Peter Spilles sure is a prolific fellow. Alongside his successful and long-running industrial electronic ensemble Project Pitchfork, he has worked with tons of different artists on various releases and also runs a couple of side projects of his own, including Santa Hates You and Imatem. The latter side project’s second album, titled Journey, was released just yesterday / will be released soon. As always, there seems to be quite a bit of confusion surrounding the exact release date of the album: some sites tell it was released on August 1st, other sites that it’s yet to be released later this month. Make of it what you wish.

Just like on the debut album Home, on Journey Spilles has teamed up with a number of the foremost names in the EBM and gothic scene. Guests like Sara Noxx, Ronan Harris (VNV Nation) and Sven Friedrich (Zeraphine) are sure to bring their own touch to Imatem’s slightly synth-poppy electronic soundscapes. You can (pre?)order Journey at least on Poponaut.de (also ships to the States) for 17,95 € or Out of Line Shop for 14,99 €. Samples of Journey are available on Imatem’s MySpace site.

Tracklisting for Journey by Imatem
1. Fiat Lux
2. Haven
3. The Influence
4. Conquer
5. Blind Alley
6. Journey
7. Escape To Follow
8. All Ends
9. Down To The Sea
10. No One

Fanoe’s Empire Dirt available as a free download

Greg told you all about Fanoe’s second album, Down to Heaven, but if you haven’t checked them out yet, now’s your chance to get a taste of what the Swiss industrial-rock group have been doing. The first album, Empire Dirt, is now available in its entirety as a free download, along with two tracks from Down to Heaven. Head on over to the download area of the site and choose between 320 and 192kbps mp3 packages. If you like what you hear, the albums are available at cdbaby, iTunes and cduniverse among other retailers, or consider making a donation to support the band directly.

Eisbrecher’s Sünde: US release delayed

Dancing Ferret Discs had been set to release Sünde in the US on August 26, but unfortunately this will not be happening, presumably as a result of the plans to shut down DFD’s operations. No new North American label or release date has yet been announced by Eisbrecher’s management, and at this point, there will likely be a delay of at best several months before a US version is on the shelves. Import versions of both the single and the album will however be available through IsoTank and amazon.com, or for download from iTunes and amazon. The German release is unaffected and still on schedule for release on August 22.

A new Treibhaus album out in October?

Last October, Treibhaus announced that they had begun work on their third album, Alarmstufe Rot. The other day, there was a brief mention on the band’s myspace page that the album would be released this October. This has not yet been confirmed and the note has since been removed, but it sounds like a reasonable timeframe.

UPDATE:

Curt from Treibhaus recently sent out a newsletter with more details on the album release. Recording and mixing is done, only the mastering left to be done. He reported they are on track for a late October or early November release.

Das Ich announces new album Kannibale

The masters of harsh electronic music Das Ich have announced a new album titled Kannibale, and it is expected to hit the stores in October. Not much is known about Kannibale yet, except according to the band it is supposed to be their most brutal offering yet. Stay tuned for more information, previews of the soon-finished album will later be presented on Danse Macabre Records’ website.

If you aren’t yet familiar with Das Ich’s apocalyptic visions, be sure to visit their MySpace site for a whole bunch of full songs from their earlier records.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter come out with Licht

Following the release of the single Der Weg, the German thrash metal band Die Apokalyptischen Reiter has now come out with the details for its seventh studio album: Licht will be released on 29th August. According to EMP.de, where Licht is already preorderable, there will be at least two different versions of the album, a normal CD version and a limited digipak edition with a bonus DVD.

You can hear two full songs from the upcoming album and a number of older tracks on DAR’s MySpace.

Tracklisting for Licht by Die Apokalyptischen Reiter

1. Es wird schlimmer
2. Auf die Liebe, die Freude und das Leben
3. Wir sind das Licht
4. Nach der Ebbe
5. Adrenalin
6. Der Elende
7. Heut’ ist der Tag
8. Wir hoffen
9. Der Weg
10. Ein Lichtlein
11. Auferstehen soll in Herrlichkeit

Atari Teenage Riot was a highly political anarchist and anti-fascist band that was the first to mix punk and techno in a style that later became known as digital hardcore. They gained extensive popularity during the 90s until they split up in 2000. Since then, band founder Alec Empire has been producing albums under his own name, most recently The Golden Foretaste of Heaven, while other band members have been hard at work with other projects as well.

Now, for the first time, a collection of videos by Atari Teenage Riot, Alec Empire, and former ATR band members Hanin Elias and Nic Endo will be available together on a DVD. It’s called Sixteen Years of Video Material and it was released back on Friday, May 30th. They have produced some pretty crazy videos, so I’d recommend it if you like their music.

