It hasn’t been much longer than a year since October 2007 when Subway To Sally released their previous album Bastard, but they are already preparing for their next longplayer, Kreuzfeuer. The band’s site doesn’t seem to have a confirmed release date, but EMP.de has both a standard and a digipack version of Kreuzfeuer available for pre-order with a release date of March 27th listed, so we’ll go with that for now.

Judging by the few clips of music that can be heard in the video of the band in the studio (which can be seen down below the tracklisting) there will be plenty of heavy guitars, more traditional instruments like the flute which can be seen in one clip, something else that sounds like a new wave song, and of course Eric Fish’s distinctive voice… all things we’re expecting, except for that new wave thing. If we hear about any new samples from Kreuzfeuer, we’ll post an update.

Subway To Sally - Kreuzfeuer tracklisting
01. Aufstieg
02. Judaskuss
03. Besser, Du rennst
04. So fern, so nah
05. Die Jagd
06. Einsam
07. Komm in meinen Schlaf
08. Angelus
09. Krähenkönig
10. Niemals
11. Versteckt
12. Vater

Earlier in the decade before Subway To Sally signed on with Nuclear Blast, they released 2 albums called Herzblut (in 2001) and Engelskrieger (in 2003). These albums were a little more raw and folky than their more recent ones like Nord Nord Ost or Bastard, and some people I know actually prefer this slightly older sound. And now, Herzblut and Engelskrieger can be purchased together as a 2CD set. Nothing really remarkable… Universal probably just realized that they own the labels that released both of these albums (Island and Motor) so they decided to capitalize on Subway To Sally’s more recent success, but it may be of interest to the band’s hardcore fans or collectors.

You can find this combo on AlphaMusic.de for a pretty reasonable 13.99 Euros. They also have samples of every song from both albums there, if you are interested in getting in on this deal to start your STS collection.

Subway To Sally - Herzblut-Engleskrieger tracklisting

Disc 1 - Herzblut:
01. Die Schlacht
02. Veitstanz
03. Das Messer
04. Herrin des Feuers
05. Kleid aus Rosen
06. Wenn Engel hassen
07. Krötenliebe
08. Accingite Vos
09. So rot
10. Drei Engel
11. Kleid aus Rosen (unplugged)

Disc 2 - Engelskrieger:
01. Geist des Krieges
02. Falscher Heiland
03. Unsterblich
04. Kleine Schwester
05. Abendlied
06. Narben
07. 2000 Meilen unterm Meer
08. Knochenschiff
09. Wolfstraum
10. Verloren
11. Abendland

“Auf Kiel” is the third song on Subway To Sally’s current album Bastard, and it’s also the band’s next single. It will hit stores later this week on February 1st. In addition to the main track, the single also features 1 song from Bastard and 1 previously unreleased song called “Stimmen”. AlphaMusic.de seems to have it for the lowest price, 5.49 Euros (it is 1.50 more expensive everywhere else I checked). You can also hear samples from the first and last tracks on the single there.

Subway To Sally will also represent the German federal state of Brandenburg in the Bundesvision Song Contest 2008 with “Auf Kiel” when they compete against 15 other musicians from across Germany on February 14th.

Subway To Sally - “Auf Kiel” tracklist
01. Auf Kiel
02. Stimmen
03. Umbra

UPDATE
Subway To Sally’s “Auf Kiel” won first place in the 2008 Bundesvision Song Contest with 147 points, narrowly beating out the German rapper Clueso by just 1 point.

This post originally started out as a reminder, but then I realized there is something here that is much more important…

I wanted you to remember two new albums that are being released today. The first is Bastard by Subway To Sally, and the second is Alles Wieder Offen by Einstürzende Neubauten. While the styles of these two albums are very different, both bands have become favorites within their respective genres. Fans of medieval-inspired German metal really love STS and anyone into a bit more experimentation is sure to know EN.

Which one do I personally recommend? EN’s Alles Wieder Offen, for sure. Contrary to what you may be thinking, it’s not completely because I like their music better (although I do). Both albums are great and I’m sure they will attract a lot of attention during the next few weeks, but Einstürzende Neubauten really knows how to make their fans happy and gain their loyalty more than any other band I know of. First of all, they have a blog where they have been talking directly to their fans, keeping them up to date about the progress of the album every step of the way. Second, they make it very easy for new and would-be fans to hear their music (both new and old). Next, they also understand how the internet is changing the way music is spread, and have embraced online tools (other than MySpace) like Facebook and iLike instead of using some grandiose yet insincere, traditional marketing strategy. Finally, they know how to build and maintain a paid supporter network by respecting their fans and actually making it worthwhile to join, unlike most bands’ poor version of a fanclub.

How does Subway To Sally compare? (more…)

The news about Subway To Sally’s new album Bastard has been spreading across German music online community like wildfire for the past 2 months, but a lot of people are reporting the wrong release date. Contrary to what you may have seen on various other websites or forums, the release date is not October 26th or 28th. The real release date for Bastard is October 19th! It’s the first thing you see on SubwayToSally.com. I certainly prefer this earlier-than-expected date over a delayed release, so this is good news.

Now that the release date is straightened out, let’s move on to what we can expect from the music. Subway To Sally’s singer Eric Fish usually isn’t too involved with the creation of the actual songs, but he has taken on a much bigger role this time around so the sound may be a bit different than what the band has released in the past. I’ve read that it should sound a bit more like their album Herzblut, but I don’t know for sure.

You can listen to a few older STS songs on their MySpace page. There are also MP3 sampels you can download from the band’s previous 2 albums Nord Nord Ost and Engelskrieger, located conventiently on the discography page of their website. I’m eagerly awaiting some samples from Bastard.

Subway To Sally - Bastard tracklist:
01. Meine Seele Brennt
02. Puppenspieler
03. Auf Kiel
04. Umbra
05. Voodoo
06. Wehe Stunde
07. Die Trommel
08. Unentdecktes Land
09. Hohelied
10. Canticum Satanae
11. Tanz auf dem Vulkan
12. Fatum
13. In der Stille

It seems like doing covers is a pretty popular trend right now. We’ve got some metal coversongs coming in a few months and some pop versions a bit sooner, and now Songs of Lemuria is joining the mix with some covers of their own. Their new album Deep will be released on September 28th with covers of everyone from Nirvana to Subway To Sally to Einstürzende Neubauten, all in their usual mixture of gothic and classical styles. I guess it’s natural that Nik Page’s band Blind Passengers is covered on the new album as well, considering he and Michaela Laubach together provide some beautiful vocals for Songs of Lemuria.

Deep has 14 songs plus a data track which has a bunch of pictures and wallpapers for your computer. Once again, AlphaMusic.de comes to the rescue with some samples of the new album, while the Songs of Lemuria MySpace page lags behind the times with some older songs. They’re worth listening to, though, if you want to get a nice idea of what the band sounds like.

Songs of Lemuria - Deep tracklist
01. Deep
02. Meer
03. Footprints On The Moon
04. Dein Kuss
05. Kommunion
06. Dein Duft
07. Hunting High And Low
08. Seemannslied
09. Waterdrops
10. Stella Maris
11. All Apologies
12. Irony
13. Walk On
14. End Oh The Night
15. Data-track