Mantus was a fabulous gothic metal band that sadly disbanded after their last album Zeit Muss Enden was released in 2005. Shortly thereafter, the remains of Mantus were sorted out and rejoined to form the new band Sepia. They released their debut album Goodbye Tristesse on October 19th on Rough Trade Records, and I feel obligated to tell you just how awesome it is.

The music is really great, I love the deep guitars and the dark gothic electronic overtones. But the thing that surprised me the most was the vocals. Normally, I’m not a big fan of female singers, but Tina has a really wonderful voice that fits the music so perfectly. Plus, the way the songs are mixed allows her vocals to blend in beautifully with the music, rather than stand out above it like most female-fronted bands tend to do.

You can listen to 2 full length songs and 2 longish samples on Sepia’s MySpace page. Amazon.de also has short samples of every song on the Goodbye Tristesse album. But I recommend watching the “Keine Worte” music video right here, as your first introduction to this fantastic band. The video is a bit trippy, but I like it. And the music is just great!

Sepia - “Keine Worte” video:

SEPIA - Keine Worte

Sepia - Goodbye Tristesse tracklist:
01. Ich Lebe
02. Keine Worte
03. Kalt
04. Moloch
05. Himmel
06. Goodbye Tristesse
07. Königin
08. Paradies
09. Melancholie
10. Allein
11. Kein Morgen
12. Was Bleibt

The Berlin-based techno-metal band k.d.a. have been making a lot of progress recording new songs for their forthcoming album Dubetestzudemfalschengott. Apparently, they liked the new music so much that they couldn’t hold back the goods until the album was actually released. The band decided to upload 4 of their new songs to their MySpace page so we can all have a nice preview of what’s to come. After just one listen through them all, they’ve already left a strong impression on me. The music is simply fantastic!

I strongly urge you to take a moment and go have a listen. k.d.a.’s 4 new songs take catchy industrial-flavored techno beats and pair them with simple guitar riffs and distorted vocals for a sound that really isn’t quite like anything else I can easily think of. I would say their song structures could be compared to those of Ministry because they are pretty minimal and can be a bit long and repetitive at times, but they are definitely not as heavy as Ministry is (or rather, was). The electronic elements are very strong through these new k.d.a. songs.

My personal favorite so far is “Overdose” but the behemoth-named “Wolltihraufdaslebennachdemtodewarten?” comes in as a close second. What’s your favorite?

Rozencrantz is a new name in the German gothic rock scene. Although the band was formed in 2003 which seems like a long time ago, they have only released one demo so far. They have remained pretty much under the radar since then, but I have a feeling this band is going to have some success. Bruno Kramm at Danse Macabre has done a wonderful job developing Rozencrantz and producing their debut album which will finally be released this Friday, October 12th.

The album is called Salvation and features 13 songs, with the last 2 being remixes of “In These Arms”. The music has a nice mixture of guitars and electronics, as well as some piano and other instruments coming through to give it a bit of a gothic edge. Throughout the album, the members of Rozencrantz have been assisted by guest musicians including Eve Cooper, Carsten Klatte, Matthias Lohmöller, and of course Bruno Kramm, all adding to the already great sound. You can listen to 4 songs from Salvation on the Rozencrantz MySpace page. Be sure to check out the 2 music videos on their website, too.

Rozencrantz - Salvation tracklist:
01. Forsaken
02. Decision
03. Her Walk Gets Slower
04. Bound To You
05. In These Arms
06. 1000 Knights
07. Severed Dreams
08. Lively Waters
09. Dissolve
10. Sweet Desire
11. Fareza
12. In These Arms (Acretongue remix)
13. In These Arms (Eurocide remix)

The single “The Plague” started the hype for the new Diary of Dreams album a few weeks ago, and now its release date is finally just around the corner. In less than 2 weeks, on October 26th, Nekrolog 43 will be released in Europe. The album will be available in 2 different versions, both boasting over 70 minutes of music within their 13 tracks. With the limited edition, you also get the special “ecolbook” packaging (which is basically a CD-sized hardcover book) containing 32 pages of special artwork and photos. There is also a special CD label that is different from the regular version.