Of course, if you don’t know what ATR sounds like, you can listen to some of their music on the ATR MySpace page. Don’t forget to check out Alec Empire’s MySpace page while you’re at it. Then you can order both the regular version and limited editions (which comes with a t-shirt, a poster, stickers and more) of the DVD via the Atari Teenage Riot website.

Check out the banned video for Atari Teenage Riot’s song “Revolution Action” below.

Böhse Onkelz continues to have new releases, even long after the band split up three years ago in 2005. The latest is a series of re-releases done on vinyl which is meant to be aimed more towards collectors and the band’s hardcore fans. Among the new vinyls, you’ll find the Onkelz albums Heilige Lieder, Live in Vienna, the Schwarzes Album, the Weißes Album, Wir Ham’ Noch Lange Nicht Genug, their best-of Gehasst, Verdammt, Vergöttert, and their final album Adios.

The release date for all of these is July 25th. They’re a bit more expensive than a typical album release on CD, but if you really want these, you should be able to find them on pretty much any decent online retailer like EMP or AlphaMusic.

Eisbrecher’s Sünde coverart is here, single tracks

The highly anticipated release of Eisbrecher’s third album Sünde is drawing ever closer, although it’s still about one and a half months until you can get your sinful hands on the CD. However, the coverart for the album has been showing up in various places, and there you have it on the left for your viewing pleasure (click for a slightly bigger picture). Like the cover for the soon upcoming single Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein?, it’s quite a departure from what you might have expected. You can already preorder the album (and the single) at various places, information on that can be found in the earlier newspost on the matter. As for some further information on the single Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein?, Infrarot.de tells us there’ll be three tracks: along with the title song there’s a remix and an exclusive, non-album track.

Oomph! Monster tracklisting, possible release date

The tracklisting for the other huge German metal release this August, namely Oomph!’s tenth album Monster, has been floating around the internet recently. I can’t say for sure if it’s the real one, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be legit. It seems the previous single track Wach auf! will not be on the album, which I think only makes it more believable (Wach auf! was featured on the Alien vs Predator 2 film and the single was released shortly after the film). Also, EMP.de tells us that the release date for Monster would be 15th August, but as often is the case with release dates given by retailers, it’s more or less likely to change. Here’s the tracklist:

Tracklisting for Monster by Oomph!
1. Unter Deiner Haut
2. Labyrinth
3. Wer Schön Sein Will Muss Leiden
4. Revolution
5. Beim Ersten Mal Tut’s Immer Weh
6. Ich Will Dich
7. Nie Mehr Sehen
8. Auf Kurs
9. Du Lügst
10. Geboren Zu Sterben In Deinen Hüften
11. Brich Aus
12. Bis Zum Schluss
13. Lass Mich Raus

It looks like Eisbrecher’s new single “Kann Denn Liebe Sünde Sein?” could be delayed by one week. The new release date, according to Amazon.de, is July 18th, but EMP.de still says the 11th as of now. Neither site has a tracklisting yet, but if you’re a big Eisbrecher fan and you want to order the single as soon as possible, just head on over to Amazon.de and get it for 7.99 Euros. EMP is a Euro more and won’t ship to the USA anyway.

Amazon also gives us our first glimpse of the “Kann Denn Liebe Sünde Sein?” cover art. It seems pretty simplistic, nothing like previous Eisbrecher covers, but it is what it is. Click here or the image above to see a bigger version.

As for Eisbrecher’s forthcoming album Sünde…
There’s still not much info about it other than it will be available in 2 different versions. Both versions are available to pre-order from several sites including Amazon.de, AlphaMusic.de , and EMP.de.

Thanks to Nadja for keeping us up to date in this post.

3-CD Antikörper Summer Special

Eisbrecher also just released a 3 disc box set of their previous album Antikörper called the Antikörper Summer Special yesterday, June 27th. This limited edition item is essentially a combination of the album and its 2 related singles “Vergissmeinnicht” and “Leider”. You can find it on Amazon.de or EMP.de, both of which have it for the price of a typical album.

Herzwerk II re-released today

Some Megaherz fans will tell you that Herzwerk II is the band’s best album. It is fantastic, no doubt, and is the last album recorded with their original singer Alexx Wesselsky. Herzwerk II was originally released in 2002 on the new (at the time) BMG sublabel Firestarter, but they later shut down business, leaving Megaherz in need of yet another new label. One question that was never really asked was who got the rights for Herzwerk II after the demise of Firestarter. Now, it is apparent that Megaherz’s first (and also current) label ZYX got them. How can we tell? ZYX organized a re-release of Herzwerk II and it has just arrived in stores today!

