If you haven’t heard, there’s a new German music radio program broadcasting out of Ontario, Canada called Radio Nietzsche. The concept is very similar to Radio Goethe, even down to the name, so if you love the broad variety of German music you get from Radio Goethe, listening to Radio Nietzsche is a no-brainer. The show airs every Saturday afternoon from 3 PM to 5 PM (Eastern time) via TheRiotRadio.com. Check it out this weekend!

Radio Nietzsche has also just recently performed its first interview. It’s with Aliaksandr from Shino, an acoustic-gothic project from the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg. The interview, which is hosted online courtesy of DeutschMusikLand, reveals a lot about Shino’s music as well as some more personal details. Head on over to Shino’s MySpace page to listen to a few songs while you read the interview.

Mikki from DeutschMusikLand.com recently completed an interview with Admirabilis, a gothic metal band from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In the interview, the band’s classical vocalist Anh sheds light on lots of different topics about the band from their formation in 2003 to the release of their current album Above & Beyond. It’s definitely worth a read, so go ahead and check it out.

Admirabilis is also the new featured artist on DML, and for good reason. Their music is guitar-driven but does offer some electronic elements, and it’s all topped off with a pair of female singers, one rock inspired and the other sounding more classical. It’s a very nice combination, something we see a lot of because it works. You can hear 5 full-length songs on the band’s MySpace page, 3 from Above & Beyond and 2 from their 2004 debut Unbelievable. There are also samples of every song from their albums on the band’s website on their Music page (although their new album is only in the German side of their site). Have a listen and post a comment to let us know what you think.

As you remember, I featured Spielzeug in last week’s Bio of the Week segment and asked if anyone knew what had happened to them. It appeared as if they had simply vanished into thin air one day. Well thanks to some clever detective work and contacting a lot of people, Mikki from DeutschMusikLand.com finally reached one of the old band members and solved the mystery! As we guessed, Spielzeug had indeed broken up a long time ago, but only after some initial success.

Spielzeug did eventually release their demo which was described in the band bio. Zimmer 111 was finished in November of 2002 and featured 7 tracks. The band produced a video of the first song, “Mit der Zeit” with Srad Film. They were even recognized as one of the top 20 newcomers out of 2,000 German bands in 2003 before finally splitting up shortly thereafter.

You can now listen to 4 of the songs from their demo on the new Spielzeug MySpace page. They sound very promising, so it’s a shame the band split up so soon.

This week, I’m doing the Bio of the Week a little bit differently. Instead of just presenting the band and their bio, I want to ask for your help. I was talking with Mikki who runs DeutschMusikLand.com and we were trying to figure out what happened to Spielzeug, but couldn’t find any recent information. No website, no information online, no releases to be found. All we have is the band biography she made 5 years ago. I think it’s pretty clear they have split up, but when? Did they ever release any music? Where are the band members now? If you have any information about Spielzeug, please send me an email at germaniacdotcom@gmail.com and let me know. Thanks.

Now for the bio, from DML:
Hamburg’s Spielzeug play Nu Rock in the German language & can be compared to bands such as Linkin Park, Incubus & Deftones, their music comprising of heavy guitars combined with electronic elements & oscillating between soulful melodies & aggressive rhythmic riffs.

They have also proved by their appearance at Hafenrock 2002 that they have what it takes to play the open air circuits. Their demo release was planned for the middle of 2002 so it’s either out now or will be shortly forthcoming…

So… What happened to Spielzeug?

Fictional is one of several side projects by Funker Vogt founder Gerrit Thomas. Because he is involved in so many projects, Fictional’s activity is a bit sporadic at best, but the electronic music they’ve produced is as good as any. Here’s a complete band biography, written by Joe Hunter of DeutschMusikLand.com:

Gerrit Thomas, one of the masterminds behind Funker Vogt and Ravenous, formed Fictional in the late 1990’s to create a hybrid between the two bands. The project forged high energy music similar to Funker Vogt with vocal styles of Ravenous to make a pounding, non-stop electro mix that is entirely contagious.

Including work on Fictitious, Gerrit has also done remixes under the name Fictional for such bands as Decoded Feedback, Leaether Strip, Melotron, Merge, and several others. Other band projects include the aforementioned Funker Vogt and Ravenous, along with Fusspils 11.
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Zyklus :N: comes from Bavaria in southern Germany. They are an electro-industrial band with some harder guitar sounds blended throughout. Mikki from DeutschMusikLand.com translated the German biography on their website a few years ago in 2005 when they were just starting out:

They are Zyklus :N:
They are a band that would like to shoot into heaven like a comet. Their intention is to make perfect music. Music that goes right through one and isn’t quickly forgotten. They make no claims that they’re idolized. They don’t interpret love songs. They don’t tell of luck and pleasure. They don’t enthuse about the wonders of life. They perform no dances in order to land the ultimate hit.

They are Zyklus :N:
They are not pessimists. They have utopias. They listen to people. They want to be heard. They’d like to establish a communicative bond between themselves and the listener. They don’t want to be satisfied. They don’t want to issue cures. They convey pure energy which infects each listener that gets inspiration from the sound. They are the angels of darkness.

That reads almost like a manifesto of some sort, but it’s the music that really matters, and I have to say it’s quite good. Good enough to get signed to Danse Macabre Records anyway, and that’s no small feat. Zyklus :N: is currently in the process of recording their first full-length album which is targeted for an October release.

You can listen to some of their demo songs over on the band’s MySpace page, but don’t sorry, the sound quality is great unlike most demos. I will definitely be keeping track of this band for their album release.

