Once upon a time, I recommended listening to the completely insane industrial metal band Limbogott while smashing various objects… hopefully the inanimate kind. A year has gone by since then so it’s time for an update. Limbogott is currently working on their third album called Spit Or Swallow which has a February 2009 release in sight on Tiefdruck Musik. And while there hasn’t been many details announced yet, we do know that the album is being produced and mixed in Los Angeles by none other than Jay Gordon!

If you don’t already know who Jay Gordon is (and you probably should), he is the voice of the American band Orgy, best known for their cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday”. Jay also played bass on Deadsy’s debut album Commencement and has collaborated with the likes of Linkin Park, Coal Chamber, and Jonathan Davis of Korn, among others. With that kind of experience, Limbogott is in good hands. Let’s hope this relationship can help out with a US release and maybe even a tour over here.

Limbogott’s first new single “Recide” should be released some time before the album and will feature Jay as a guest vocalist. You can bet we’ll be on top of this as more news emerges.

We’ve reported on Thorsten Sudler’s electronic project Deep Imagination in the past, but now his other band Art of Infinity is getting ready to release their new album Endless Future. Art of Infinity’s music is similar to Deep Imagination in that it is largely ambient, but the electronics have been exchanged for more traditional instruments like the guitar, piano, saxophone, cello, and others. Several guest musicians have also participated on Endless Future including vocalists Eva Wolf and Alquimia.

Art of Infinity has made a 1-minute MP3 preview of “Warm Waterfalls” available to download here, and there are samples of the songs “Utopia” and “Endless Future” on the group’s Myspace page. You can also watch the album trailer video below.

Endless Future will be released digitally on September 19th and physically on CD (in an 8-panel digipack) a week later on September 26th. Both versions will have the same content with a total playtime for the 8 song album coming in at just over an hour. Links to pre-order the album in either format can be found in the Art of Infinity webshop.

Art of Infinity - Endless Future tracklisting
01. The Fourth Dimension
02. Endless Future
03. The Flow Of Time
04. Utopia
05. Tube Into Eternity
06. Warm Waterfalls
07. Age Of Changes
08. The Wide End

Endless Future album trailer video

ASP shares the tale of Krabat

ASP recently released a new album, Zaubererbruder: Der Krabat-Liederzyklus, which retells an old story of Krabat in musical form. A selection of songs from the new album are available at the ASP myspace site and a 2-CD standard edition along with a limited edition box set are available at emp.de, jpc.de and amazon.de as well as at isotank.com.

Tracklisting and update for Unheilig’s Vorhang auf!

According to EMSO, the new Unheilig live DVD will not in fact be published at this time in the previously-announced Deluxe Edition format. Appearing on October 3rd will be three versions — a single DVD, a double CD and a digipack LE double-DVD which includes the recording of the 2006 Nürnberg concert which was used for Goldene Zeiten.

All three versions are currently available for pre-order at emso.de and jpc.de and will hopefully show up in the catalogs of other retailers shortly.

Track listings follow on the next page.
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Agonoize releases music For the Sick and Disturbed in October

The EBM outfit Agonoize will release a brand-new EP on October 31st. Titled For the Sick and Disturbed, it will feature five new songs and a couple of remixes. Unfortunately, although sources tell there will at least be a club track called “Schafensterpuppenarsch”, no tracklisting has been made public yet. However, you can certainly click on the picture to the right to take a better look at the either crazy cool / stupidly horrible coverart on the right. If you aren’t familiar with Agonoize yet, you can catch samples of older material, including a track from their previous album Sieben, on their MySpace site.

Ratzinger’s at it again: upcoming Wumpscut album to be titled FUCKIT

“I guess we’ll be seeing if Rudy is able to keep up the quality next April, if he’s going to continue at the same pace as before“, said I last March in my review of Wumpscut’s 2008 album Schädling. And indeed, that’s exactly what will happen, because one of the most prolific artists in the electronic scene, Rudy Ratzinger, has just revealed that his next Wumpscut album will be titled FUCKIT and, as has been the case for the last few years, it will see the light of day sometime April or March. You’ll likely have your typical wide assortment of different versions to choose from, including a crazy box packed with various collectible items, a limited first edition, a DJ CD and a whole plethora of other, wacky options. Whether Mr. R will be able to improve on the extremely solid Schädling will be solved next spring!

I for one am excited and interested, but what do you think? Do you think Rudy should spend more time preparing each album? Or does the fact that he never tours really enable him to release albums at such a fast pace? Also, the title of the new album is quite a departure from the typical themes Wumpscut has touched upon, what do you think it might mean for the style of the music this time? Take it to the comments!

Oomph!’s new (and awesome) album Monster managed to reach the impressive position of #8 on the official German charts, and now the boys are putting on even more pressure. That is to say, today saw the release of a new single, Labyrinth.

As has most often been the case with Oomph! singles, the new release is also available in two different configurations. The standard version contains the title track Labyrinth and also the album opener Beim ersten Mal tut’s immer weh, while the limited digipak edition has three extra tracks. Here’s the catch: two of the bonus songs are the ones that were included in the special editions of Monster sold by Amazon and the Müller discount store, Ich will dich nie mehr sehn and Unter deiner Haut, so it’s a fantastic way of catching two elusive bonus tracks if you didn’t have a chance to get either of the aforementioned special versions of Monster. The third extra track is a Labyrinth remix by Agonoize.

