The Viennese metal band Stahlhammer has just announced their first ever live appearance in the United States. They will be one of many bands performing at the Thunder of Gods Festival II outside of Austin, Texas, which will run from May 8-10 of 2009.

While the concert is still almost a year away, many of the details are already confirmed. It will be a 3-stage, 3-day weekend festival at RP Campground which is in the town of Dripping Springs, Texas. The pre-sale ticket price is expected to be $60 for the weekend which includes camping, and it will be BYOB.

The festival’s site will be announcing their first set of bands (and hopefully other details) in just a few days on June 30th. We’ll keep you up to date as the festival date comes closer.

As many of you know, I am the webmaster of the official Stahlhammer website and I also operate their online store. I’m very glad to be helping them out as much as I can (plus, having my name printed in CD booklets is pretty cool too!). But the band has been quiet lately, so I’ve decided to liven things up a bit with a special CD sale. Of course, this also coincides nicely with the 6th anniversary of when the Stahlhammer website was first created on April 30, 2002.

There are currently just 2 Stahlhammer albums in stock, but they have both been greatly reduced in price and I have plenty of each. Gary’s solo album is also still available, though in a limited supply.

Feind Hört Mit is now just $7.50
Listen to MP3 samples here - Buy it here
Considered by many to be Stahlhammer’s best and most famous album, this essential Neue Deutsche Härte style longplayer was originally released on Nuclear Blast in 1999. It also has covers of Falco’s classics “Mutter, Der Mann Mit Dem Koks Ist Da” and “Jeanny”. Feind Hört Mit is one of the reasons I got into German music so much and it still remains one of my top 5 albums of all time.

Opera Noir has been reduced to $10
Listen to MP3 samples here - Buy it here
This is Stahlhammer’s current album and offers 13 songs of their latest blend of metal, industrial, and other more unconventional influences. Among the tracklist is a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes/Helden” and “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins.

Gary’s solo album Trivial Slushy Vintage is $10 also
Gary Wheeler was the original voice of Stahlhammer for their debut album Killer Instinkt. After his departure and eventual return, he now leads the band once again. This is his first solo album under his own name and presents a very different style than Stahlhammer, it’s much more mellow. I just have a few copies of this album left.

Be sure to download the samples and give them a listen. If you like Stahlhammer’s music, be sure to buy an album or two. We greatly appreciate your support, thanks!

Back in April, I announced on Stahlhammer’s official site that the band had partnered with the Russian record label Mystic Empire to re-release their latest 3 albums: Eisenherz, Stahlmania, and Opera Noir. Originally, the news I got wasn’t very clear with the specifics, but I just received the Russian CDs direct from the band so now I can finally give you the details.

Contrary to what I thought, the albums have not been remastered… at least not that I can tell. All of the songs sound the same as their original releases to me. All of the major changes come after the regular album songs. Eisenherz now has a new bonus video. “Bis In Alle Ewigkeit” has been added, plus there is also the “Eisenherz” video which has always been on the CD. In my opinion, Stahlmania has the best bonuses, 2 new songs! “Herrgott” is the first, and then there is an alternate version of “Angst” called “Keine Angst”. This is not a remix, but rather a complete re-recording and restructuring of the song. The Opera Noir album has a new video for “Kalt Wie Eis” as a bonus.

I’ve already had a number of inquiries about how you can buy these Russian re-releases. As far as I know, Mystic Empire won’t sell them internationally, so right now everyone is out of luck. However, I will probably be able to get them for the Stahlhammer Store within a few months. I’ll let you know.

One thing Stahlhammer is best known for is their metal cover versions of classic songs. Their very first cover was Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” which they released on the album Killer Instinkt in 1995. Later in 1999, Stahlhammer covered Falco’s pop hit “Der Mann Mit Dem Koks” as a tribute to him shortly after he was killed in an auto accident.

View the videos after the jump…
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