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:
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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.

Wow! This totally caught me by surprise. For many, many months, years even, Schock was silent. Their website had absolutely no updates for the longest time and honestly I was beginning to think they had quietly slipped away into history. But tonight upon performing my regular rounds of German band websites, I typed www.schockline.de into my browser and I think my heart skipped a beat. Not only was it updated, but the website is entirely new! Granted, there’s not a whole lot there at the moment, but at least now I know Schock is still around. Not only are they still around, but they have new music!

Schock has 16 new songs ready to be perfected for release on a new album. I immediately headed over to their MySpace page and was absolutely pleased with what I heard. Four new songs, full length songs, and each one is amazing! Lots of heavy guitars, great riffs, awesome vocals… This is definitely going to be one hell of an album. Head on over and hear for yourself.

b.o.s.c.h. is simply the best new industrial-metal bands these days, in Germany or anywhere. They don’t even have an album out yet, but they have already been recognized as one of the top 25 bands on MySpace by Rolling Stone magazine. That’s big! If you haven’t tuned in to b.o.s.c.h.’s MySpace page yet, you don’t know what you’re missing.

A few weeks ago, b.o.s.c.h. let the Razor Blade Dance Floor podcast play a rough mix of their new song “Spiegel” which has gotten a huge response. Now the band has finalized the song’s recording and have launched it on their MySpace player. “Spiegel” is just one more song that’s definitely worth checking out. Stick around while we all eagerly await the album…

Die Krupps is one of the greatest and most important bands Germany has ever had. They were one of the earliest industrial bands way back in 1980, and later went on to create the industrial-metal sound in the early 90s. The band’s mastermind Jurgen Engler is often hailed as the godfather of industrial music and is easily one of the most important people in German music history. (Even before Die Krupps, he formed Male, the first punk band in Germany in 1976.) So it’s no surprise that the band reunited a couple years ago to celebrate their 25th anniversary. They’ve played several concerts and have been in the studio working on some new music, but the Die Krupps anthology release that they wanted to do hit some delays along the way. After many months of fighting to get everything together, it’s finally ready!

Too Much History is the name of the new Die Krupps anthology, featuring music that spans over a quarter century. Very appropriately, there are two discs, one for each of the band’s major eras. The first disc is The Electro Years and covers the first part of Die Krupps’ history, and The Metal Years sums up their harder sound on the second disc. In addition to all of the band’s best songs, Die Krupps has some new ones on the compilation as well. One of them, “5 Millionen”, is a new single that either was or will be released sometime this year (not sure yet…). There is also apparently a cover of the Pop Will Eat Itself song “Ich Bin Ein Auslander” which is new. “The Great Divide” seems to be new, too.

Both discs will be released individually on October 26th, but you can also get the version with both discs together which I would certainly recommend. To make their anthology even more mouth-watering, I think Die Krupps has remastered the songs. I haven’t read this anywhere, I’m just going by the samples I’ve heard on Infrarot.de (Electro disc here and Metal disc here) but some of them sound totally different from the originals.

And it just keeps getting better and better. Along with the few new tracks released here on Too Much History, Die Krupps has other new songs that they’ve played live over the past couple years. For example, “Der Amboss”. I’m just speculating at this point, but I think we may be seeing a new full-length Die Krupps album within a year or so. I certainly hope so.

Too Much History, Vol. 1 - The Electro Years
01. Machineries Of Joy
02. Für Einen Augenblick
03. Volle Kraft Voraus
04. Goldfinger
05. Gladiators
06. Der Amboss
07. Germaniac
08. Hi Tech Low Life
09. Alive
10. 5 Millionen
11. The Great Divide

Too Much History, Vol. 2 - The Metal Years
01. Metal Machine Music
02. The Dawning Of Doom
03. Crossfire
04. Fatherland
05. Bloodsuckers
06. To The Hilt
07. Isolation
08. Scent
09. Odyssey Of The Mind
10. Black Beauty White Heat
11. Ich Bin Ein Ausländer
12. The Great Divide

The United States always seems to be the last country to get any Rammstein release lately, and the Völkerball live CD and DVD set is no different. While the rest of the world took delivery almost a year ago in November of 2006, Völkerball is finally being released today here in America. The content for the American release is pretty much the same as the original one, with concert video footage and audio recordings from some of Rammstein’s live shows in France, England, Russia, and Japan, plus various other bonuses. But instead of having 5 different versions like the rest of the world got, Rammstein is only releasing 3 versions here. Good thing, too, because all those different versions caused a lot of headaches and confusion last year. Let me explain exactly what’s in each American version for you:

Völkerball versions

• Standard Edition
  1 DVD with 140 minutes of concert footage
  1 CD with 75 minutes of concert recordings
• Special Edition
  1 DVD with 140 minutes of concert footage
  1 CD with 75 minutes of concert recordings
  1 DVD with 90 minutes of documentaries
• Limited Edition
  1 DVD with 140 minutes of concert footage
  1 DVD with 90 minutes of documentaries
  2 CDs with entire concert recording
  All packaged in a 190-page hardcover tour photo book

Also, to support the release of Völkerball in the U.S., Rammstein giving away a Richard Kruspe signature ESP guitar signed by all the band members. Just visit this website to enter the contest.

Continue reading after the jump for the tracklisting of each individual disc
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DeutscheMusik.net has all kinds of great things for German music fans, from album reviews to forums, and they just keep making it better. Today, the site proudly announced the launch of their very own music shop. The DeutscheMusik.net Shop has a lot of very unique features that most online shops don’t have, so it’s definitely worth a look.

• Good CD prices - The shop can offer you very good prices on CDs because it’s not run for a profit. The guys running the shop are German music fans, too, so they don’t want to rip you off.
• Shipping rates are fair - They charge you only what it actually costs to ship your CDs to you. Once again, this is because they’re not overcharging and trying to make a profit.
• Lots of metal, rock, and industrial CDs - The selection of CDs available are mostly metal, NDH, and industrial/EBM releases. That’s just the kind of music they love to listen to, so that’s what they sell.
• Rare CDs are available - The shop has a lot of older music and CDs that you usually can’t find in most online stores. This is because the guy who runs the shop is a real person living in Germany and can look for CDs in the real world.
• Ask for a CD - It’s not a feature of the website, but I’m sure you can email them asking for a certain CD you’re looking for. It might not be readily available online, but they may be willing to look around the shops there in Germany and see if it can be found for you that way.

Check out the new DeutscheMusik.net Shop