Die’s new frontman, Mathias “Jablonski” Elsholz, recorded a video for the band’s Youtube channel a few days ago. In the video, he admits that the wait for new music has been a long one, but he asks fans to be patient because the new album is coming soon. The band is currently looking for a record label since they are no longer signed with BBE, but the album will be released as soon as they find one.

Matze also tells us that Die! has recorded a whopping 17 new songs for the album, one of which is already available to hear on the band’s MySpace page. Just click on the song “Lüg Mich An” and have a listen. You’ll get a pretty good idea of what’s to come for the rest of the album from that song and the other demos there.

Mathias Elsholz’s December 1st video (English version)

Thanks to Wared for the tip!

Accessory plans U.S. West Coast tour

I heard a few complaints when Accessory’s brief U.S. tour totally missed the West coast, but they have since announced plans to return to the other side of the States for a few more concerts. With just 7 dates, this is another really short tour, but combined with the other 7 they played previously, I guess it could be considered a decent showing. Accessory will be performing with Dust Is Noise for all dates, plus an additional guest Syndika Zero for the Portland, Oregon show. If you’re into electro-industrial, Accessory is a band you may very well be interested in hearing, and then seeing live on stage.

Accessory’s U.S. West Coast tour dates:
June 22 - San Francisco, California - Fat City
June 23 - Portland, Oregon - The Fez Ballroom
June 24 - Seattle, Washington - TBA
June 26 - Salt Lake City, Utah - Club Vegas
June 28 - Vegas, Nevada - Vector
June 30 - Tucson, Arizona - TBA
July 04 - Los Angeles, California - Das Bunker

B.O.S.C.H. to perform in a movie

One of the best new electro-metal bands from Germany, B.O.S.C.H. has been attracting attention from all kinds of people, movie producers included. The band has recently announced that they will be performing in a new movie directed by Joachim Mais called Katharsis. In the scene where B.O.S.C.H. will be performing, there will be lots of extras acting as the creatures of the underworld. This is where the band’s fans come into play: You are all invited to wear your best gothic and alternative clothing and take part in the filming of this big scene. If you want to participate, just check out the band’s post on MySpace for further details.

Die! has 2 new demos online

You may remember that ex-Megaherz singer Mathias Elsholz was confirmed to be the new singer of Die! back in August of last year. Well, it looks like the band has been hard at work with their new frontman because they now have 2 new demos available on their MySpace page. Both “Alles In Eine Topf” and “Teufelswerk” have Mathias’s signature broad vocal range, and I am predicting even more fans will be debating the musical similarities between Die! and Megaherz as well. They’re not nearly as refined as Megaherz’s high-quality demos, but you can definitely get a feeling for what the finished songs may sound like. Be sure to give them a listen.

Everyone was shocked when the extremely talented singer Mathias Elsholz suddenly left the band Megaherz in September of 2005. Naturally, we understood his concerns because he had just become a new father and wanted to focus more on his family, but there may have been more to it than that. He left Megaherz with a full list of confirmed tourdates that they had to cancel, and the rest of the band weren’t very happy about the whole situation. It seemed like everybody thought he would stay out of the music business for a long time, according to his statements and the way he was acting at the time.

It turns out that this was not true. Matze has recently joined up with the band Die! to become their new singer, following the departure of their previous vocalist Oliver Jung. This is very surprising news, especially considering Matze must have been with the band for some time already. Die! has already recorded a few demo tracks with him as the singer, and they are apparently working towards putting out a new album in the future. I’m certainly looking forward to hearing the new music, and I know Megaherz fans will be, too.

This week’s Radio Goethe podcast concentrates on German metal. There are a couple songs more on the electronic side, and then there’s the Rummelsnuff song which is quite an oddity, but the remaining 75% of the songs are simply amazing. This is one of the best podcasts in quite a while… at least in my opinion. It’s so good in fact that I think i will take some tiem to go through a few of the highlights.

The first song to note is “Lass es Regnen” by Die! The band has been on tour with Megaherz, and while they haven’t received nearly the amount of attention that Megaherz has, Die! sounds very similar and would certainly be appreciated by any fans of German industrial-metal or NDH.

Richthofen was a metal band with a very deep and heavy sound, very raw and rough. It’s a real shame they only produced 2 albums in the late 90s before splitting up, they are one of my favorites. Actually, I like them so much that I have been (slowly) working on a Richthofen tribute site to remember them by, and so new German metal fans will have an information source about them. Just because the band no longer exists doesn’t mean it’s not worth discovering.

Skipping down a few songs, we come across a name that is probably unfamiliar to most, Echolot. This is a 1-song project by Peter Pathos (who we reported on earlier in the week) who is best known as the singer of Fiddler’s Green. But don’t be fooled if you already known the sound of Fiddler’s Green, “Das Boot” is nothing like it. The guitar riffs in this song is very heavy, the backing synths are mysterious, and the vocals are growling. This is exactly like something Rammstein would have played in 1997, perhaps even better. “Das Boot” can be found on disc 1 of Radio Goethe’s 4th compilation.

Finally, I want to point out the song “Lieber Gott”. Umbra Et Imago is an incredible gothic metal band that has a fascination with erotic themes. Now take this idea and combine it with the captivating vocals of Peter Heppner from Wolfsheim. That’s “Lieber Gott”. It’s definitely worth a listen if you haven’t heard it before.

Get on with the playlist and band links…
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter: Riders on the storm
Die!: Lass es regnen
Stahlhammer: La Paloma
Rummelsnuff: Goodbye Johnny
Richthofen: Hart am Wind
Subway to Sally: Falscher Heiland
Megaherz: Gott sein ’04
Kash: Stück für Stück
Joke Jay: Das letzte Boot
Echolot: Das Boot
Dracul: Follow me
Umbra et Imago: Lieber Gott
Melotron: Kein Problem