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.

Untoten has become fascinated by the 1634 Loudun possessions, an event in France where many nuns were said to have been possessed by the devil. This was the band’s inspiration for their new album, Die Nonnen Von Loudun, which they have interpreted in 2 different versions. Hysteria is the “rock” version of the album (although I’m having trouble calling the samples I’ve heard rock), while the second version called Das Geheime Tagebuch Einer Nonne has a more classical, baroque style. Both versions of Die Nonnen Von Loudun will be released on November 2nd, but it looks like the Untoten shop will be releasing it a few weeks early on October 14th. As an extra bonus, the first 1,000 copies will be autographed by the band.

So far, Untoten has make 2 samples available on a MySpace page exclusively for Die Nonnen Von Loudun. There is a third song from Untoten’s 2006 best-of album that you can listen to, too. And if you want, you can check out a couple of their older songs on the band page.

I’ll get the tracklist for you as soon as I can. Here it is!

Die Nonnen von Loudun - Hysteria tracklist:
01. Von einer sittsamen Magd
02. König aller Sünden
03. Flammen der Liebe
04. Das Kabinett
05. Die Beichte
06. Die blutende Nonne
07. Die Mutter
08. Die Ruhe vor dem Sturm
09. Abigail
10. Tanz mit dem Teufel
11. Das Werk des Teufels (Der Mord)
12. Weiber
13. Braut des Himmels
14. In Nomine
15. Als Maria stand …
16. Schon steht der ganze Ort…
17. Die Asche der Rose I (instrumental)
18. Die Asche der Rose II
19. Der Pakt des Grandier
20. Die Beschwörung
21. Sur le Noel
22. Hysteria
23. Loudun (Abspann)

Die Nonnen von Loudun - Tagebuch einer Nonne tracklist:
01. Braut des Himmel
02. Als Maria…
03. Weckruf
04. Die Beschwörung
05. Sur le Noel
06. Werk des Teufels
07. Von einer, die den Teufel verschluckt
08. Zwischenspiel
09. Die kleine Nachtmusik
10. Nachtgedanken
11. Ach, schaut sie euch…
12. Blutende Nonne
13. Auf den Fluren…
14. Valentine
15. Hysteria
16. Die Entkleidung
17. Die Beichte
18. Prozess
19. In Nomine
20. Talisman
21. Ich öffne Dir!
22. Die Betschwestern
23. Der Pakt 2
24. Asche der Rose II
25. Fuge I
26. Höllenfahrt!

Eisheilig is releasing their new album Auf dem Weg in Deine Welt tomorrow, the 28th of September. As I remember, Eisheilig have always had a kind of downtrodden, gothic sound, and it sounds like their new album is no different. Well, actually, it kind of is, in a way. I’ve actually noticed a lot of sounds that you might hear from some kind of indie rock band throughout the album. It isn’t indie by any stretch of the imagination, the depressing, monotone vocals keep your emotions low, but the light does try to shine through in some places. “Kein Land in Sicht” is a good example of what I’m talking about. The drum beats and happy-sounding guitars start you off thinking everything is going to be great, but then the song progresses and the lyrics kick in and you realize it was just a false alarm. After all, the title of the song translates into “no land in sight”. That’s usually not something to be happy about.

Of course, there’s always a time for being depressed. Auf dem Weg in Deine Welt is just the kind of album I have to be in a certain mood for. It is a good album and is very well produced. I also know a lot of people who really love Eisheilig and listen to them quite often, so I can’t say you will necessarily agree with me or not. The only way to find out is to give them a listen and see how you react. Listen to a few new songs on Eisheilig’s MySpace site and let me know if you agree or not.

Eisheilig - Auf dem Weg in Deine Welt tracklist
01. Wir leben
02. Dein Stern
03. Auf dem Weg in deine Welt
04. Steht auf!
05. Die dunkelste Stunde
06. Ich halte dich
07. Gold
08. Kein Land in Sicht
09. Wird alles gut
10. Geh durchs Feuer

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

There’s been so much news lately that I haven’t really had any time to tell you about 4 more releases that are hitting stores today. Normally I would go over them individually and in more detail, but I’m in a bit of a time crunch right now because later tonight I will be seeing Ulrich Schnauss live in New York City (more U.S. tourdates here) so I’m lumping them all together into one post and doing a quick overview for today. I’ll probably post about them in more detail at some time in the future.

