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…)
Hidden somewhere between the borders of Switzerland and Austria is the tiny country of Liechtenstein. It measures only 62 square miles (that’s much smaller than the town I live in), but there are actually a few really good bands that call Liechtenstein their home. The gothic metal band Elis is one of them.
The release of Elis’s new maxi single called “Show Me The Way” is a very important moment for the band because it signifies the merging of two eras, each defined by their vocalists. The band’s former singer Sabine collapsed during a rehearsal performance in July 2006 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, and tragically died a day later. Now Sandra Schleret has stepped up to the microphone to sing for Elis. This single brings both singers together on the same release. There are 3 songs that didn’t make it onto their current album Griefshire, plus two versions of “Show Me The Way” with newly recorded vocals by Sandra. It is both a fitting tribute to Sabine’s work with the band and a nice introduction to the new voice of Elis, Sandra.
“Show Me The Way” was released in Europe yesterday on Napalm Records. The single will also be released in the USA this coming Tuesday, November 6th. Elis’s MySpace page has several full-length songs you can listen to, including the original version of “Show Me The Way” from the album Griefshire.
If you’re in Germany, be sure to catch Elis on tour with ASP!
Elis - “Show Me The Way” single tracklist:
1. Show me the way (new single version)
2. Salvation (non-album track)
3. These days are gone (non-album track)
4. In einem verlassenen Zimmer (non-album track)
5. Show me the way (new version)
Mantus was a fabulous gothic metal band that sadly disbanded after their last album Zeit Muss Enden was released in 2005. Shortly thereafter, the remains of Mantus were sorted out and rejoined to form the new band Sepia. They released their debut album Goodbye Tristesse on October 19th on Rough Trade Records, and I feel obligated to tell you just how awesome it is.
The music is really great, I love the deep guitars and the dark gothic electronic overtones. But the thing that surprised me the most was the vocals. Normally, I’m not a big fan of female singers, but Tina has a really wonderful voice that fits the music so perfectly. Plus, the way the songs are mixed allows her vocals to blend in beautifully with the music, rather than stand out above it like most female-fronted bands tend to do.
You can listen to 2 full length songs and 2 longish samples on Sepia’s MySpace page. Amazon.de also has short samples of every song on the Goodbye Tristesse album. But I recommend watching the “Keine Worte” music video right here, as your first introduction to this fantastic band. The video is a bit trippy, but I like it. And the music is just great!
Sepia - “Keine Worte” video:
SEPIA - Keine Worte
Sepia - Goodbye Tristesse tracklist:
01. Ich Lebe
02. Keine Worte
03. Kalt
04. Moloch
05. Himmel
06. Goodbye Tristesse
07. Königin
08. Paradies
09. Melancholie
10. Allein
11. Kein Morgen
12. Was Bleibt
The German gothic rock band Unheilig is currently planning the release of a new album. The band’s newsletter just announced that it will be called Puppenspiel, and it will be released on February 22nd, 2008. That’s just slightly over 2 years after the release of their current full-length album, Moderne Zeiten, which hit stores in January of 2006. However, they did have 2 smaller EPs that were released since then, so the band certainly hasn’t been sitting around doing nothing all this time. You can hear a few songs from those on Unheilig’s MySpace page.
I’m looking forward to hearing more news about Puppenspiel as February gets closer, and I’ll be sure to post it here for you. Stay tuned!
Thanks to Paul for pointing this out.
Rozencrantz is a new name in the German gothic rock scene. Although the band was formed in 2003 which seems like a long time ago, they have only released one demo so far. They have remained pretty much under the radar since then, but I have a feeling this band is going to have some success. Bruno Kramm at Danse Macabre has done a wonderful job developing Rozencrantz and producing their debut album which will finally be released this Friday, October 12th.
The album is called Salvation and features 13 songs, with the last 2 being remixes of “In These Arms”. The music has a nice mixture of guitars and electronics, as well as some piano and other instruments coming through to give it a bit of a gothic edge. Throughout the album, the members of Rozencrantz have been assisted by guest musicians including Eve Cooper, Carsten Klatte, Matthias Lohmöller, and of course Bruno Kramm, all adding to the already great sound. You can listen to 4 songs from Salvation on the Rozencrantz MySpace page. Be sure to check out the 2 music videos on their website, too.
Rozencrantz - Salvation tracklist:
01. Forsaken
02. Decision
03. Her Walk Gets Slower
04. Bound To You
05. In These Arms
06. 1000 Knights
07. Severed Dreams
08. Lively Waters
09. Dissolve
10. Sweet Desire
11. Fareza
12. In These Arms (Acretongue remix)
13. In These Arms (Eurocide remix)
ASP has announced their next release, Nie Mehr, a single that was taken from their current album Requiembryo. But unlike a traditional single (or any release for that matter), Nie Mehr will not be physically distributed to music stores and online retailers. Instead, the single will be sold exclusively at ASP concerts and in their own webshop, that’s it. I imagine this would mean that there is no official release date. The closest thing to a release date would be the first day of their upcoming tour which is November 2nd in Leipzig.
Anyone lucky enough to attend an ASP show over in Europe will certainly appreciate the effort the band went to in creating this new single. It’s actually much more than a single, it’s more like a maxi of album-ic proportions. Not only is there a reworked version of “Nie Mehr” with a new ending and several other remixes of the song, but you will also find 2 live recordings and four brand new songs, for a grand total of 10 tracks. A 10-song maxi? Really, that’s just insane, but these über singles are becoming more and more popular it seems.
