Herzwerk II re-released today

Some Megaherz fans will tell you that Herzwerk II is the band’s best album. It is fantastic, no doubt, and is the last album recorded with their original singer Alexx Wesselsky. Herzwerk II was originally released in 2002 on the new (at the time) BMG sublabel Firestarter, but they later shut down business, leaving Megaherz in need of yet another new label. One question that was never really asked was who got the rights for Herzwerk II after the demise of Firestarter. Now, it is apparent that Megaherz’s first (and also current) label ZYX got them. How can we tell? ZYX organized a re-release of Herzwerk II and it has just arrived in stores today!

Megaherz has yet to say anything about this, but luckily for German music fans, we are all over any news about Megaherz like flies on… well, you know. If you’re anything like us, you will notice right away that the re-release contains the bonus track “Es Brennt” which was originally only available on the limited edition digipack version of Herzwerk II. That’s good news if you weren’t able to get one of the digipacks when the album first came out, or if you are a newer fan. Want even better news? The re-release is actually cheaper than the original in most stores that still have it for sale. For the best prices, visit Amazon.com in North America or AlphaMusic.de in Europe.

Megaherz - Herzwerk II re-release tracklist:
01. Herzblut
02. Glas und Tränen
03. I.M. Rumpelstilzchen
04. 5. März
05. F.F.F. (Flesh for Fantasy)
06. Hand auf’s Herz
07. Zu den Sternen
08. Licht II (Instrumental)
09. Heute schon gelebt?
10. An deinem Grab
11. Perfekte Droge
12. Spiel nicht…
13. Gold
14. Es brennt

“Mann Von Welt” single also out today

Don’t forget that Megaherz’s new single “Mann Von Welt” is also being released today. Yes, the band announced that it would be out last week on June 20th, but all the shops say June 27th and since they have the ultimate control about when a CD is put on the shelf, we will go with their date. You can find both the basic version and the limited fan edition on EMP.de.

The Viennese metal band Stahlhammer has just announced their first ever live appearance in the United States. They will be one of many bands performing at the Thunder of Gods Festival II outside of Austin, Texas, which will run from May 8-10 of 2009.

While the concert is still almost a year away, many of the details are already confirmed. It will be a 3-stage, 3-day weekend festival at RP Campground which is in the town of Dripping Springs, Texas. The pre-sale ticket price is expected to be $60 for the weekend which includes camping, and it will be BYOB.

The festival’s site will be announcing their first set of bands (and hopefully other details) in just a few days on June 30th. We’ll keep you up to date as the festival date comes closer.

Barely half a year has passed since the Austrian L’Âme Immortelle (website still under construction, check out the Myspace or the fansite Voiceless for more information) released Namenlos, a massive 2-CD album packed to the brim with EBM-influenced industrial metal. Now the duo formed by Thomas Rainer and Sonja Kraushofer are set to release a 2-CD rework album of Namenlos, titled Durch fremde Hand, on the 25th of July. Disc number 1 of Durch fremde Hand will feature every single song from the first CD of Namenlos, each remixed or covered by various artists, and the second disc has some completely new tracks recorded specifically for Durch fremde Hand.

Durch fremde Hand will be available as a basic jewel-case edition with both discs and a 20-page booklet, and in addition to that, there’s a strictly limited (2000 pieces worldwide) version in a digipak and a 28-page booklet. Now, this is where it gets complicated. First of all, there are differing accounts of the contents of disc 2, with some sites saying there are five new songs and others saying there’s six. Secondly, the only tracklisting I’ve found is a mammoth 19-piece one, and I just don’t have a bloody idea if it’s just for disc 1 or does it also include the tracks for disc 2. You can find it anyway at the end of this post.

Durch fremde Hand can be preordered at least at InfraRot and EMP, but word has it that it will be also be released in the US on Metropolis Records, so you should be able to get it from their shop or for example at Isotank.

