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.

As many of you know, I am the webmaster of the official Stahlhammer website and I also operate their online store. I’m very glad to be helping them out as much as I can (plus, having my name printed in CD booklets is pretty cool too!). But the band has been quiet lately, so I’ve decided to liven things up a bit with a special CD sale. Of course, this also coincides nicely with the 6th anniversary of when the Stahlhammer website was first created on April 30, 2002.

There are currently just 2 Stahlhammer albums in stock, but they have both been greatly reduced in price and I have plenty of each. Gary’s solo album is also still available, though in a limited supply.

Feind Hört Mit is now just $7.50
Listen to MP3 samples here - Buy it here
Considered by many to be Stahlhammer’s best and most famous album, this essential Neue Deutsche Härte style longplayer was originally released on Nuclear Blast in 1999. It also has covers of Falco’s classics “Mutter, Der Mann Mit Dem Koks Ist Da” and “Jeanny”. Feind Hört Mit is one of the reasons I got into German music so much and it still remains one of my top 5 albums of all time.

Opera Noir has been reduced to $10
Listen to MP3 samples here - Buy it here
This is Stahlhammer’s current album and offers 13 songs of their latest blend of metal, industrial, and other more unconventional influences. Among the tracklist is a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes/Helden” and “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins.

Gary’s solo album Trivial Slushy Vintage is $10 also
Gary Wheeler was the original voice of Stahlhammer for their debut album Killer Instinkt. After his departure and eventual return, he now leads the band once again. This is his first solo album under his own name and presents a very different style than Stahlhammer, it’s much more mellow. I just have a few copies of this album left.

Be sure to download the samples and give them a listen. If you like Stahlhammer’s music, be sure to buy an album or two. We greatly appreciate your support, thanks!

Get ready for 3 awesome singles coming this Friday, March 28th…

1 - Nik Page - Vicious Girls
First up, we have Nik Page’s new single “Vicious Girls” which is the first we’ve heard from him since his collaboration with Kash on the single Kommunion which came out back in September 2007. This new electro-rock single features 6 songs including the title track, 3 remixes, and 2 B-sides. Head on over to Infrarot.de to listen to 45-second samples of all 6 songs (I particularly like “Get On II”) or Nik Page’s MySpace page to hear “Vicious girls” in its entirety. If you want this single, you’ll have to buy it from Infrarot too, because I haven’t found it anywhere else. It’s not even in the Wannsee shop (run by their label) yet.

Nik Page - Vicious Girls single tracklisting
01. Vicious Girls (Radio Edit)
02. Vicious Girls (Razorblade Classic Extended Version)
03. Medusa (feat. Menichal Servants)
04. Vicious Girls (Razorblade Miss Evil Mix)
05. Vicious Girls (Short & Dirty Version)
06. Get On II

2 - Songs Of Lemuria - Footprints
Next is Songs Of Lemuria, another band that Nik Page is a singer in, along with Michaela Laubach. “Footprints” is actually short for “Footprints On The Moon” which comes from the band’s debut album Deep. This single doesn’t have any remixes, but it does include a previous unreleased song called “Twist In My Sobriety” and one other song from the album. Once again, finding this single was a pain because nobody has it except Infrarot.de (and you can find the 45-second samples there, too). Wannsee could definitely use some better distribution.

Songs Of Lemuria - Footprints single tracklisting
01. Footprints On The Moon (Radio Edit)
02. Twist In My Sobriety
03. Hunting High And Low
04. Footprints On The Moon (Basic Version)

3 - Unheilig - An Deiner Seite
Just as a reminder, Unheilig is releasing their new single “An Deiner Seite” to support their amazing new album Puppenspiel. This is a great song and the single even includes its music video. For details and the complete tracklisting, be sure to see Valtteri’s post about “An Deiner Seite”.

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.