Update: Of course, it’s also possible to actually buy the single at most stores, for example Infrarot.de (3,99 € for the standard edition, 7,99 € for the limited) or Outoflineshop.de (3,99 € standard, 6,99 € limited), but I’m sure also your favourite internet store carries both versions.

Tracklisting for Labyrinth standard edition by Oomph!
1. Labyrinth
2. Beim ersten Mal tut’s immer weh

Tracklisting for Labyrinth limited edition by Oomph!
1. Labyrinth
2. Beim ersten Mal tut’s immer weh
3. Unter deiner Haut
4. Ich will dich nie mehr sehn
5. Labyrinth (Agonoize Remix)

Monkeeman is an up and coming pop-rock (or powerpop, as they prefer to call it) band from Berlin. Their first two albums were received enthusiastically, even getting mentioned in the international media, and now they are back with their third album Life In The Backseat which was just released on August 15th. Band leader Ralf Luebke says the album was inspired by his early years growing up and deals with suburban life, frustration, greed and anger, giving the album a slight punk attitude as well.

You can listen to 2 songs from Life In The Backseat on Monkeeman’s MySpace page, “Lonely Guy” and “In It For The Money”, the latter of which I’d say is the best one. AlphaMusic.de also has brief samples from every song. If you like it, you can also buy it there for a very reasonable 10.99 Euros.

Monkeeman - Life In The Backseat tracklisting
01. In it for the money
02. Lonely guy
03. Socialism
04. Backstreet
05. Staring at a TV screen
06. Under the moon
07. I know a girl
08. Things wont get any better
09. Town of the lost
10. Holes in the snow
11. City lights

Veljanov - “His Vita”
Alexander Veljanov gave us a very generous sample (almost 4 minutes long!) of a song from his forthcoming solo album Porta Macedonia a few days ago. As you’d expect, his vocals are superbly executed, but the music itself isn’t quite as powerful as what Ernst Horn produces with him for Deine Lakaien. Go check out the song “His Vita” on Veljanov’s MySpace page and hear for yourself.

Markus Winter - “Life Ain’t Worth Living”
Markus Winter also has a new sample of his upcoming single “Life Ain’t Worth Living“. It’s much shorter than the Veljanov sample, but should still give you an idea of what his 2009 album Life In Uncertain Times should sound like. You can hear the sample on the Hertzton MySpace page.

Jochen Arbeit, best known as the guitarist of Einstürzende Neubauten and Die Haut, will be releasing an album called Solo. While the exact contents are still not known, we do know that it will be a compilation of music he has made over the last 10 years for films, theater, and other non-band-related projects, coupled with a DVD containing some video material. Solo is expected to be released on October 17th.

This past Friday, August 22nd, we saw the re-release of 2 Die Krupps albums, Volle Kraft Voraus and I (One). Both albums are significant releases for this historically important band, but display very different styles because an entire decade passed between their original release dates. And both re-releases have lots of previously unreleased bonus material.

Volle Kraft Voraus was the second album by Die Krupps and was originally released all the way back in 1982 when the band was at the forefront of industrial sound experimentation. This re-release contains 2 discs, the first of which is a completely remastered version of the album plus the original version of “Goldfinger”. The second disc contains the original album as it sounded in 1982 plus a few other 12″ mixes.

Skip ahead 10 years to when Die Krupps released I, their 4th full length album, in 1992. This album marked the beginning of their use of electric guitars in combination with industrial beats, once again showing how far ahead of their time Die Krupps really was, and laying down the roots of the Neue Deutsche Härte genre. This re-release also has 2 discs. The first one has the “Atom H” remixed version of the album (Atom H was the first record label founded by Die Krupps frontman Jürgen Engler in the 1980s) and 3 bonus electro versions of some of the album’s tracks. The second disc contains the original album from 1992 plus 5 demo songs that were previously not released.

If you consider yourself to be a Die Krupps fan, you have to get these re-releases. You can find both of them on Amazon.de for 15.97 Euros (Volle Kraft Voraus here and I here), or take advantage of their combo deal and get both for 31.94 Euros. In America, you can find both at Isotank for $25.99 each (Volle Kraft Voraus here and I here).

Continue reading for the complete tracklisting of both re-releases.
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If you’re a big Rammstein fan, you probably know that the band’s name was inspired by a tragic airshow accident that occured at the Ramstein airbase. It happened 20 years ago on this day, August 28th, 1988, in what was West Germany at the time. The Italian Air Force’s show team Frecce Tricolori was performing a maneuver known as the “pierced heart” when 3 planes suddenly collided in mid-air and plunged into the crowd below. Sadly, 70 people were killed including the 3 pilots, and an additional 346 spectators were seriously injured.

Let’s take a moment to remember this event and the people who died on that day. Then, get our your Herzeleid CD and listen to the song “Rammstein” which was created in memory of this disaster. Music always sounds better when you know what emotions inspired it.