Tracklisting for Durch fremde Hand by L’Âme Immortelle
1. 1000 Voices (Echoes Of A Thousand Voices Covered By ASP)
2. Behind The Light (Beautiful Light Remix By Bella Donna)
3. Bleib (Plastic Remix By Dope Stars Inc.)
4. Blutrot (Quiet Heart Remix By Necessary Response)
5. Das Kühle Grab
6. Durch Fremde Hand
7. Ein Blick Zurück
8. Es Tur Mir Leid (Entschuldigung Remix By Grendel)
9. Jenseits Der Schatten (Void Remix By Monozelle)
10. Lost (Pin-Up Remix By XPQ-21)
11. Namenlos (Drifting Downwards Remix By Perfidious Words)
12. Niemals (Club Remix By Wynardtage)
13. Now You’re Gone
14. Ophelia
15. Reborn (Hardcore Remix By Las Vegas 909)
16. Requiem (Satya Yuga Remix By Affentanz)
17. Suffocating Endlessly
18. The Cleansing (Voidian Cleansing Remix By Beyond The Void)
19. Vergessen (Die Namenlosen Von Berlin By Üebermutter)

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…
(more…)

Extra, Vol. 1 announced

Early in April, we found out that KMFDM would be releasing a 3-part series of compilations called Extra, which would feature lots of the non-album material from the band’s extensive back-catalog. Then they announced the tracklisting for the first volume on May 1st, but gave no mention of when it would actually be released. I figured it couldn’t be too much longer before a date was given, and then I would post it here. But here we are now halfway through the month and we still don’t have a date, so I’ve given up on waiting around for them to give us more details.

So, if you haven’t seen it already, here’s the tracklisting for KMFDM’s Extra Vol. 1 compilation. The release date will just have to be posted later. Nevermind, Metropolis says it will be out on June 3rd. Why couldn’t KMFDM write that on their site?

KMFDM - Extra, Volume 1 tracklist

Disc One
01. Sieg-Sieg (Z Records Version)
02. Don’t Blow Your Top (Adrian Sherwood Mix)
03. Disgust (12″ Mix)
04. Oh Look II
05. Rip The System
06. More & Faster (12″ Mix)
07. Naff Off
08. Virus (12″ Mix)
09. M+F 244 (High & Geil Mix)
10. Godlike (12″ Mix)
11. Friede (12″ Mix)
12. Naive (My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult Remix)
13. Naive (TKK Remix Edit)

Disc Two
01. Split (12″ Mix)
02. Piggybank (Shock Mix)
03. Go To Hell (Fearing & Burning Mix)
04. Vogue (12″ Mix)
05. Sex On The Flag (12″ Mix)
06. Split (Apart Version)
07. Split (Mirrorball Mix)
08. Money (Radio Mix)
09. Bargeld (Radio Mix)
10. Money (Cover Charge Mix)
11. Bargeld (Rubber Club Dub)
12. Money (Metal Mix)
13. Bargeld (Jezebeelzebutfunk Mix)
14. Money (Death Before Taxes Mix)

The June edition of 24/7

KMFDM has also recently announced that June’s edition of their 24/7 single series will be “Virus (12″ Mix)” with the B-side “More & Faster (High & Geil Mix)”. Head on over to the KMFDM Store on June 1st to order this limited edition single. All the past months’ singles have been selling out in just a few days, so you don’t want to be late.

Audiomat is a brand new band from the city of Göttingen in the center of Germany. Still fresh and unsigned, they aim right at the center of the post-NDH electro-metal sound that a lot of bands like Treibhaus and BOSCH are playing these days, and they hit the target perfectly.

Listen to the song “Hass Mich” from Audiomat’s demo and you’ll hear exactly what I mean. This is the kind of music that should have been produced right after the original Neue Deutsche Härte bands either faded away or shifted directions, but instead many bands at that point favored a more pure form of metal. Now a second wave of NDH bands like Audiomat have revived the seamless blend of synths with electric guitars.

“Süchtig” is another excellent example of Audiomat’s heavy, fluid style. Mart’s deep vocals (whose sprech-gesang style could be compared with Alexx Wesselsky’s) are perfectly in tune with riffs from the band’s dual guitarists Alex and Martin. Mart also mixes in the electronic elements for a lighter feeling that keeps the song moving along at a good pace.

All summed up, Audiomat is one new band you definitely have to hear. Stop by the band’s MySpace page and listen to the 4 full-length songs available there. I recommend it.

Audiomat’s demo:
01. Hass Mich
02. Spiel Mit Mir
03. Süchtig
04. Herzschlag
05. Göttin

Anyone who has been part of the online German music community for many years may remember GermanMetal.com which started in 2002. The original goal was to create complete fansites for German metal bands, but only the Oomph! and Herzer sections were ever finished before that first version of the site went offline.