Back in October, Schock surprised us when they emerged from years of total silence with several new songs already recorded. They have kept their site very up to date since then, adding a new flash animation, new band photos, a new forum, and also the announcement that their forthcoming third album will be called Halt Still. There are also a few new songs (full length) on Schock’s MySpace page for you to enjoy until the album comes out. Honestly, I have to say that I liked the 4 songs they had on there before, but “Hilf Mir” and “Nichts Verlieren” aren’t bad, either. I am looking forward to this album and will post more updates as the news emerges.

The latest news from b.o.s.c.h. is that they are getting ready to launch a new music video. It’s for the song “Mehr” and it will be posted online on Halloween (which happens to be tomorrow, if you’ve been on another planet). They’ve had a mysterious teaser video online for a while now which looks pretty cool, so I can’t wait to see the full version. I have a feeling it’s going to be really awesome.

Here’s the “Mehr” teaser, for your viewing pleasure:

Teaser b.o.s.c.h. - mEhR

When you’re done watching the video, be sure to check out Das Modul. That’s a neat little flash program where you can mix different instruments from the b.o.s.c.h. song “Zeit” to create your own remix.

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:
(more…)

The new Die Krupps anthology Too Much History is being released this Friday, October 26th, and I thought I would share my review so you know what to expect.

Too Much History is divided into two separate sections, each one on a disc of its own. All of the songs on both discs have been re-recorded (not just partially remastered) to sound in tune with the last few Die Krupps albums, Odyssey of the Mind and Paradise Now. This method reminds me a lot of what Joachim Witt did recently with his new best of album Auf Ewig, and the result is just amazing.

The first CD, The Electro Years, dives deep into the Die Krupps discography and sheds new light on some of the band’s oldest recordings. The song selection is excellent, highlighting their most famous songs from the 1980s when they were at the forefront of the electro-industrial scene. But once the first track “Machineries of Joy” started up, you immediately notice something is very different. You are hearing guitars!

Rather than simply regurgitating their early songs, Die Krupps recorded all new tracks (most with guitars) for every song on the CD. Soon, it becomes very clear that this is far more than just an ordinary best-of album. The Electro Years is like what Die Krupps would have sounded like if they had just started using guitars earlier in their career. And you can hear exactly why they eventually did start using them, too. They just blend in perfectly, as if they were always meant to be there. Every single song is just phenomenal! I haven’t stopped smiling yet.

The Metal Years is the second disc on Too Much History. It spotlights the best Die Krupps songs from the ’90s when they pioneered the industrial metal genre. Once again, Jurgen Engler couldn’t leave the songs untouched, so he touched up the songs on this CD also. The changes here aren’t nearly as radical as those of The Electro Years, but any good Die Krupps fan will notice the differences. And they will like what they hear.

Both discs are sprinkled with a few extra little treats. The Electro Years has a bonus track called “Fünf Millionen” which originally appeared on the compilation Advanced Electronics Vol. 5 which has a melody similar to “Machineries of Joy.” There is also a cover (not the remix Die Krupps previously did) of Pop Will Eat Itself’s “Ich Bin Ein Ausländer” on The Metal Years disc. And both have the brand new song “The Great Divide.”

I am absolutely in love with Too Much History. Die Krupps fans like myself have been waiting for this compilation for years now, and I can honestly tell you that it has been well worth the wait. Bottom line: You need to hear this.

Check out my earlier news post with the album tracklist and links to song samples

Treibhaus just announced that they have a new bass player. Klaus Alberti will be replacing their old bassist Ulli Wellhausen, but there doesn’t seem to be any hard feelings. The band wished Ulli all the best luck in his future endeavors. In their newsletter, the band also said they are already working on new songs for what will become their third album. The members of Treibhaus must have some kind of unstoppable musical energy inside them because they are pumping out music incredibly fast. Their debut Unsterblich came out in 2005 and then their second album Feindbild was just released last year. That’s pretty impressive, especially considering the music is pretty good.

If you’re in Germany, be sure to catch Treibhaus live on stage on November 10th in Ingolstadt. They will be opening for Megaherz who will be playing for the first time with their new lineup.