Schandmaul is a six-piece medieval rock band from the Munich area that was formed in the late ’90s. They have release 5 increasingly successful albums to date, and will be releasing their 6th album Anderswelt this Friday on April 4th. Anderswelt, which translates into “Parallel Universe” according to the band, has 14 new songs and comes in 2 varieties. There is a regular version that comes in a digipack and a limited edition which just has an extra video feature, as far as I can tell.

Listen to it, Get it…
As of now, Schandmaul’s MySpace page doesn’t have any music from Anderswelt, but you can still get a good idea of the band’s sound from the 4 clips from their previous album Mit Leib Und Seele. Luckily AlphaMusic.de saves the day, though, with brief samples from all 14 tracks. You can also buy the album there for 14.99 Euros (or the limited edition for 16.99). Lots of other online retailers have the album in both versions too, like EMP.de and Amazon.de. No luck finding it in the USA yet.

Schandmaul - Anderswelt tracklisting:
01. Frei
02. Krieger
03. Anderswelt
04. Königin
05. Zweite Seele
06. Die Braut
07. Missgeschick
08. Sirenen
09. Stunden des Lichts
10. Fiddlefolkpop
11. Augen auf!
12. Wolfsmensch
13. Drei Lieder
14. Prinzessin
(plus a bonus video feature on the limited edition)

It has been a while since I talked about the Swiss-based band Fanoe, and it’s time to mention them again now that their long-awaited second album Down To Heaven has finally been released. It has actually been available since the beginning of February, but only from a limited number of sources so far and promotion has largely been underground and by word-of-mouth. This electronic rock album has 10 songs and comes in a very nice digipack featuring stunning artwork that was designed by the band’s singer himself. It’s almost as good as the music.

Mini-review / Listen to Down To Heaven
Down To Heaven is a fantastic album and a very fitting followup to Fanoe’s first album Empire Dirt, which has been one of my favorites lately. It’s grungier and the electronics seem to be more thinly scattered than their debut, but the music is still well within the bounds of industrial rock and sounds great. I think “Lover Undercover” is my favorite so far. While German music purists may not like the fact that the lyrics are in English, they are still performed very well and certainly don’t detract from the musical style. I urge you to listen to some of the very generous 2-minute MP3 samples of every song on the album from CD Baby’s Down To Heaven page. You can listen to each track individually or click the “Play All Songs” button to hear them all in order. I also posted the music video for “I Am” below for you.

Where to find the album
In Europe, Down To Heaven is available from Cede.ch. In the USA, CD Baby and CD Connection both have the album in stock. Naturally, you can download the album on iTunes as well. And finally, if you really like the band and want to order a shirt or a special art print from the band, you should visit Fanoe’s webshop. Just choose your preferred currency at the left to enter and see all the items.

Fanoe - Down To Heaven tracklisting
01. Down to Heaven
02. I Am
03. Sweet Nothing
04. Skin & Bones
05. Passion
06. Medicine Man
07. Burn in Hell
08. Lover Undercover
09. One More Day
10. Innocent

Fanoe - “I Am” video

From: youtube.com/watch?v=09-XzyfwIMA. Be sure to check out Fanoe’s YouTube page for more videos from the band, too.

Hot on the heels of the phenomenal new album Puppenspiel (you can also read the review here), Unheilig is set to release a new single An Deiner Seite on the 28th of this month. Although the voting for the next EP which’ll be released later in May is still open and going strong, the band’s frontman Der Graf has personally chosen An Deiner Seite as the next single. It seems to be a very personal song for him, as it’s about a close friend of his, in addition to being a very nice track. It’s interesting to note that the single will also have a video for the song, the first one since the Freiheit video of 2004.

Tracklisting for the An deiner Seite single:
1. An Deiner Seite (Radio Version)
2. An Deiner Seite
3. Goldene Zeiten (Clubmix)
4. An Deiner Seite (Video)

There are many bands that undoubtedly are great overall, but on every record amongst the masterpieces there’s a bunch of a lot inferior or even downright bad songs. A prime German example of such a band would be KMFDM. Every album has its fair share of instant classics, yet to counter them there’s always a couple of really insignificant and inane tracks that don’t do anything to justify their existence. But what does this have to do with Unheilig?