For my fellow Americans, it looks like we will only be getting one version of the album (but that’s certainly better than none). And while we do have to wait another week and a half until November 6th, we do get a different album cover. Metropolis Records already has the album available to pre-order for just $12.98.

Diary of Dreams is supposed to have made Nekrolog 43 deeper and more diverse than their previous album Nigredo was three years ago. I’ve read that their captivating darkwave sound remains fully intact and has only gotten better. That sounds good to me, considering I really enjoyed Nigredo. You can hear “The Plague” on the band’s MySpace page along with some older tracks. There are also 2 song samples from Nekrolog 43 of Metropolis’s Diary of Dreams page.

Diary of Dreams - Nekrolog 43 tracklist:
01. Nekrolog 43
02. The Plague
03. Son Of A Thief
04. Tears Of Joy
05. Unwanted?
06. Matching Lives
07. Remedy Child
08. Malice
09. The Darkest Of All Hours
10. Congratulations
11. Hypo)Cryptick(Al
12. Allone
13. The Valley

I got an email a while ago from someone who asked me which Wumpscut album he should try first. The problem with many bands that have been around for a while like Wumpscut has, is that their sound tends to change over time. So if you’re new to that band, you don’t want to get the wrong first impression by listening to a song or album you don’t really like when you really would like something they released 10 years before that. There’s certainly nothing wrong with only liking a few albums a band has made, it happens all the time. So how do you figure out what to listen to first?

Well, my answer was largely based on the fact that he told me he was really into heavier, more guitar driven sounds, much like I am. I figured if we both like the same kind of music, I should just tell him what my favorite Wumpscut albums are: Wreath of Barbs and Dried Blood of Gomorrha (a combination of the Dried Blood MCD and the Gomorrha MCD). These 2 albums really have a harder EBM sound with a very strong beat, versus some of Wumpscut’s more recent albums like Bone Peeler and Evoke which sound more electro and softer to me. Another reason I recommended Dried Blood of Gomorrha is because it contains my favorite Wumpscut song “Black Death (French Concept)” which is one of their very few songs with heavy guitars.

If you like harder sounds, try my recommendations. On the other hand, if you’re more into the electro scene, then you would probably prefer trying an album like Body Census first. In the end, he decided to get Dried Blood of Gomorrha and Cannibal Anthem, one of Wumpscut’s newer albums, because he had heard some good things about it. It’s not one of my favorites, but it does kind of go back to Wumpscut’s older sound a little bit and it’s still pretty good. He loved both, and that’s what’s important. Wumpscut has a new fan.

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

Fanoe is one of my favorite bands that has emerged in the past few years. They are an industrial-rock band based in Switzerland with a sound floating somewhere between Nine Inch Nails and Die Krupps. Klaus Fanoe actually produced the first album Empire Dirt all on his own in 2005, only putting a band together afterward for a tour. Despite being a one-man project, the album is fantastic. Fanoe managed to create a diverse, yet intensely focused album with stunning production.

The big news, of course, is that Fanoe will be releasing a new album in January 2008. Down to Heaven is the name, and although I don’t see an exact release date, there’s a release party scheduled for January 17th in Zurich. That’s a Thursday, so I am guessing the album will be out the next day, Friday the 18th, because releases over there are typically done on Fridays. Whatever the date, I am sure Down to Heaven will be just as good, if not better, than Empire Dirt.

How do I know this? I’ve already heard their new song “Skin and Bones” and I love it. You can listen to it on Fanoe’s MySpace page, too. There are also samples to 9 songs from Empire Dirt on CD Baby for you to enjoy. If you like the album as much as I do, you can buy the album there, either on CD or MP3 files, for $12.

Above photo by manvarle.com

Someone made a stop-motion music video for Rammstein’s “Feuer Frei!” made entirely out of Legos! Just the idea of this alone is awesome. This video really blows me away. The attention to detail is incredible! The band members’ hands and bodies are moving along with the music, their facial expressions change with the tone of the music, and there’s even Lego fire. You just have to watch this. Enjoy!

Source: youtube.com/watch?v=qxUZUnRwH7s