Blutengel’s new album Schwarzes Eis

Chris Pohl’s main project Blutengel has announced that a new album titled Schwarzes Eis will be released on Friday the 13th in February. The album, which was preceded by the single Dancing in the Light in November will be a grand package indeed, as even the normal version will have another CD along with the main album. The second disc is called Behind the Mirror and it’ll boast eight completely new instrumental tracks. The limited edition of the album, however, is where the real action is. Schwarzes Eis? Check. Behind the Mirror? Check. Fancy box? Check. Grandiose 40-page booklet? Check. A third CD with not just bonus tracks but an actual, second new album? Che… Wait, what? Yeah, the third disc is a whole album of its own, Redemption, and it’ll have 10 tracks that didn’t fit on Schwarzes Eis. One of the songs is a new version of Winter of my Life which was released earlier this year as a download and very limited 7 inch vinyl. So all in all, you’ll be getting a total of three discs full of brand-new Blutengel goodness. What’s not to like?

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find the album anywhere for preorders, but in the meantime you can listen to a part of the song Dreh dich nicht um on Blutengel’s MySpace (which has actually been updated).

L’Âme Immortelle’s live DVD+CD emerges from the shadows

The Austrian L’Âme Immortelle’s new live DVD and CD package Jenseits der Schatten was released December 15th. The DVD side has the whole concert filmed during the band’s Namenlos tour, and it contains 21 songs from all around the band’s production, whereas the CD has 16 tracks picked from the set (you can see the track list for both after the break). Interestingly, the concert was filmed completely in black and white, making for a rather unique look. The DVD also contains some extras, for example more live material filmed in Vienna and behind the scenes goofiness.

The DVD+CD was initially only released as a limited edition six-panel digipack, and it’s available at most of your usual stores: Amazon.de for 21,95 €, Infrarot.de for 18,99 €, EMP.de for 21,99 € or for you in the US, Isotank for $24.99. Please note that the CD or DVD aren’t available separately! Just though I’d need to clear that up, since my original post was a bit ambiguous on the matter.

You can watch the trailer for the DVD here, or listen to two songs from the CD on L’Âme Immortelle’s MySpace.

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I can’t believe we haven’t covered this one before. Hailing from Düsseldorf, Die Toten Hosen is, and has been for like two decades, one of the most popular German bands in existence, especially in its country of origin but also moderately so elsewhere. A result of the punk rock movement in Germany, the band was formed in 1982 and has since achieved mammoth-like success with their punk-influenced rock. Their hit song Hier kommt Alex (Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau, 1988) was even included in both of the insanely popular video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. During the years they have toyed with a wide range of styles, including reggae, jazz and folk, and, like a good punk band should, the band’s themes are often political and/or humorous. Anyways, last month they released a new single Strom in anticipation of their umpteenth (actually 14th) studio album In aller Stille, which came out just last Friday. The band is also going to put out a live DVD, titled Hals + Beinbruch - Live bei Rock am Ring 2008, later this month.

In aller Stille

The new album is out in three different editions: a regular digipak, a limited CD + DVD digibook and an individually signed, numbered and limited to 2000 copies deluxe set where you’ll get the album both as a CD and on two vinyls. The album is available at a bunch of online stores, for example Alphamusic.de, which has the normal version for 15,99 € and the limited for 18,99 € (it seems they’ve already sold all of their vinyls), or EMP.de, where you can get the regular edition for 17,99 €, the CD + DVD for 22,99 € and the vinyl set for 25,99 €. You can also get the single Strom at both stores, EMP.de for 6,99 € or Alphamusic.de for 5,49 €.

Hals + Beinbruch - Live bei Rock am Ring 2008

The upcoming DVD will be released on 28th this month, and it’ll feature a full live set of 30 songs, including Innen alles neu from the new album, played at the Rock am Ring festival last summer. There’s also a document detailing the preparations for the live show as bonus material. All this equals a total of 144 minutes of Die Toten Hosen, the show itself lasting 122 minutes and the document 22 minutes. Hals + Beinbruch - Live bei Rock am Ring 2008 will be available as a normal DVD and also a high-definition Bluray disc, both of which are preorderable at least at EMP.de (20,99 € for the normal DVD, 25,99 € for the Bluray.

See and hear

You can catch the latest (actually quite rocking) video for the single Strom here, or listen to some samples of all the new songs on In aller Stille here. There’s also a preview of the DVD, viewable here.

Hit the jump for all tracklisting!

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Unheilig recorded a show in Berlin during their recent Puppenspieler Tour, with the promise of an upcoming DVD release. Vorhang auf! is set to be released in October as a double-CD and DVD set, with a strictly limited (1500 copies) Deluxe Edition which will also include a photo book and an extra DVD of the 2006 Goldene Zeiten tour. The book will include fan photos, so if you have photos from an Unheilig signing session or concert, you can submit them to unheilig@orkus.de (with a statement giving permission for publication) until August 24th.