Now, after a number of years in hibernation and lots of hard work more recently, site founder Joki has brought life back to GermanMetal.com in the form of a wiki. Just like any other wiki, anyone can add new pages and edit the information contained on the site, creating a knowledge base of German music that represents the areas of expertise of all its contributors. You can help add to the wiki, too. Just create an account to begin.

One thing to keep in mind: GermanMetal.com does not cover all styles of German music. As the name indicates, the site focuses specifically on some of the many various forms of metal that have become popular in Germany. Whether you call it industrial-metal, electro-metal, Neue Deutsche Härte, tanzmetall, or something completely different, it can be tricky figuring out if a band qualifies or not, especially when there are so many names for what seems to be basically the same thing. So if you want to write about a band, you should definitely read exactly what their definition of “German metal” is first. There’s also a priority artists list which can give you some suggestions for what bands to write about.

The GermanMetal.com wiki has lots of information about ASP, Samsas Traum and Unheilig already, and you can be sure that list will grow significantly over time. Check it out.

A new bit of info about Megaherz’s forthcoming 6th album: PowerMetal.de posted a very short article stating that the still untitled album will be released in July, stating Absolut Promotion as the source. It also lists a few song names, some of which were already known. They are “Der Mann von Welt”, “Heuchler”, “Fauler Zauber”, “Kaltes Grab”, “L’Aventure”, and of course “Ebenbild” which you can hear on Megaherz.de.

This anticipated release date seems to fit pretty well with the band’s announcement at the beginning of the month that they expect to be done in the studio by the end of June. The anticipation is building!

Laibach interprets J. S. Bach

Laibach, every Germaniac’s favourite not quite German but Slovenian super-political and awesome industrial/neo-classical/electronic/everything ensemble will be releasing a new record titled LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE. In 2006 Laibach performed at a festival celebrating the classic German composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s life and works, and now it will be available for everyone on CD or digital download. LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE is a laibachized (i.e. sodomized but a hell of a lot better than the original) interpretation of Bach’s composition Die Kunst der Fuge. The release will also be accompanied by a short LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE tour in Europe.

On 5th May, the CD will be available for digital purchase on Mute.com and later as a physical product on Laibach WTC Shop, which will be opened in May as well.

Visit LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE’s own page for information on the project, complete tracklisting and tour dates.

New material from Turmion Kätilöt this summer

Although the Finnish Turmion Kätilöt is far from German, their incredible music has some really strong ties to German industrial metal. In fact, I remember Greg once writing that B.O.S.C.H. is like the German equivalent of Turmion Kätilöt, so if you like B.O.S.C.H., (and chances are you do if you’re surfing Germaniac), Turmion Kätilöt should get you very, very excited if you aren’t already.

Turmion Kätilöt has now announced the release of a new single and album. The single, due for 21st May, will be titled Minä Määrään, and the new album USCH! will be released on 11th June. Turmion Kätilöt have had some major difficulties with their current record company Spinefarm, and the animosity between the band and the company will be solved in court. I hope everything goes well for them.

Tracklisting for the single and albums haven’t been published as of yet, but in the meantime you can check their website for information on the band and samples of every single song they’ve released if you aren’t familiar with them already. Trust me, you should be.

The rockers of Dementi are the latest German band to embrace the Creative Commons license and offer their music as free downloads online. Both of the band’s albums, their 2003 debut Zweigefühl and 2005’s Für Heute Reichts, are now available to anyone as long as you don’t use them for any commercial purposes. So go ahead and download Dementi’s music, just visit the download page of their website where you will receive the songs bundled together in a zip file. If you like the music, please don’t forget to support the band for their work by making a donation at the bottom of the same page.

I recommend their second album Für Heute Reichts. It’s the harder one of their two albums and also mixes in some nice electronic elements, it’s really great. I would compare it to Treibhaus, maybe Eisenherz or Megaherz… Check it out.

Don’t forget, Dementi is also working on a new album which is supposed to be released sometime later this year. Not much about it has been announced and I don’t know if they plan to release it for free the same way, but I’ll be sure to bring you the details later on when more information has been announced.