Erben des Zorns is a death metal band from Kiel. I’m in the mood for something hard and fast right now, so I thought I’d make them our featured band this week. As you will see in the bio (from DeutschMusikLand.com, of course) below, the band has spent a lot of time over the past year writing and recording new songs. Their second album is pretty much done now so it shouldn’t be too long before it’s released. I’ll keep you updated about that, but for now you can head on over to EDZ’s MySpace page and listen to some of the tracks from their first album. I think if this second album has some better production, it could turn out to be really good.

EDZ was founded in 2003 by Sven (vocals) and Marco (guitar), was quickly joined by Jonas (guitar) and, after some initial line-up changes, was also joined by Schulzi (drums) and Henrik (bass).

Their first production, self produced with Lefti, appeared in 2005. Their sound people are z.Zt Matze and Jan. Most noteworthy about EDZ are their German lyrics and deep sound. They try to knock down the bridges between death metal and other hard music styles. They are a non-political band but scream out about things that are necessary and need to be said because they don’t want to tell about trivial storiesbut rather about life within society, within every boundary and about the fear and anger that people feel. In 2006, they were writing songs for their next release while touring with great bands such as Sufferage, Sworn Enemy, 100 Demons, Aeba, Disbelief, One Man Army and some very good local acts.

P.S.: check out DML’s metal genre page to discover all kinds of other German metal bands.

I first heard about the German punk band EA 80 a few years ago from my friend Mikki over at DeutschMusikLand.com. It seems that I had forgotten about them for a while, but once again the band is on my mind with their new album. Reise was release on Friday, August 17th, over in Germany. According to their label, Slowboy Records, the album has been released in 4 different formats: 2 CD versions and 2 vinyl versions. As far as I can tell, the CD versions each contain the same 11 songs and play for 42 minutes. The regular vinyl is pretty much the same, while the limited edition LP is on white vinyl (instead of the usual black) and contains special artwork. Unfortunately, none of the places I have searched has the actual tracklisting posted, but I will find that out for you soon. I received a reply from Slowboy Records with the album tracklist.

Reise tracklist
01. Zum Ausgangspunkt
02. Schein-Bar
03. Tunnel
04. Nicht Mit Dir
05. Trashfest
06. Rückfahrschein
07. Schlechter Abzug
08. Selbstumdrehung
09. Vollendet, Trotzdem Kurz
10. Big Ben
11. Sommerjugend

This week, we take a look at one of the best but least known German hard rock bands, Stendal Blast. 2 years ago this month, Mikki from DeutschMusikLand.com translated the bio from the band’s site, giving the English-speaking world some additional insight into the inner-workings of the band.

In full possesion of our spiritual and physical strengths, in no way responsible to any god, endowed with many years of experience in notes, words and tones which are given life through hope and melancholy, we postulate also for those with musical interests, who are hindered in the consumption of free music by our world’s dictatorship.

We are the Alpha and Omega; we accept the NSK-Staat, however reject the Elektrostaatuntil it no longer recognizes any commanders; we will no longer keep silent; we love and desire; we claim a place in the German speaking lexicon; we prefer to smoke filtered cigarettes; we accept that the art of artists beside us isn’t conducted through pure self portrayal; we take grass to be green; we demand free ÖPNV; we are a part of Darwinism; we highly regard “Calva y Nada”, “Laibach”, “Bruce Springsteen”, “Blumfeld”, “Einstürzende Neubauten” and “Diary of Dreams”; we have contempt for “Reamon”, “AC/DC”, “Die Basis”, hip-hop as a whole and reggae as well; we stand by Aldi-Essen and other fastfood; we demand the decontrol of “Musaril” tablets for the purpose of general relaxation; we want a the fundamental right to luck; we demand an effective diet; we are brightness and darkness; we demand the elimination of bald headed S-Bahn guards; we request that the Nordsee spreads itself further; we demand hot coffee in the backstage rooms; we are no longer playing for wages under 1500 DM (yeah, guess this is old); we demand the end of all stagnant behaviour; we are Kaaja Hoyda, Bernhard Lottes and Valek Devkar - together we are STENDAL BLAST!

A few months after this bio was translated in October 2005, Stendal Blast made their live debut in the United States. With the support of Radio Goethe, the band played a single show in San Francisco. Before they went on stage, my good friend Erin interviewed Kaaja Hoyda for DML. You can read the interview or listen to it here.

Currently, Stendal Blast is in the studio recording songs for a new album according to last night’s live Radio Goethe broadcast. This will be their first release since 2004’s album Schmutzige Hände (and possibly their last album according to some of my friends). Be sure to check out some songs from this album by visiting Stendal Blast on Myspace.

Virtual><Embrace is the electro solo act Mike E Johnson (known for his work in Infekktion, Agonoize, and Sero.Overdose). The band was founded in 2004, built on a foundation of extremely harsh electronic music, with heavy use of distortion and power beats.

Aside from working on their debut album, Virtual><Embrace has also done remix work for bands such as Mnemonic, XP8, Aïboforcen, and Solitary Experiments.

Since this biography was written by DeutschMusikLand.com contributor Nick Diak late in 2004, Virtual><Embrace released an EP in June 2005 called Hollow And Pure, which turned out to be just a taste of what was to come. A few months later, the full-length album Hellektro was released in both a standard edition and a limited edition with bonus disc and other special extras. 2006 remained pretty quiet for Virtual><Embrace, as Mike was hard at work on his other projects. But then in November of that year, he announced that he would be stopping all work on the Virtual><Embrace project due to increased illegal downloading of the band’s music. He felt the significantly reduced sales numbers he was seeing were just not worth the effort of all his time spent creating the music. This is one sad example of where music piracy can really hurt a musician and take away new great music from the fans as well.

For info about many more great German bands, head on over to DeutschMusikLand.com.