• Diary of Dreams - The Plague
  Diary of Dreams has a new album coming up next month, and this single gives you a nice preview. Two versions of “The Plague” plus additional songs “Allocution” and “Traumtänzer”.
• Götterdämmerung - Of Whores and Culture
  This is kind of a gothic/new wave band from the Netherlands, and their new album (with quite an interesting title) features 10 new songs. Check out some of their music here.
• Coppelius - Time-Zeit
  Coppelius is an interesting band combining rock music with cellos, clarinets, the double bass, and other more traditional instruments. They also seem to have an old-fashioned sense of style. Check their MySpace page for some music. Thanks to Maija for pointing this one out.
• Laibach - Nova Akropola (re-release)
  And finally, I thought I would point out that one of Laibach’s older albums, Nova Akropola, is being re-released today. I know, they’re Slovenian, not German technically. But they have strong links to Germany, often use the German language, and are adored by most German music fans I know, so they’re approved.

There you have it. The terribly abridged, perhaps even rushed version of today’s releases. I’m sorry I don’t have more time to get into the details, but I’ll provide you with everything you need to know over the next few days. See you tomorrow.

The Finnish masters of the cello Apocalyptica released their new album Worlds Collide on Friday the 14th in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was released today (September 17th) in most of the rest of the world, with a few other countries later in the month. The album features a wide range of guest musicians including Till Lindemann from Rammstein, Corey Taylor from Slipknot and Stone Sour, Dave Lombardo from Slayer, Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil, Adam Gontier from Three Days Grace, and the Japanese actor and musician Tomoyasu Hotei. The album was also produced by Jacob Hellner, best known for his work with Rammstein and Clawfinger.

Apocalyptica and Rammstein have a long history working together, and Worlds Collide marks yet another notable collaboration. For the new album, Till sings a German-language cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” or “Helden” in German. I haven’t heard this particular song yet (although I am looking forward to it), but I do like the other songs I’ve heard from the album. The single “I’m Not Jesus” which features Corey Taylor singing is a great song. And as always, Apocalyptica uses their cellos as an amazing substitute for low-tuned electric guitars. Sometimes I wonder if the cellos are better…

Check out some of the new Apocalyptica songs on their MySpace page.

Worlds Collide tracklist
01. Worlds Collide
02. Grace (feat. Tomoyasu Hotei)
03. I’m Not Jesus (feat. Corey Taylor)
04. Ion
05. Helden (feat. Till Lindemann)
06. Stroke
07. Last Hope (feat. Dave Lombardo)
08. I Don’t Care (feat. Adam Gontier)
09. Burn
10. S.O.S. (Anything But Love) (feat. Cristina Scabbia)
11. Peace
Bonus tracks on the deluxe edition
12. Ural
13. Dreamer

Blutengel has a new album coming out pretty soon. Labyrinth, their first full-length studio album since 2004, will be released on Friday, September 14th. That’s almost exactly 2 months after July’s Friday the 13th release of their single Lucifer which caught a good bit of attention in the electrogoth world. Labyrinth is available in 2 versions: a regular and a limited edition. The regular CD has 15 all-new songs while the limited edition includes a bonus disc with some extra B-sides, a remix, and a couple live songs as well.

You can download clips from 4 of the songs from Labyrinth here on Blutengel’s website (right click on the bold song titles). Personally, I thought it was kind of hard to get a good feeling for the songs with these samples, but what I heard was pretty good. Their MySpace page does have full-length songs, but for some reason they only have older songs there. Some updating, please?

Labyrinth
01. Into the labyrinth
02. Singing dead men
03. A new dawn
04. Beauty and delight
05. Dreamland
06. Gloomy shadows
07. Shame
08. Body move
09. When the rain is falling…
10. I remember (everything)
11. Lucifer
12. Sunrise
13. Behind your mask
14. Engelsblut
15. Escape (outro)

Bonus disc on the limited edition
01. Lucifer (DubMixx by Jenne)
02. Born again
03. Stormy rivers
04. Victory of death
05. Snowblind
06. Soul of ice (live 2007)
07. Love killer (live 2007)

Arndt from Radio Goethe reports that Peter Müller (a.k.a. Peter Kafka or Peter Pathos), former singer of Fiddler’s Green, has joined a gothic-rock band and is also the new singer of Lacrimas Profundere. Upon a bit of research, it looks like the gothic band Peter is now involved with is called Beloved Enemy. While I can’t tell you much about the band, anyone can hear on the site’s Media section that their music is pretty dark and heavy (although I find the title “Fuck Me Back To Life” to be rather amusing). The music actually reminds me a bit of Type O Negative. This is certainly quite a change from anything Fiddler’s Green has ever done.

