I’m terribly sorry for the lack of updates recently! For me there’s been so much to do lately, and I presume it’s the same deal with Greg as well. But on to business! Again!

The ex-KMFDM, currently of Slick Idiot crazy bastard En Esch recently teamed up with Mona Mur, a respected and long-time sound engineer and vocalist. Both musicians are well-respected figures in the industrial scene but still of very different styles, so it’s interesting to see these artists perform together. Last month they finally released the fruits of their collaboration, a full-length album titled 120 Tage - The Fine Art of Beauty and Violence. The record contains eleven tracks of which seven are remade versions of Mona Mur’s 80s and 90s hits, and four are completely new songs (tracks 1, 4, 5 and 11). The project was extremely positively received by the press, and it indeed is a mystifying, oftentimes just plain weird but still extremely captivating meld of industrial elements, orchestral strings, gothic vocals and dark electro. Really a unique, extremely dynamic duo of artists. In any case, it’s damned difficult to describe but a lot more fun to listen to, so the best would be if you checked it out yourself by visiting Mona Mur & En Esch’s MySpace, where they have two full songs and two short clips.

You can find the album for sale on at least Amazon.de and Pale Music.

Thanks to teekey for the info on the all-new songs!

Mona Mur & En Esch - 120 Tage - The Fine Art of Beauty and Violence
1. Candy Cane
2. Die Ballade vom ertrunkenen Mädchen
3. 120 Tage
4. The Thin Red Line
5. Visions & Lies
6. Eintagsfliegen
7. Snake
8. Mon Amour
9. Surabaya Johnny
10. Der Song von Mandelay
11. The Wound

Gerrit Thomas and the rest of Funker Vogt will be coming to the United States in April for their Warzone Tour. The 13 scheduled dates will take the electro-industrial act to every corner of the country, but there’s a lot of space in between the cities so you may still have to travel a few hours to get to see them depending on where you live. If you pay attention to this style of music, you know it will be worth it, though.

Funker Vogt has been around for nearly 15 years and has produced many great albums, gaining them quite a following around the world, even to the point where their CDs have been sold in some mall chain stores like FYE and Hot Topic. If they have somehow managed to slip under your radar, you should really give them a listen. Here’s one of their more popular songs, “Gunman”:

You can also listen to more Funker Vogt on their Myspace page, and find their albums (including their forthcoming, first ever 2-disc live album Warzone K17) for sale in the Metropolis Mailorder site at very good prices.

Funker Vogt’s Warzone Tour Dates
(dates updated again, as of Feb 27)

April 2 - San Francisco, CA - DNA Lounge
April 3 - Los Angeles, CA - Das Bunker
April 8 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon
April 9 - Salt Lake City, UT - Club Vegas
April 10 - Denver, CO - Tracks
April 11 - Scottsdale, AZ - Zombie Ball @ The Venue
April 12 - Detroit, MI - TBA
April 13 - Pittsburgh, PA - Pegasus
April 14 - Northampton, MA - The Haven
April 15 - Richmond, VA - Fallout
April 16 - Allentown, PA - The Sterling Hotel
April 17 - New York, NY - Stimulate (event name, venue TBA)
April 18 - West Palm, FL - Respectable Street
April 20 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
April 23 - Austin, TX - Elysium
April 24 - Dallas, TX - The Lizard Lounge

The well-respected veteran industrial electro and darkwave outfit Project Pitchfork fronted by the ever-prolific Peter Spilles has finally come out with their new album: Dream, Tiresias!. It will be available February 27th, and it’ll be preceded by the single Feel!, which will be out in just over a week on the 23rd. Dream, Tiresias! is Project Pitchfork’s first full album since Kaskade which was released already four years ago in 2005, although they do have put out an odd single and EP here and there. The new album appears to be a concept album of sorts, with each track having a second title like “First dream”, “Second dream” and so on, and the piece of news on the official site tells us that Dream, Tiresias! will show the true essence of Project Pitchfork. I’m always up for a good concept album, and also unleashing a band’s true nature certainly doesn’t make matters worse very often, so sounds good to me.