A full tracklisting and exact publication date for the DVD has not yet been announced, but when it comes out, it should be available through the usual places: emso.de, emp.de and amazon.de, and of course isotank.com. No word yet on when or if the DVD will be released in the US, but the Deluxe Edition is certainly going to be Germany-only, and it will definitely sell out quickly. If you really want it, my advice would be to order it from EMSO as soon as it is available for pre-order.

On a related note, Unheilig also recently announced that a full two weeks before its actual publication date, the limited edition EP Spiegelbild has already sold out. A very few copies may still be available for pre-order through EMSO, but those probably won’t last through this weekend’s M’era Luna festival.

On 29th this month the gothic electro outfit Blutengel will release a new live 2-disc live DVD titled Moments of our LIVEs. The DVD, which will feature a full live concert and a whole second DVD full of extra stuff like interviews, backstage goofiness and rehearsal videos, will be available in a grand total of three different setups:

The normal DVD with both the live and extra material DVD,

A limited version with the DVDs and a live CD all in a digipak

And finally, an even more limited fanbox with the DVDs, the CD and also an exclusive T-shirt thrown into a nifty box.

All versions of Moments of our LIVEs are available copiusly at a number of stores, including IsoTank: normal version for $32.99, limited version for $44.99 and the fanbox for $60,99, Poponaut.de: normal for 18,45 €, limited for 27,95 € and box for 44,95 € and EMP.de: normal for 19,99 €, limited for 27,99 € and box for 41,99 €

You can hear samples of Blutengel’s earlier works on their MySpace that doesn’t seem like it’s been updated in ages, slightly fresher material from their 2007 album Labyrinth can be caught here.

Hit the jump for a full tracklisting of the DVDs and CD.

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Atari Teenage Riot was a highly political anarchist and anti-fascist band that was the first to mix punk and techno in a style that later became known as digital hardcore. They gained extensive popularity during the 90s until they split up in 2000. Since then, band founder Alec Empire has been producing albums under his own name, most recently The Golden Foretaste of Heaven, while other band members have been hard at work with other projects as well.

Now, for the first time, a collection of videos by Atari Teenage Riot, Alec Empire, and former ATR band members Hanin Elias and Nic Endo will be available together on a DVD. It’s called Sixteen Years of Video Material and it was released back on Friday, May 30th. They have produced some pretty crazy videos, so I’d recommend it if you like their music.

Of course, if you don’t know what ATR sounds like, you can listen to some of their music on the ATR MySpace page. Don’t forget to check out Alec Empire’s MySpace page while you’re at it. Then you can order both the regular version and limited editions (which comes with a t-shirt, a poster, stickers and more) of the DVD via the Atari Teenage Riot website.

Check out the banned video for Atari Teenage Riot’s song “Revolution Action” below.

The combination of Greg going MIA and me slacking off because of the holidays is not a good thing for Germaniac. Here’s the catch-up news post for some of the most important stuff that’s been happening in these couple of weeks. I hope we’ll be able to resume normal operations as soon as possible! All the tracklistings and ordering information relevant to this post can be found behind the link at the end, because with them this already horribly lengthy post would be, simply put, INSANE.

Oomph!’s album #10 to be Monster

Oomph!, one of the pioneering bands of the industrial metal and NDH genres, will be releasing their tenth album in August according to Oomph!’s official site. The record, of which we got a little taster with the single Wach auf! which was released earlier this year, will be titled Monster. Not much else is known of the upcoming record, except for some tidbits revealed in a German interview. Amongst others, we’re going to get an “electro metal tango” piece and a blues song as well.

No doubt in celebration of their tenth album and as a sign of gratitude to their fans, Dero, Crap and Flux are also offering fans a unique chance to permanently cement themselves in the Oomph! legacy by running a contest for the cover design of the new album. Anyone can send in their visions of what the cover should be until June 27th, and the boys themselves will then choose the final design that will adorn the album. A number of the submissions can already be checked out here, and they range from quite horrible to insanely cool. I for one am eager to find out what the final product will look (and sound!) like!

Megaherz single soon

Before the hotly anticipated new album Heuchler, Megaherz will release the single Mann von Welt on June 20th. There will be two versions of the single: a basic one with Mann von Welt and Es Brennt, a bonus track from the sold out limited edition of Herzwerk II, and an EP-length limited fan edition version with three additional songs from older albums. As far as I can see, the fan edition is not very necessary unless you’re new to Megaherz and need to sample the older stuff, but the single is a great opportunity to hear Es Brennt, which is an excellent song you might very well have missed the first time around. You can hear a preview of Mann von Welt on Megaherz’s Myspace and official site.

Eisbrecher’s single detailed

The first single from Eisbrecher’s upcoming album Sünde will be titled “Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein?”, and it will be released on July 11th. This is, however, a Germany-only release, so completionists will have to pay an extra buck or two (or more like ten) if they want to get their hands on this release. No cover or tracklisting has been made public as of yet, but if the previous singles by Eisbrecher are of any indication, this one should too sport a couple of remixes and possibly a bonus song or other small feature alongside the main track itself.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter single

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, a well-respected German trash metal outfit will release a single titled Der Weg on 27th June. The single features two songs from the upcoming full-lenght release Licht, which doesn’t have a release date yet, and two bonus tracks. The physical CD version of the single published by Nuclear Blast is limited to only 1000 copies, as it was originally planned to only be available via iTunes. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter also released a live DVD earlier this year.