Yeah, nothing at all, because Unheilig isn’t like that. On Unheilig’s latest offering Puppenspiel (released February 22nd) Der Graf shows yet again his nearly unreal talent in songwriting and manages to churn out a full 14 tracks (16 if you’ve got the limited edition, like yours truly), every single one of which are enjoyable. Yes, the previous albums Moderne Zeiten and Zelluloid were both very solid and the same could’ve been said about them, but Puppenspiel is bordering perfection. To be quite honest, I was kind of skeptical when the first three samples of the album (Der Vorhang fällt, An deiner Seite and Kleine Puppe) were revealed. They were good, but they didn’t predict that many changes to the sound and formula that proved to be a winning combination on the last two CDs. However, when the urgent intro Vorhang auf exploded perfectly into Puppenspieler, it grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go until I’d listened the CD straight through.

Most of the album is darker and notably more furious than the almost overly sluggish and romantic Moderne Zeiten, especially Lampenfieber is a surprisingly brutal cut for Unheilig, while the ballads Feuerengel, An deiner Seite and Der Vorhäng fällt are no slouches either, as they are genuinely touching and powerful. Guitars seem to have more of a driving role here than electronics making for a heavier sound than before, although synths, pianos and strings are still a large part of the band’s sound. Der Graf also uses his voice in ways we haven’t heard before. Too bad the limited edition is already completely sold out, as the two bonus songs are also terrific additions to the core experience. Probably the only song that doesn’t stand out as much as everything else is Wie viele Jahre, which seems more like filler with its weird, out-of-place Gregorian sample and is grudgingly slow.

In other words, Puppenspiel is tougher, catchier, more epic and simply put better than anything Der Graf has created before. It’s chock-full of songs that’ve been composed and produced so excellently that it’s almost ridiculous, a brilliant, expert combination of both familiar and new Unheilig elements. For fans it’s automatically a must-have, and if you’re not a fan of Unheilig yet, Puppenspiel proves that you bloody well should be, it’s that damn good. Get it and see for yourself.

Check out samples for each track on Nilaihah’s website, where you can also order it if you’re in the US. When you’ve got the album, don’t forget to vote for your favourite title on the German side of Unheilig’s website.

Where to get Puppenspiel
In the USA/Canada direct from Nilaihah Records
In the UK at MusicNonStop.co.uk
In Germany/Europe at AlphaMusic.de

Emigrate’s 3rd single “Temptation” was supposed to be released at the end of January, according to one news post on the band’s website. Obviously that didn’t happen, but Emigrate’s latest email newsletter announced that it will finally be released on March 7th. In addition to the featured track, the single will have 2 previously unreleased songs, “Face Down” and “I Have A Dream” plus the first 2 Emigrate music videos.

The newsletter also says that this single will only be released as a physical CD. There will be no digital downloads available. I’m not too sure how smart that is these days. And on top of that, the CD will only be released in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. So much for making music accessible to your fans. If you want to buy Temptation, you will have to hop on over to a German webstore like Amazon.de which has it for EUR 6.99.

In case you were wondering, the background photo on the cover is of New York City, looking south with Jersey City on the other side of the river.

Emigrate - Temptation single tracklist
01. Temptation (album track)
02. Face Down (non-album track)
03. I Have A Dream (non-album track)
04. My World (album track)
05. My World (video)
06. New York City (video)

German music fans have been awaiting the release of Unheilig’s new album for a long time now, but finally Puppenspiel is almost here! Tomorrow, February 22nd, the album will be released in Europe via Four Rock Entertainment. A week later on February 29th, Unheilig will have their first North American album release ever when Nilaihah Records distributes Puppenspiel for the band’s overseas fans.

As is typical with most new album releases, there will be 2 versions of Puppenspiel. The standard version will have 14 new songs including an instrumental at the end. There is also a limited edition digipack with 2 bonus tracks, but the evidence I have seen suggests that this version will only be released in Europe. If you really want it outside of Europe, you can head to your favorite foreign music importer like Isotank.com.