Check out some of ASP’s music on their MySpace page if you haven’t heard them already. One last note: If you actually want to buy Nie Mehr, you will have to go to the German-language side of ASP’s website because the English side says the shop is closed until June 28th… even though it’s already October now. I hope they open the English shop soon.
The exact tracklist has not been announced yet.
Umbra Et Imago is releasing a CD called Gott Will Es on November 9th, but I have no idea what it is. The official band website doesn’t have any recent news as usual, and their MySpace page doesn’t help much, either. I just see it listed in a few internet retailers like Infrarot.de and Amazon.de, but none of them say whether it’s an album or a single as far as I can tell. Judging by the price of it on both of those sites compared to other Umbra Et Imago CDs, it looks like it could be an album. But then German Wikipedia has it listed under “Singles and Live” so it could be a single, although Wikipedia is getting notorious for having misleading CD information prior to the release date. Maybe a live album? A live album usually comes with more goodies and a DVD, though. I sent an email to the band asking about it, so I’ll let you know what they say. For now, all I can tell you is that something is coming.
Compulsory Skin is a new band from the German capital, Berlin. Their debut album called Naked to the Bones will be coming out on October 5th. Thirteen tracks of electronic and metal are fronted by a female singer. She sounds very familiar but I can’t think of the name of who she sounds like. The music is good, almost very good. There are plenty of guitars and synths which I like, and even some nice gothic and classical influences. My only real complaint, and it’s a big one, is that a lot of the songs are a bit on the slow side for me. I felt kind of like I was trudging along with concrete-filled boots when I should have been walking at least somewhat briskly. Some more noticeable changes in tempo and volume throughout the album would be nice. Some periods of time where “VampirVampy” (whatever kind of name that is) stops singing and lets the music speak for itself would be greatly appreciated, too. Overall, Compulsory Skin has created a nice debut album and they have a lot of potential to develop into something really great over time.
My absolute favorite thing about Compulsory Skin is that they understand the modern music environment and have placed their entire album on their website for potential fans to listen. Having enough music to listen to (MP3 downloads, streaming, or otherwise) is extremely important, especially for a new band that is trying to develop a fanbase. Go over to their media page and listen to the entire Naked to the Bones album. This is an excellent way for Compulsory Skin to make a first impression.
Compulsory Skin - Naked to the Bones tracklist:
01. The World In Me
02. All You Can Eat
03. Twisted
04. Sexshow
05. Naked To The Bones
06. Consensual Motors
07. Mammon Me
08. Broken Skin
09. Expelled
10. Bones Of The Past
11. Smeared
12. Luscious
13. Stained
It’s Friday, September 28th, and if this date sounds familiar it’s because there are a lot of new German music releases out today. There’s a little bit of everything for you… industrial, metal, gothic, rock, and pop. Here’s a quick overview of these 8 new releases just to refresh your memory. Click on the bold title to read the full article and get the tracklist for that album or single.
Eisheilig’s new album features plenty of dark, gothic rock sounds that have gained them quite a following in recent years. Ten new tracks will keep you company when you’re feeling down.
“New York City” is the first single from Emigrate, Rammstein guitarist Richard Kruspe’s side project. The single has 3 album songs plus a remix of “New York City” by Alec Empire and the “My World” music video which is based on the new movie Resident Evil: Extinction.
Juli has become one of the most popular pop rock bands in Germany over the past few years. Ein Neuer Tag is their new live album, not to be confused with their studio album of the same name. The Ein Neuer Tag DVD set features footage from several entire concerts.
Much more than just an ordinary single, “Kommunion” offers 6 remixes of the title song where Kash collaborated with Nik Page, plus 6 more remixes of previous Kash songs. A total of 12 remixes makes this more of an über-single.
Krieger is a brand new German rock band who looks very promising. Their sound is nice and heavy and they are under the same management company as Rammstein. This is definitely one to pick up.
One of Germany’s most famous pop musicians is doing coversongs of a wide range of bands from around the world. Nena’s new album Cover Me offers up 2 discs filled to the brim with her remakes of classic songs.
Painbastard’s new album Borderline is sure to please fans of industrial-dance music. These 14 new tracks are the band’s main attraction, following the preview songs we heard back in July on Nyctophobia.
Songs of Lemuria covers bands from Nirvana to Einstürzende Neubauten on their new album, Deep. Their use of gothic-influenced classical music and the beautiful vocals by Michaela Laubach and Nik Page make the sound pretty deep, too.
Not bad for one day, eh?
Here’s one I only found out about last night… Kash has teamed up with Nik Page to record a single song together called “Kommunion”. Then, they asked a whole bunch of other musicians like Project Ptichfork and Songs of Lemuria to do remixes, resulting in 6 different versions. In addition, there are also a few remixes of Kash’s song “Körpertriebe” which originally appeared on their first EP of the same name. This “single” also includes a song called “Ey du Stinkst” which I have never heard of from either Kash or Nik Page, plus the “Kommunion” music video.
The “Kommunion” single comes out tomorrow, Friday the 28th of September.
Kommunion tracklist
01. Kommunion - flipmox single mix
02. Kommunion - f.o.d. mix
03. Körpertriebe - infinite beat remix
04. Kommunion - project pitchfork remix
05. Kommunion - knabenpo noize mix by razorblade
06. Körpertriebe - style clash remix
07. Kommunion - kranke welt schranzmix by razorblade
08. Körpertriebe - flipmox feuer mix
09. Ey du Stinkst - alex löser remix
10. Körpertriebe - triebtäter remix by razorblade
11. Kommunion - songs of lemuria version
+ Kommunion music video