Dream, Tiresias! will be available in three different set-ups: the Europe-only basic and limited special editions, and also a limited US edition with three bonus tracks picked from the Feel! single which won’t be released outside Europe. The European special set will feature a second disc alongside the album itself, an MCD with three additional tracks. Two are new, and one is a remix of the song One Million Faces which was released in 2007. And oh yeah, the single Feel! will be EP-length and boast a total of nine tracks, eight of which are remixes by various big names like [:SITD:] and Die Krupps - you can see them all after the break in the tracklist.

For a taster of Dream, Tiresias! you should head to Pitchfork’s MySpace, there’s one full track and four snippets from the upcoming album for you to listen. Both the single and the basic version of the album are preorderable at Amazon.de (single, album) and Infrarot.de (single, album), and Isotank has the US version. Metropolis will presumably distribute the album and sell it at some point as well, seeing as they’re Pitchfork’s label of choice on the other side of the Atlantic. The special edition with the additional CD I wasn’t able to find anywhere, but maybe it’ll emerge at one point or the other.

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The electro-industrial band Wynardtage released their fourth studio album last month on November 21st. It’s called The Grey Line, and it comes just over a year after their last studio album Praise the Fallen. Once again, the band delivers a solid club-compatible album, with 11 songs including a special appearance by Melanie G from davaNtage on the title track. The album also has 3 bonus remixes, but you have to pay attention because the European version (released on E-Noxe) has different remixes than the North American version (released on COP International).

You can find a few songs from The Grey Line on the Wynardtage MySpace page along with some older ones. For additional samples from the new album, you can listen on AlphaMusic.de, which also has the Euro version of the album for sale for EUR 13.99. COP International’s webshop and Isotank are tied for the best price on the North American version at $9.99.

Wynardtage - The Grey Line (European version)
1. Mask
2. Tragic Hero
3. The Frozen Point
4. Leaving
5. Cutting Down
6. The Grey Line
7. In Death A Tale
8. If There Is No Tomorrow
9. My Life
10. Crash Of A Star
11. Now We Are Alive
12. Now We Are Alive (Remixed By Painbastard)
13. Mask (Remixed By ESC)
14. Tragic Hero (Remixed By X-Fusion)

Wynardtage - The Grey Line (North American version)
1. Mask
2. Tragic Hero
3. The Frozen Point
4. Leaving
5. Cutting Down
6. The Grey Line
7. In Death A Tale
8. If There Is No Tomorrow
9. My Life
10. Crash Of A Star
11. Now We Are Alive
12. The Grey Line (Remixed By Yendri)
13. If There Is No Tomorrow (Remixed By Cygnosic)
14. The Frozen Point (Remixed By Echorausch)

Greifenkeil, who released their album Blood Mystery last May, have changed their name to GriffonVox. Along with the new name comes a boatload of new stuff:

Annual Christmas gift
It seems Greifenkeil/GriffonVox have made it their tradition to release a free Christmas song every year. Following last year’s NoChristmasSong, this year’s track is called White Christmas (Law of the Land), and it’s the very first release under the new band name. You can download the mp3 here, or if you fancy, a 45 MB .wav file here.

New style, new releases
Sometimes when a band changes their name, nothing else is different. This time, however, GriffonVox seems to be seeking to distance themselves from Greifenkeil’s “psycho-acoustic performance art”, as now GriffonVox’s sites tell us they’re an “electronic wave performance” act. Last time I checked, Greifenkeil’s music was a very interesting kind of ambient and psychedelic industrial, so it’ll be interesting to see just what this new direction means for the band. If the new Christmas song White Christmas is of any indication, the sound is a bit less crushing and industrial than before, and seems to have a touch of trance or something like that to it. Nevertheless, it’s really good.