Listen to Puppenspiel
Puppenspiel keeps Unheilig’s fantastic combination of electronic and rock music intact. The band has uploaded samples to 3 of the new songs a few weeks ago on their MySpace page. Full versions of those 3 songs are also available to buy as MP3s here. More recently, Nilaihah’s website has also added more samples of every song on the album so you can get a better idea of how it sounds.

Unheilig on tour
Unheilig will be busy running all over Europe for a while with the tour they already have planned. Most of the dates run from March through May and span all the way from Spain to Russia. You can see all the tourdates by visiting Unheilig.com and clicking on “Concerts” in the menu. Rumor has it that the band will be touring the United States sometime in the Fall, too! Stay tuned for that, you won’t want to miss it.

Unheilig - Puppenspiel tracklist
01. Vorhang auf
02. Puppenspieler
03. Spiegelbild
04. Dein Clown
05. Sei mein Licht
06. Fang mich auf
07. Feuerengel
08. Kleine Puppe
09. An deiner Seite
10. Die Bestie
11. Lampenfieber
12. Wie viele Jahre
13. Der Vorhang fällt
14. Memoria (instrumental)
15. Glaub an mich (bonus track on limited edition only)
16. Spielzeugmann (bonus track on limited edition only)

Where to get Puppenspiel
In the USA/Canada direct from Nilaihah Records
In the UK at MusicNonStop.co.uk
In Germany/Europe at AlphaMusic.de

First, just a quick reminder to let all my American friends know that Emigrate’s debut album was finally released in the USA yesterday, January 29th. There are 2 versions: the standard version has the same 11 songs as the original release, but the limited edition has 2 bonus tracks, “Blood” and “Help Me”. You can find both at Newbury Comics, but the copies they had with an autographed booklet have already sold out.

Australia will also get both versions of Emigrate on February 2nd.

Emigrate - Emigrate tracklisting
01. Emigrate
02. Wake Up
03. My World
04. Let Me Break
05. In My Tears
06. Babe
07. New York City
08. Resolution
09. Temptation
10. This Is What
11. You Can’t Get Enough
12. Blood (Bonus Track on limited edition only)
13. Help Me (Bonus Track on limited edition only)

Second, Emigrate is also working on the release of their 3rd single. This time, it will be for the song “Temptation”. It was supposed to be released sometime at the “end of January” according to Emigrate.eu, but I haven’t seen it anywhere. I think it’s safe to say at this point that it will likely be released in February. No matter when this new single sees the light of day, we know that it will also feature the previous 2 singles “My World” and “New York City” and will also boast 2 yet-unreleased tracks called “Face Down” and “I Have A Dream”. Bonus features include music videos for the first 2 singles. I’ll update you when the exact tracklist and release date are officially announced.

Alec Empire, famed leader of the now defunct band Atari Teenage Riot, will release his latest solo album The Golden Foretaste of Heaven in europe this coming Monday, January 21st. (It has already been out in Japan since November 28th, 2007.) And for the first time ever, his music will be under his own label, Eat Your Heart Out. His digital hardcore roots have melded with rock to create a sound that makes the album’s music really difficult to pin down. Should I try to describe it? It sounds like Daft Punk collaborated with some breakbeat-experimental artist, perhaps Venetian Snares. Or imagine if Nine Inch Nails were originally more influenced by punk, instead of industrial, and then followed along the same historical path to one day produce Year Zero with that same kind of depressing futurist motif. That doesn’t make any sense, you say? I told you it wasn’t going to be easy.

Trying to describe the music on The Golden Foretaste of Heaven is like one of those tricky word problems they give students on standardized tests. The answer can’t be A, his style has evolved way beyond punk by now. It could be B, rock, but it’s not rock like his older solo albums were. Maybe C? It’s a little closer to techno perhaps, but I’m still not sure. It’s worded funny. Let’s just pick D, “all of the above.” I hope that’s the right answer. Except this time, they finally tell you after the test is over that there was no correct answer. It was open to your own interpretation, after all. Have a listen. What do you think Alec Empire’s new album sounds like?

