Grave Digger is a German heavy metal band that was first formed in 1980 by Chris Boltendahl and Peter Masson.

A year later, Grave Digger, now comprising Chris Boltendahl (vocals), Peter Masson (guitar), Willi Lackmann (bass) and Albert Eckardt (drums), released their debut album Heavy Metal Breakdown.

Further festival appearances followed, a tour with Helloween as special guest and, finally, their third album War Games in January 1986.

Thereafter, Peter Masson gave way to Uwe Lulis; in 1987 the band's name was changed to Digger, the name under which they released the album Stronger Than Ever.

Boltendahl and Lulis, along with two newcomers, Tomi Göttlich and Jörg Michael, who had been the drummer for Rage and Running Wild, released a comeback record called The Reaper in 1993.

In the interim, Grave Digger, now with a new drummer, Frank Ullrich, toured Germany, playing as the warm-up act for Manowar.

This year also marked the release of the concept album Tunes of War, which dealt with the history of Scotland.

The next album Rheingold was released on 26 May 2003,[2] which centered on the opera Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner.

The band issued a statement saying that the cover isn't a message of the Devil and not against Christians, but a representation of a depressive Jesus Christ at his last days before his death.

Less than a month later, the band began a tour with Stormhammer and Astral Doors in Andernach, the birthplace of Manni Schmidt.

[10] In early October, Manni Schmidt left the band due to ongoing disagreements with Chris Boltendahl.

[11] On 12 January 2010, Schmidt was replaced by Domain guitarist Axel Ritt after performing temporarily during the remaining dates of the band's previous tour.

[14] On 27 July 2012, the band released an EP entitled Home at Last[15] with the album Clash of the Gods following on 31 August 2012.

[21] In June 2016, Grave Digger entered the studio to begin working on their next album entitled Healed by Metal, which was released on 13 January 2017.

[24] In March 2018, the band returned to the studio to record their nineteenth album The Living Dead, which was released on 14 September 2018, with a European tour taking place in January 2019.

[27] Grave Digger's twentieth album Fields of Blood was released on 29 May 2020, celebrating the band's 40th anniversary.