Back on the 27th of April, Das Ich released a 2 disc compilation album called Addendum. The first disc features a variety of songs from several of the band’s albums as well as some remixes, while the second disc is entirely remixes, and alternate versions of songs. This is a really great mix of songs including the dancefloor favorite “Destillat (VNV Nation Remix)”.

Addendum

CD 1
01. Mann und Frau gehen durch die Krebsbarracke
02. Kleine Aster
03. Saal der kreisenden Frauen
04. Schöne Jugend
05. Requiem
06. Negerbraut
07. Mutter
08. Der Arzt I-III
09. Erde ruft
10. Der Schrei (Laboratory X Remix)
11. Das Ich im Ich (And One Remix)
12. Unschuld Erde (Funker Vogt Remix)
13. Destillat (VNV Nation Remix)
14. Das ewige Licht
15. Kokon
16. Zweisamkeit
17. Epilog
18. Bin ich es denn?

CD 2
01. Destillat (Extended Version)
02. Kindgott (Extended Version)
03. Kindgott (Extended Version)
04. Kindgott (Childhood)
05. Gott ist tot (Nietzsche Edit)
06. Von der Armut (Extended Version)
07. Von der Armut (Reverse Edit)
08. Der Schrei
09. Jericho (Live)
10. Dein Leben (Live)
11. Des Satans neue Kleider (Live)
12. Irrlicht
13. Ein Tag vergeht
14. Gefallener Engel (Demo)
15. Exorzist (Des Satans neue Kleider) (Demo)

But that’s not all!

There will also be a “best of” compilation called Alter Ego released on July 10th. This time, there’s no remixes or other bonus material, just the all-time best Das Ich songs. If you’re just learning about Das Ich, this will probably be a great CD to get you hooked.

Alter Ego
01. Gottes Tod
02. Kain Und Abel
03. Der Schrei
04. Von Der Armut
05. Unschuld Erde
06. Das Dunkle Land
07. Garten Eden
08. Destillat
09. Kindgott
10. Mann Und Frau Gehen Durch Die Krebsbaracke
11. Bin Ich Es Denn
12. Schwarzer Stern
13. Uterus
14. Schwarzes Gift
15. Opferzeit

If you want to find out more about Das Ich, I would recommend going to the fansite Egodram.com (rather than their official site) because it is updated more often and seems to have better info.

Last year, ASP and Chamber brought you their collaborative album Humility which was followed by a truly memorable tour. This year they are together again, and are bringing you 4 times the music. That’s right, their new live album set Once In A Lifetime spans 4 discs and plays for over 200 minutes! To compliment the songs where ASP and Chamber performed together, the second half of the set features behind the scenes recordings and other bonuses. Each of the strictly limited 1,999 pieces comes individually numbered and features a 40-page booklet. This incredible CD set will be out on June 15th, and you definitely don’t want to miss it.

Once In A Lifetime tracklist

CD 1 - Das Konzert, Teil 1 (The Concert, Part 1)
01. Once In A Lifetime, Part 1
02. A Dead Man’s Song
03. Versuchung
04. Torn
05. Demon Love
06. The Paperhearted Ghost
07. A Tale Of Real Love
08. Hunger
09. The Truth About Snow-White
10. She Wore Shadows
11. Und wir tanzten (Ungeschickte Liebesbriefe)
12. Once In A Lifetime, Part 2 (Reprise)

CD 2 - Das Konzert, Teil 2 (The Concert, Part 2)
01. Küss mich
02. Silence - Release
03. Solitude
04. Die Ballade von der Erweckung
05. Another Conversation
06. Sing Child
07. Ich will brennen
08. Toscana
09. Ride On
10. Hometown
11. Werben
12. Once In A Lifetime, Part 3 (Finale)

CD 3 - Die Lesung (The Reading)
01. Hässlich
02. Backstage (All Areas)
03. Paracetamolträume
04. Auszug aus „Tremendista“ feat. Ralph Müller/Gitarre
05. Campari O

CD 4 - Bonus Material
01. ASP Soundcheck-Outtake: „Sicamore Trees“
02. Demon Love
03. The Truth About Snow-White
04. She Wore Shadows
05. Sing Child
06. Hometown
07. Hunger
08. Silence - Release
09. ASP, Soundcheck-Outtake: „She Moved Through The Fair“

Additionally, ASP has recently been featured on the cover of the international version of Orkus magazine, along with a 6-page feature story. Be sure to check out ASP’s own current album Requiembryo which was released back in February. You can listen to some of their songs on ASP’s Myspace page.

Links for ASP and Chamber
ASP’s official site: TheTalesOfASP.com
ASP’s English-language forum: ASP-Community.com/
Chamber’s official site: Chamber-Online.de