and there are so many bands. With the Internet there are so many bands trying to come up. In the 1980s it was more like a big family and now it feels like a big industry.

Has metal lost some of that family feeling because of the sheer breadth of material out there?
For sure. Everyone is thinking about their own pocketbook.

As someone who grew up in Germany, what do you find so fascinating about Scottish history?
It’s interesting because it’s all about fighting for independence. That really fascinates me. There are other places in the world where this has happened, but if you’ve ever been in the highlands it’s just a magical part of Europe. If you stand there and look at the mountains and the castles and the greens it’s an amazing feeling.

Before you wrote your second Scottish album did you go back and visit the highlands?
We were there a few times with the band and I also went there for vacation. It’s always a great experience.

Some of the band’s early albums like Heavy Metal Breakdown and War Games are difficult to get in the U.S. Will there be proper reissues or will you make it easier to get any of that material?
That’s a big problem. The first three records and the Digger one aren't ours. It’s in the cellar of this company, and the other stuff is at Sony. We can’t get parts of our back catalog. It’s really tough trying to get parts of our back catalog.

The Clans Will Rise Again is in stores now.