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.

I recently did an interview with 2 of the members of Beloved Enemy. Peter, who is the band’s main contributor, was previously in Fiddler’s Green before venturing into darker and heavier styles of music. Eddy is the band’s live bassist and also writes for Laut.de. Beloved Enemy’s singer, Ski, and their drummer, Dog, were unavailable for comment.

The interview is fairly long, so I hid it under the cut. (more…)

This week, Arndt has a very special Radio Goethe podcast for us. The entire show is dedicated to the most internationally successful German band ever. Of course, I’m talking about Rammstein. Not only does the show offer songs from nearly every Rammstein album, but it is also laced with clips from a recent interview Radio Goethe had with Paul Landers, one of Rammstein’s guitarists. So open up iTunes or start streaming the show from RadioGoethe.org and listen to history.

This week’s Radio Goethe podcast playlist
Rammstein: Wollt ihr das Bett in Flammen sehen
Rammstein: Du hast
Rammstein: Mein Herz brennt
Rammstein: Amerika
Rammstein: Spring
Rammstein: Sehnsucht
Rammstein: Weisses Fleisch
Rammstein: Links 2 3 4
Rammstein: Mein Teil
Rammstein: Ich will
Rammstein: Feuer frei (live)

Some of you know that Rammstein’s keyboardist Christian “Flake” Lorenz was a member of the East-German punk band Feeling B back in his younger days, long before Rammstein was ever thought of. Not many people have had the opportunity to hear many of the older Feeling B recordings, and then the band split up in 1993 when Flake later became part of Rammstein. Skip ahead five albums, and we arrive at the image of Rammstein on hiatus after releasing Rosenrot. The band members had a lot of free time on their hands. Some of them spent it relaxing and some of them spent it working on other musical projects. Flake spent a good part of his time digging through his archives to find the old Feeling B music.

Grün & Blau is partially a retrospective of Feeling B’s past songs and partially the long-awaited debut of some songs that were long thought to be lost. The album contains thirteen songs that Flake mixed and remastered so they sound more like how the band originally envisioned them years ago. There will be 2 versions available: The standard jewelcase version will be released on October 19th (according to most sources I’ve seen). The limited edition version will be accompanied by a hardcover book (some sources say 120 page, some say 160) where Flake discusses Feeling B, which will be released on November 9th.

Check out Feeling B’s MySpace page to hear what Flake’s music used to sound like. He has certainly come a long way!

Feeling B - Grün & Blau tracklist:
01. Graf Zahl
02. Langeweile
03. Dufte
04. Frosch im Brunnen
05. Herzschrittmacher
06. Keine Zeit
07. Häßlich
08. Gipfel
09. Schlendrian
10. Wieder keine Zeit
11. Spacerace
12. Veris Dulcis
13. Grün & Blau

The United States always seems to be the last country to get any Rammstein release lately, and the Völkerball live CD and DVD set is no different. While the rest of the world took delivery almost a year ago in November of 2006, Völkerball is finally being released today here in America. The content for the American release is pretty much the same as the original one, with concert video footage and audio recordings from some of Rammstein’s live shows in France, England, Russia, and Japan, plus various other bonuses. But instead of having 5 different versions like the rest of the world got, Rammstein is only releasing 3 versions here. Good thing, too, because all those different versions caused a lot of headaches and confusion last year. Let me explain exactly what’s in each American version for you:

Völkerball versions

• Standard Edition
  1 DVD with 140 minutes of concert footage
  1 CD with 75 minutes of concert recordings
• Special Edition
  1 DVD with 140 minutes of concert footage
  1 CD with 75 minutes of concert recordings
  1 DVD with 90 minutes of documentaries
• Limited Edition
  1 DVD with 140 minutes of concert footage
  1 DVD with 90 minutes of documentaries
  2 CDs with entire concert recording
  All packaged in a 190-page hardcover tour photo book

Also, to support the release of Völkerball in the U.S., Rammstein giving away a Richard Kruspe signature ESP guitar signed by all the band members. Just visit this website to enter the contest.

Continue reading after the jump for the tracklisting of each individual disc
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The Finnish masters of the cello Apocalyptica released their new album Worlds Collide on Friday the 14th in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was released today (September 17th) in most of the rest of the world, with a few other countries later in the month. The album features a wide range of guest musicians including Till Lindemann from Rammstein, Corey Taylor from Slipknot and Stone Sour, Dave Lombardo from Slayer, Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil, Adam Gontier from Three Days Grace, and the Japanese actor and musician Tomoyasu Hotei. The album was also produced by Jacob Hellner, best known for his work with Rammstein and Clawfinger.