To really drive home the fact that the band has changed, GriffonVox is releasing the album Blood Mystery again done entirely anew in the new style. According to their MySpace site, Blood Mystery - Electronic Wave Mix will be available for free for everyone who bought the original version of the album, or as Blood Mystery Kultbox which will have both the original Blood Mystery as well as the new version. Alongside the transformed original songs, the Electronic Wave Mix also boasts some older songs they performed during their shows, presumably played in the new style. Blood Mystery - Electronic Wave Mix will see the light of day at the Wave Gothik Treffen 2009 festival in early summer.

In WGT 2009 will also be released a brand new EP, She’s Lost Control. She’s Lost Control is a cover of Joy Division’s 1979 hit song, but the EP will have at least two other tracks as well. Whether these are remixes, other cover versions or completely new GriffonVox songs remains a secret. Also, not content with releasing this much stuff already, early spring 2009 something known only as Law of the Land will be available as a free download. I’m afraid there’s currently no information on this one. Keep your eyes peeled.

KMFDM’s next album, Blitz
Sascha Konietzko and crew have just announced the name and release date of the next KMFDM album. It will be called Blitz and will arrive on March 24, 2009, during the band’s 25th year in existence. The only other details that have emerged so far are that it will have 11 songs, and that it will be released on KMFDM Records in association with Metropolis Records, just like their other recent releases. Check back here or KMFDM.net for updates in the coming months.

Skold vs. KMFDM
KMFDM also announced another project less than a week ago, but this time it will be a collaboration between Kapt’n K and former band member Tim Skold. Together, these 2 comrades have recorded 22 tracks that play for over 70 minutes, all of which will be released on an album, hopefully soon. Until then, you will just have to play the samples on the Skold vs. KMFDM website over and over again.

The latest piece of news on Wumpscut’s official website updates us on the progress of the upcoming album Fuckit - it’s finished, and it’ll be available for hearing on Wumpscut’s website on Christmas Eve, 24th December! What exactly this means is as of yet unknown, as the English update only mentions the album being “online” then, whereas the German version says the album “wird zu kriegen sein”, which is pretty much “will be available” in English. Maybe you’ll actually be able to download the full album for free? Who knows? Just under two weeks until the 24th, so you’ll have to hold your horses until then.

Rudy “Merch Factory” Ratzinger is also announcing a new line of :W: merchandise for Fuckit and Wumpscut. Alongside previously announced rings and belts you’ll have the chance to really fuckit (oh my god, I’m sorry! But I’m sure horrible puns are exactly what Rudy’s been aiming for) with Fuckit-themed condoms. In addition to those, on 24th will also be revealed more fantastically unexpected fan swag. Whatever could that be? It’s not like Wumpscut’s had any sort of dearth of creativity for its merchandise, there’s been just about everything from mousepads to fridge magnets, and from energy drinks to metal shields… And now there’s supposed to be something even more extraordinary. You could say Ratzinger goes sometimes - no, make it all the time - a bit overboard with the insane amounts of merchandise, but hey, at least it’s all consistently really, really good and of high quality. And who said you have to buy absolutely everything?

I just found out that Winterkälte is currently on tour in the North America. They have 5 concerts left in the United States and one more in Canada in what they are calling their Do Not Vote For Industry Tour 2008.

None of the concerts appear to be sold out yet, so you can either order tickets online and have the venue hold them for you (because there probably isn’t time for them to be mailed to you before the concert date, so use “will call”) or you can probably just show up on the night of the show and buy your ticket at the door. They are all pretty cheap, mostly ranging between $8 and $15 depending on the venue.

If you’re not familiar with Winterkälte, it is an industrial powernoise project created by Udo Wiessmann who also founded the record label Hands Promotion. Winterkälte’s music (I know a few people who would question whether it’s music at all) may be a bit hard to grasp for some of you who need a clear melody or vocals for you to enjoy it, but if you fall anywhere between a rivethead and an experimental music connoisseur, you should enjoy it. Check out some of his music on his Myspace page.