There have already been 2 singles released for this album, “Robot L.O.V.E.” which was released back on June 11th, 2007, and “On Fire” which came out more recently on December 7th. Whatever you call this kind of music, I like it, personally. It doesn’t have quite the same effect of insanity that you got with ATR’s “Speed,” but it’s still really good. If you liked those singles or what you heard on Alec’s MySpace page, be sure to check out the “New Man” single which will be coming out sometime soon, as well.

Alec Empire - The Golden Foretaste of Heaven tracklist
01. New Man
02. If You Live Or Die
03. ICE (As If She Could Steal A Piece Of My Glamour)
04. 1000 Eyes
05. Down Satan Down (Dub)
06. On Fire (The Hellish Vortex Sessions)
07. Robot L.O.V.E.
08. Death Trap In 3D
09. Bug On My Windshield
10. No/Why/New York

Video for “On Fire”

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=59sp56-TiZ8

“Lied vom Scheitern” is the second song on Die Ärzte’s current album Jazz Ist Anders, and it will also be their second single for that album. The single will be released at the end of next week on January 18th as both a CD and a 7″ vinyl record. Aside from the title track (and its video on the CD version), the single features a B-side called “Nichts Gesehen” which does not appear on Jazz Ist Anders, plus 2 alternate versions of songs taken from the “Economy Version” of Jazz Ist Anders.

What is the Jazz Ist Anders Economy Version? Basically, it is an alternative version of the album that Die Ärzte sold at concerts during their Es Wird Eng tour. It has all the same songs as the regular Jazz Ist Anders album, but they are recorded differently. The artwork has also been changed to look kind of like a child drew it. Despite being sold exclusively during their concerts, it looks like they had some vinyls left over which are now being sold at some online retailers.

One more thing, Die Ärzte is going on a second tour in Europe beginning in May, called the Jazzfäst Tour. Check out their tour page for the complete list of dates.

“Lied vom Scheitern” maxi single tracklist
01. Lied Vom Scheitern
02. Nichts Gesehen
03. Das Schönste Lied Der Welt (Economy Version)
04. Wir Sind Die Besten (Economy Version)
05. Lied Vom Scheitern (video)

Best price on the “Lied vom Scheitern” maxi single
AlphaMusic.de has the CD version of the single for 5.49 Euros

Best price on the Jazz Ist Anders Economy version 12″ vinyl
Abella.de and AlphaMusic.de both have it for 12.99 Euros

Böhse Onkelz, although virtually unknown outside of Europe, were a phenomenally popular punk rock band in Germany. But in 2004, after many years of success including an incredible 14 studio albums, the band announced they would split up after their last tour concluded. About 120,000 fans showed up for their last 2 farewell concerts in the summer of 2005, and the band members each went their own way. Or so that was the plan.

The Onkelz are back together now, and have just completed work on an updated version of their third studio album Onkelz Wie Wir, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. In the same vein as Joachim Witt and Die Krupps, a simple remastering was not good enough for this old album. The band actually re-recorded the entire album with the modern technology that is available today to make the sound much better than the original.

You can read a lot more detail about the album and the reasons behind its creation on the Onkelz Wie Wir page of Onkelz.de, although the text is entirely in German. There, you can also listen to some samples of the reworked songs on the Hörproben page. Unfortunately, they’re not allowing people to actually listen to them all at once, but rather 2 at a time on a rotating basis, so you’ll have to check back often to hear more.

As far as the release date goes, there seems to be some discrepancy. The Böhse Onkelz website is telling us Onkelz Wie wir will be released at the end of the week on November 2nd, but every online retailer I have seen is releasing it a week later on the 9th. I’d trust the stores, personally. It comes down to them in the end.

Böhse Onkelz - Onkelz Wie Wir tracklist:
01. Onkelz wie wir
02. Von Glas zu Glas
03. Erinnerungen
04. Bomberpilot
05. Dick & durstig
06. Falsche Propheten
07. Am Morgen danach
08. Schöner Tag
09. Heut’ Nacht
10. !