Apocalyptica and Rammstein have a long history working together, and Worlds Collide marks yet another notable collaboration. For the new album, Till sings a German-language cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” or “Helden” in German. I haven’t heard this particular song yet (although I am looking forward to it), but I do like the other songs I’ve heard from the album. The single “I’m Not Jesus” which features Corey Taylor singing is a great song. And as always, Apocalyptica uses their cellos as an amazing substitute for low-tuned electric guitars. Sometimes I wonder if the cellos are better…

Check out some of the new Apocalyptica songs on their MySpace page.

Worlds Collide tracklist
01. Worlds Collide
02. Grace (feat. Tomoyasu Hotei)
03. I’m Not Jesus (feat. Corey Taylor)
04. Ion
05. Helden (feat. Till Lindemann)
06. Stroke
07. Last Hope (feat. Dave Lombardo)
08. I Don’t Care (feat. Adam Gontier)
09. Burn
10. S.O.S. (Anything But Love) (feat. Cristina Scabbia)
11. Peace
Bonus tracks on the deluxe edition
12. Ural
13. Dreamer

B.O.S.C.H. is another up and coming electro-metal band from Germany. They haven’t released an album yet, but ever since DeutscheMusik.net featured them back in April, I’ve heard people talking about their music non-stop. And for good reason. Their combination of simple, gritty guitars and smooth synths is one of the best things your ears will ever have the pleasure of hearing. Come to think of it, I think B.O.S.C.H. is kind of like the German equivalent of the (awesome) Finnish band Turmion Kätilöt.

Fans have been listening to the 5 songs on the band’s MySpace page for months, awaiting an album release at some unknown point in the future. Fortunately for us, B.O.S.C.H. has decided to release a rough mix of their new song “Spiegel” on the Razor Blade Dance Floor podcast. This episode of the podcast is focused on industrial-metal music and how it has evolved over the years and includes a few good tracks by (some German) bands including Rammstein, Die Krupps, Ministry, and Fear Factory, but the B.O.S.C.H. song is at the very end since the playlist is in chronological order. You can listen to the whole thing or just skip ahead to hear “Spiegel”. Either way, you need to hear this song if you like any kind of industrial-metal.

Someone made a stop-motion music video for Rammstein’s “Feuer Frei!” made entirely out of Legos! Just the idea of this alone is awesome. This video really blows me away. The attention to detail is incredible! The band members’ hands and bodies are moving along with the music, their facial expressions change with the tone of the music, and there’s even Lego fire. You just have to watch this. Enjoy!

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=qxUZUnRwH7s

Krieger is a new metal band from Dresden that just happens to be using Pilgrim Management, the same management firm that Rammstein is with. But the similarities between the 2 bands don’t end there. Krieger’s debut album was supposed to be released next week on August 24th, but it looks like it has been pushed back to September 28th according to several online webshops. They’re using the same album formula that Rammstein always uses, too, with 11 songs expected to be on the album. And what do you know, there’s a limited edition digipack version that will be available as well.

OK, so Pilgrim is using their experience with Rammstein’s success for their newcomer Krieger. Can you blame them? What really matters is the music, and it’s great. You can listen to 3 songs on the Krieger music player (also available on the band’s MySpace page) and judge for yourself.

Also, be sure to check out the Krieger Shop which just opened last week.

Krieger tracklist
1. Krieger
2. Heimat
3. Zurück nach Haus
4. Mein Schloss
5. Wenn du mich küsst
6. In Flammen
7. Kein Schuss
8. Mein Degen
9. Einmal sterben und zurück
10. Das Meer und Ich
11. Feldschlößchen

Although Apocalyptica is from Finland, they have worked with a few German musicians over the past years and have become quite popular among German music fans. Almost 2 years ago, Apocalyptica remixed the Rammstein song “Benzin”, and now Rammstein is paying them back for their favor. Rammstein vocalist Till Lindemann will be a guest singer on Apocalyptica’s new album Worlds Collide which will be released on September 17th. But what’s more interesting is that the song Till is performing on is a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes/Helden”. This is certainly something to look forward to!

For a detailed description of Worlds Collide, check out this post in the Apocalyptica forum (scroll down for the English translation).

Worlds Collide
01. Worlds Collide
02. Grace feat. Tomoyasu Hotei
03. I´m not Jesus feat. Corey Taylor
04. Ion
05. Helden feat. Till Lindemann
06. Stroke
07. Last Hope feat. Dave Lombardo
08. I don´t care feat. Adam Gontier
09. Burn (?)
10. S.O.S. (Anything but Love) feat. Cristina Scabbia
11. Peace