Megaherz has yet to say anything about this, but luckily for German music fans, we are all over any news about Megaherz like flies on… well, you know. If you’re anything like us, you will notice right away that the re-release contains the bonus track “Es Brennt” which was originally only available on the limited edition digipack version of Herzwerk II. That’s good news if you weren’t able to get one of the digipacks when the album first came out, or if you are a newer fan. Want even better news? The re-release is actually cheaper than the original in most stores that still have it for sale. For the best prices, visit Amazon.com in North America or AlphaMusic.de in Europe.

Megaherz - Herzwerk II re-release tracklist:
01. Herzblut
02. Glas und Tränen
03. I.M. Rumpelstilzchen
04. 5. März
05. F.F.F. (Flesh for Fantasy)
06. Hand auf’s Herz
07. Zu den Sternen
08. Licht II (Instrumental)
09. Heute schon gelebt?
10. An deinem Grab
11. Perfekte Droge
12. Spiel nicht…
13. Gold
14. Es brennt

“Mann Von Welt” single also out today

Don’t forget that Megaherz’s new single “Mann Von Welt” is also being released today. Yes, the band announced that it would be out last week on June 20th, but all the shops say June 27th and since they have the ultimate control about when a CD is put on the shelf, we will go with their date. You can find both the basic version and the limited fan edition on EMP.de.

“Still Love You” is the second track off Die Happy’s new album VI, and it’s also the band’s second single for that album. The single, which is released today, contains 4 songs including a 2 different versions of “Still Love You”, the non-album song “Kill Me” and a live version of “Standing Strong”. There are also 2 music videos, one for “Still Love You” and the other for the band’s previous single “Peaches”.

You can either listen to samples of the 4 songs or buy the single for 5.99 Euros from AlphaMusic.de, one of our favorite German music sites.

Die Happy - Still Love You maxi single tracklist
01. Still Love You (New album version)
02. Kill Me
03. Standing Strong (Live and unplugged)
04. Still Love You
05. Still Love You (Video)
06. Peaches (Video)

Barely half a year has passed since the Austrian L’Âme Immortelle (website still under construction, check out the Myspace or the fansite Voiceless for more information) released Namenlos, a massive 2-CD album packed to the brim with EBM-influenced industrial metal. Now the duo formed by Thomas Rainer and Sonja Kraushofer are set to release a 2-CD rework album of Namenlos, titled Durch fremde Hand, on the 25th of July. Disc number 1 of Durch fremde Hand will feature every single song from the first CD of Namenlos, each remixed or covered by various artists, and the second disc has some completely new tracks recorded specifically for Durch fremde Hand.

Durch fremde Hand will be available as a basic jewel-case edition with both discs and a 20-page booklet, and in addition to that, there’s a strictly limited (2000 pieces worldwide) version in a digipak and a 28-page booklet. Now, this is where it gets complicated. First of all, there are differing accounts of the contents of disc 2, with some sites saying there are five new songs and others saying there’s six. Secondly, the only tracklisting I’ve found is a mammoth 19-piece one, and I just don’t have a bloody idea if it’s just for disc 1 or does it also include the tracks for disc 2. You can find it anyway at the end of this post.

Durch fremde Hand can be preordered at least at InfraRot and EMP, but word has it that it will be also be released in the US on Metropolis Records, so you should be able to get it from their shop or for example at Isotank.

Tracklisting for Durch fremde Hand by L’Âme Immortelle
1. 1000 Voices (Echoes Of A Thousand Voices Covered By ASP)
2. Behind The Light (Beautiful Light Remix By Bella Donna)
3. Bleib (Plastic Remix By Dope Stars Inc.)
4. Blutrot (Quiet Heart Remix By Necessary Response)
5. Das Kühle Grab
6. Durch Fremde Hand
7. Ein Blick Zurück
8. Es Tur Mir Leid (Entschuldigung Remix By Grendel)
9. Jenseits Der Schatten (Void Remix By Monozelle)
10. Lost (Pin-Up Remix By XPQ-21)
11. Namenlos (Drifting Downwards Remix By Perfidious Words)
12. Niemals (Club Remix By Wynardtage)
13. Now You’re Gone
14. Ophelia
15. Reborn (Hardcore Remix By Las Vegas 909)
16. Requiem (Satya Yuga Remix By Affentanz)
17. Suffocating Endlessly
18. The Cleansing (Voidian Cleansing Remix By Beyond The Void)
19. Vergessen (Die Namenlosen Von Berlin By Üebermutter)