E Nomine is a well known name among German music fans. Their catchy electronic dance music combined with traditional Gregorian-style chanting elements is quite an impressive combination to say the least. Unfortunately, it has been several years since a new E Nomine album was released and fans have begun to get anxious. The band hasn’t even updated their website in 3 years! There was a glimpse of hope last year when a new single called “Heilig” appeared on some music mailorder sites including Amazon.de, but the supposed December 28th, 2007 release was cancelled and we still have no new E Nomine to listen to.

Or do we? You obviously can’t order the single from anywhere, but a little bit of research did reveal a website where you can listen to short clips from this 6-track maxi single. Well, that’s a start. But I’ve also heard that the new album is called Das Dunkle Element and it’s been finished for a while now. It also appears to contain some songs that were already previously released (for example, the title track “Das Dunkle Element” was released on the “Das Böse” single). So what’s stopping the release? Maybe E Nomine is having label problems, maybe the members are having personal issues, I really don’t know. If you have any tips about E Nomine, please leave a comment and share your knowledge with us.

E Nomine - Heilig single tracklisting:
01. Heilig (Radio Edit)
02. Heilig (Single Mix)
03. Heilig (Rock It Radio Mix)
04. Heilig (Extended Version)
05. Heilig (Beat This Mix)
06. Heilig (Instrumental Mix)

E Nomine - Das Dunkle Element tracklisting:
01. Das Dunkle Element (Opening)
02. Wiegenlied (Album Version)
03. Element Interlude 1
04. Heilig (Single Version)
05. Element Interlude 2
06. Mala (Album Version)
07. Element Interlude 3 (Gebet)
08. Der Ring Der Nebelungen (New Version)
09. Element Interlude 4
10. Per L’Eternita (Album Version)
11. Element Interlude 5 (Spirale)
12. Spiegelbilder (Album Version)
13. Element Interlude 6 (des Lichts)
14. Carpe Noctem (Album Version)
15. Element Interlude 7
16. Wer Den Wind Sat…(Album Version)
17. Element Interlude 8
18. Espiritu Del Aire (Album Version)
19. Element Interlude 9
20. Ein Neuer Tag (Album Version)

Edit: Yes, I know most of the tracks on the album were already released. The album tracklisting is just a rumor so far, it’s not official, so please don’t mistake it for anything confirmed!

As you remember, I featured Spielzeug in last week’s Bio of the Week segment and asked if anyone knew what had happened to them. It appeared as if they had simply vanished into thin air one day. Well thanks to some clever detective work and contacting a lot of people, Mikki from DeutschMusikLand.com finally reached one of the old band members and solved the mystery! As we guessed, Spielzeug had indeed broken up a long time ago, but only after some initial success.

Spielzeug did eventually release their demo which was described in the band bio. Zimmer 111 was finished in November of 2002 and featured 7 tracks. The band produced a video of the first song, “Mit der Zeit” with Srad Film. They were even recognized as one of the top 20 newcomers out of 2,000 German bands in 2003 before finally splitting up shortly thereafter.

You can now listen to 4 of the songs from their demo on the new Spielzeug MySpace page. They sound very promising, so it’s a shame the band split up so soon.

This week, I’m doing the Bio of the Week a little bit differently. Instead of just presenting the band and their bio, I want to ask for your help. I was talking with Mikki who runs DeutschMusikLand.com and we were trying to figure out what happened to Spielzeug, but couldn’t find any recent information. No website, no information online, no releases to be found. All we have is the band biography she made 5 years ago. I think it’s pretty clear they have split up, but when? Did they ever release any music? Where are the band members now? If you have any information about Spielzeug, please send me an email at germaniacdotcom@gmail.com and let me know. Thanks.

Now for the bio, from DML:
Hamburg’s Spielzeug play Nu Rock in the German language & can be compared to bands such as Linkin Park, Incubus & Deftones, their music comprising of heavy guitars combined with electronic elements & oscillating between soulful melodies & aggressive rhythmic riffs.

They have also proved by their appearance at Hafenrock 2002 that they have what it takes to play the open air circuits. Their demo release was planned for the middle of 2002 so it’s either out now or will be shortly forthcoming…

So… What happened to Spielzeug?