Unheilig’s Spiegelbild EP revealed

The tracklisting and cover design for Unheilig’s Spiegelbild EP have been finally revealed. True to the style of the EPs before, this release is limited to just 3333 pieces and has a total of three different versions of the title song, a new version of the earlier single An deiner Seite and also a trio of completely new Unheilig tracks. Spiegelbild will be released on 26th July.

Laibach’s Dead in Trbovlje in July

Laibach have pushed back the release of their new DVD, which was originally slated for release on 16th June, to 26th July. Titled Dead in Trbovlje, the DVD will feature a full live concert from their widely acclaimed Volk tour, four music videos and on top of that, six of the background screens/videos Laibach used in their Volk shows. There’s also a short commentary on the tour.

Thanks to Nadja for all the tips!

That’s it for now. I know there’s a ton I missed, but at least we have something to cover up the massive time gap we’ve been experiencing. Here’s hoping that Greg will be back in full force soon!

Check out the tracklistings for these items after the jump…
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New album, tour, and DVD
Eisbrecher is one of our favorite bands here at Germaniac, so I always try to keep the site up to date whenever there is news from the band. Their most recent announcement: Plans to release their third album later this year in August! This is great news, even though there are no details yet… no exact release date, album title or song names. Eisbrecher is also marking off September for a German tour, and would like to release a DVD in the future, too. My guess would be that the DVD will have some live material recorded during the tour and then released some time after that.

Join the Eisbrecher street team
Alexx and the rest of the band have high hopes for the future, but they will need your support. They are asking fans to sign up for a street team to help spread the word about Eisbrecher. If you’re a fan and would like to help out (and I hope you would), just send an email to anna@eis-brecher.com and let them know. If you do, please include your name and address, email, the cities you’re active in, and your favorite CD shops and clubs. They would also like to know where you might be able to bring posters or flyers and what online forums you participate in. Any other promo ideas are welcome, too.

There’s still some time before any major releases in March, so I’m actually going to tell you about a few of the other interesting February releases that I missed…

Down Below - Sand In Meiner Hand MCD and Sinfony 23 re-release
Down Below is a relatively new gothic pop-rock band that started out in 2003. After gaining some popularity with their first 2 albums, they entered the 2008 Bundesvision Song Contest with their new single “Sand In Meiner Hand”. It was the band’s first German-language song, everything else they have done so far has been in English. When the contest was held on February 14th, Down Below only came in 3rd place (Subway To Sally won), but nevertheless the new single was released the next day on the 15th. Their latest album, 2007’s Sinfony 23, was also re-released on the same day with “Sand In Meiner Hand” and a few extra remixes added as bonus tracks. You can find the new single either on DownBelow.de or the band’s MySpace page, along with several other songs from Sinfony 23.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter - Tobsucht-Reitermania over Wacken & Party.San
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter released a live album on the 1st of February. As the full name suggests, Tobsucht sports footage from the band’s performances at the Wacken Open Air festival and the Party.San festival and is available in 3 versions. There is an audio version with 2 CDs containing 90 minutes of live music, there is a DVD version with 180 minutes of concert footage, and there is a combined version with both of the CDs and the DVD plus a special booklet and packaging. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter have 2 songs from this live album on their MySpace page. Check it out if you’re into some crazy thrash metal.

What do you get when you put Oomph!’s best of compilation Delikatessen and their live DVD Rohstoff in opposite corners of the ring together? Delikatessen vs. Rohstoff, of course! This new special release from Oomph! places the band’s live recordings in battle against the studio versions of (mostly) the same songs. It will be released on November 9th.

It really didn’t take a lot of work to put this release together. It’s basically just a combination of 2 existing discs stuffed into some new packaging. Personally, I think it’s kind of unnecessary, considering Rohstoff also has regular music videos so anyone can compare the studio songs to their live counterparts with that DVD alone. Having said that, this is surely a must-have for rabid Oomph! collectors. And I will admit that this is probably a pretty good introduction to someone who is just discovering this band’s great music, too.

With 19 tracks on the CD and 48 on the DVD, the Delikatessen vs. Rohstoff tracklisting is mighty long. So I hid it just on the other side of this link:
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The pagan folk group known as Faun will be releasing a new DVD called Ornament next month. According to their website, the DVD will be called Ornament and contain 3.5 hours of footage. I’m assuming it’s live material, although it doesn’t say specifcally. One interesting detail they do include is that the digipack case Ornament will come in has lots of artwork by the French artist Martine Fassier. Check out some of the work on that site, it’s pretty cool.

Ornament will be formally released on November 9th, but you will be able to get it earlier if you are attending the Pagan Folk Festival tour which is going on right now across Europe with dates through next week. The tracklist hasn’t been announced yet, but I will post an update closer to the release date with exactly what the DVD contains.