Winterkälte Tour Dates
Dec 04 - Washington, DC - Exposure
Dec 05 - Los Angeles, CA - Das Bunker
Dec 07 - San Francisco, CA - DNA Lounge
Dec 10 - New York City, NY - Fontanas
Dec 12 - Lowell, MA - Down Street Cafe
Dec 14 - Toronto, ON - The Kathedral

Visit Winterkälte’s Tour Date list on Myspace for venue addresses, show times, and other details.

Mina Harker goes Tiefer on debut album

Do you remember the awesome remix version of Rammstein’s Ohne Dich by Laibach and Mina Harker? Well, now Mina Harker has finally, just about a week ago on October 31st, released her very first album titled Tiefer. Tiefer seems to be a very promising blend of gothic, industrial, rock and poppy things with Harker’s great voice on top of it all. On top of ten other rock-pop-goth songs, there’s also a duet with Dero from Oomph!, who Harker will be supporting on their German tour for the successful album Monster.

You can check several samples from the album, including the aforementioned duet with Dero, on Mina Harker’s MySpace site. Tiefer is obtainable from most stores, like EMP.de for 15,99 €, Infrarot.de for 14,99 €, Out of Line Shop for 12,99 € or Isotank for $19,99.

You’ll find the track listing for the album after the break.

Blutengel presses onwards with new single Dancing in the Light

Just a couple of months have passed since Blutengel released their huge live DVD set Moments of our LIVEs. Now the band is back at it again: a new single, titled Dancing in the Light, will be dancing in the light of day in nine days on 14th November! The single will be a teaser for the next album, which is scheduled to be released sometime early next year, and there’s going to be two different variations of the single. Both Dancing in the Light (”Forsaken”) and Dancing in the Light (”Solitary”) will feature the title track, a music video, an exclusive remix and two extra songs. The remixes and the bonus tracks are, of course, all different on both versions.

You can catch a trailer for the single here. The single seems to be orderable from just about everywhere, for example EMP.de has both versions (Solitary, Forsaken) for 6,99 €, Isotank has them (Solitary, Forsaken) for $9,99 each and Out of Line Shop has a bundle with both versions for 11,98 €.

And now for the piece of news countless people have been waiting for…

Rammstein begins recording of the new album

Yeah, that’s right, the NDH band that made the genre popular around the world has finally started recording their next album. The newly updated official website has been stripped of the Völkerball-look that’s been annoying eager fans for a couple of years by not displaying any updates at all with a simple black-and-gray style. Also, just about everything on the site has also been cleaned up and replaced with a newspost stating that recording will commence on November 9th in a studio in San Fransisco, while the drum tracks are being worked on in Los Angeles. Not much yet, but darned if I’m not excited. Rammstein’s definitely not my favourite German band anymore, but they bloody well do deserve the praise and the success they’ve had for their efforts in making German music (and German altogether) more popular all around the globe.

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Once upon a time, I recommended listening to the completely insane industrial metal band Limbogott while smashing various objects… hopefully the inanimate kind. A year has gone by since then so it’s time for an update. Limbogott is currently working on their third album called Spit Or Swallow which has a February 2009 release in sight on Tiefdruck Musik. And while there hasn’t been many details announced yet, we do know that the album is being produced and mixed in Los Angeles by none other than Jay Gordon!

If you don’t already know who Jay Gordon is (and you probably should), he is the voice of the American band Orgy, best known for their cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday”. Jay also played bass on Deadsy’s debut album Commencement and has collaborated with the likes of Linkin Park, Coal Chamber, and Jonathan Davis of Korn, among others. With that kind of experience, Limbogott is in good hands. Let’s hope this relationship can help out with a US release and maybe even a tour over here.

Limbogott’s first new single “Recide” should be released some time before the album and will feature Jay as a guest vocalist. You can bet we’ll be on top of this as more news emerges.