Someone wrote me an email a few weeks ago asking about a band called Panik who competed in the Bundesvision Song Contest 2008. I had never heard of them, or their song “Was würdest du tun?” which came in 6th place in the contest, but I did a little bit of research and found out that they are actually quite good. They have also experienced tremendous success and great difficulties for a band that is less than 2 years old.

The story: From Nevada Tan to Panik
The 6 member band was originally called Nevada Tan when it was formed in early 2007. They quickly recorded and released their debut album called Niemand Hört Dich in April, which reached #8 in the German album charts at its height, along with 3 supporting singles. Nevada Tan then played a number of live shows which included the Schau Nicht Weg! festival which was promoted by Viva and Bravo and had over 100,000 attendees. The band’s following headliner tour in the Fall was also successful overall, but got cut short by an accident with their tour bus and a number of illnesses in the band and crew.

At the turn of the new year, a legal battle between Nevada Tan and their manager was brewing because the band claimed they had been mistreated and cheated out of money. This resulted in the band leaving their management and record label, and being forced to change their name. The new name they decided on in January 2008 was Panik.

Needing no time to rest after the chaos they had just been through, the guys immediately started working on new music. Their first release under the new name Panik was the single “Was würdest du tun?” in February, which represented the Northern-most German state of Schleswig-Holstein in the Bundesvision Song Contest and came in 6th place, as mentioned earlier. Later in the year, the band updated their fans about progress on the album, and as it stands now it should be released sometime in early 2009.

The sound
Panik is a nu-metal band, combining metal and traditional rock vocals with elements of rap and turntablism. The most obvious comparison would be to Linkin Park, but there are several German bands who play similar style music as well. Just remember to search for Nevada Tan when you’re looking for music to listen to, because they’ve only released one song as Panik so far.

Watch Panik’s “Was würdest do tun?” music video
Hmmm… I was going to put the “Was würdest du tun?” video here for you to watch, but Universal doesn’t seem to think letting people easily watch music videos of their bands is a good idea. I disagree, since that’s basically like saying “no, please don’t watch our 3 minute commercial!” That’s just not very smart. So you’ll have to go to Youtube and watch it here. It’s a good song, though.

Listen to Nevada Tan’s song “Vorbei”
Thankfully, imeem knows what they’re doing, so you can listen to one of Nevada Tan’s singles “Vorbei” without leaving the comfort of Germaniac.com.

If you really like Panik and want to keep track of what’s happening with the band more frequently than once every few months like their website is updated, check out this Panik news blog, which was presumably created by a great fan.