Speaking of (our favorite not-quite-German band) Laibach, they have just announced tour dates in North America Volk yesterday. It’s a small tour with only 6 concerts confirmed, but they are hitting most of the biggest cities in the United States for maximum impact plus one just South of the border in Tijuana, Mexico. If you are a big German music fan and live anywhere near the venues listed below, you are almost required to go by law.

I will definitely be at the New York City show. It’s going to be an extra special event for Laibach fans in this area because their 2004 NYC concert in support of their album WAT was cancelled at the last minute, so we have been waiting a very long time for this. See you there!

Laibach’s 2008 North American Volk tour dates
September 22 - Seattle at Showbox at the Market
September 23 - Portland at Crystal Ballroom
September 25 - San Francisco at Independent
September 26 - Hollywood at Key Club
September 28 - Tijuana, Mexico at El Foro
September 30 - New York at The Fillmore (formerly Irving Plaza)

The combination of Greg going MIA and me slacking off because of the holidays is not a good thing for Germaniac. Here’s the catch-up news post for some of the most important stuff that’s been happening in these couple of weeks. I hope we’ll be able to resume normal operations as soon as possible! All the tracklistings and ordering information relevant to this post can be found behind the link at the end, because with them this already horribly lengthy post would be, simply put, INSANE.

Oomph!’s album #10 to be Monster

Oomph!, one of the pioneering bands of the industrial metal and NDH genres, will be releasing their tenth album in August according to Oomph!’s official site. The record, of which we got a little taster with the single Wach auf! which was released earlier this year, will be titled Monster. Not much else is known of the upcoming record, except for some tidbits revealed in a German interview. Amongst others, we’re going to get an “electro metal tango” piece and a blues song as well.

No doubt in celebration of their tenth album and as a sign of gratitude to their fans, Dero, Crap and Flux are also offering fans a unique chance to permanently cement themselves in the Oomph! legacy by running a contest for the cover design of the new album. Anyone can send in their visions of what the cover should be until June 27th, and the boys themselves will then choose the final design that will adorn the album. A number of the submissions can already be checked out here, and they range from quite horrible to insanely cool. I for one am eager to find out what the final product will look (and sound!) like!

Megaherz single soon

Before the hotly anticipated new album Heuchler, Megaherz will release the single Mann von Welt on June 20th. There will be two versions of the single: a basic one with Mann von Welt and Es Brennt, a bonus track from the sold out limited edition of Herzwerk II, and an EP-length limited fan edition version with three additional songs from older albums. As far as I can see, the fan edition is not very necessary unless you’re new to Megaherz and need to sample the older stuff, but the single is a great opportunity to hear Es Brennt, which is an excellent song you might very well have missed the first time around. You can hear a preview of Mann von Welt on Megaherz’s Myspace and official site.

Eisbrecher’s single detailed

The first single from Eisbrecher’s upcoming album Sünde will be titled “Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein?”, and it will be released on July 11th. This is, however, a Germany-only release, so completionists will have to pay an extra buck or two (or more like ten) if they want to get their hands on this release. No cover or tracklisting has been made public as of yet, but if the previous singles by Eisbrecher are of any indication, this one should too sport a couple of remixes and possibly a bonus song or other small feature alongside the main track itself.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter single

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, a well-respected German trash metal outfit will release a single titled Der Weg on 27th June. The single features two songs from the upcoming full-lenght release Licht, which doesn’t have a release date yet, and two bonus tracks. The physical CD version of the single published by Nuclear Blast is limited to only 1000 copies, as it was originally planned to only be available via iTunes. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter also released a live DVD earlier this year.

Unheilig’s Spiegelbild EP revealed

The tracklisting and cover design for Unheilig’s Spiegelbild EP have been finally revealed. True to the style of the EPs before, this release is limited to just 3333 pieces and has a total of three different versions of the title song, a new version of the earlier single An deiner Seite and also a trio of completely new Unheilig tracks. Spiegelbild will be released on 26th July.

Laibach’s Dead in Trbovlje in July

Laibach have pushed back the release of their new DVD, which was originally slated for release on 16th June, to 26th July. Titled Dead in Trbovlje, the DVD will feature a full live concert from their widely acclaimed Volk tour, four music videos and on top of that, six of the background screens/videos Laibach used in their Volk shows. There’s also a short commentary on the tour.

Thanks to Nadja for all the tips!

That’s it for now. I know there’s a ton I missed, but at least we have something to cover up the massive time gap we’ve been experiencing. Here’s hoping that Greg will be back in full force soon!

Check out the tracklistings for these items after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »

Fragile as a flower of ice and equally beautiful. That’s how one could summarize Unter dem Eis, Eisblume’s very first release, which hit the stores on 16th May. And boy, what a first release! With just four tracks, one of which is actually a remix of the title song, and clocking in at just under 17 minutes it can only barely be considered an EP, but then again, not a single minute of those is wasted.

This is achieved by alternating between grandiose, orchestral walls of sound and distant, fragile pianoes and utilizing some carefully picked pop elements and most importantly, Ria’s incredible voice. Although the aforementioned elements aren’t the most innovative things you can imagine, with the help of Ria it holds Eisblume’s music together and makes it stand out. Excellent production values all over just accentuate the amount of thought and work has been put into this project.

The title track begins by treating the listener to some tender, distant sounds before the angel-like voice of the real iceflower herself, the singer Ria, takes over. Then the song crescendoes into the chorus… It’s frail, it’s emotional and it’s melancholic but at the same time it’s surprisingly massive and epic. Almost the same goes for the rest of the EP. Track number three, Zeit zu gehen, is as powerful as Unter dem Eis, whereas in the last track Louise Ria is accompanied by just a piano for a large part of the song. Even the remix of Unter dem Eis doesn’t feel like filler. It sounds more like the alternative direction Eisblume could’ve taken by bringing in a lot more guitars and being a lot heavier overall.

All in all, Unter dem Eis is absolutely fantastic, probably one of the very best debut releases ever and one of the best releases this year. Is it groundbreaking? Well, no, but damned if it doesn’t sound great and leave you wanting more. All the songs stand out on their own, and are just as single-class material as the title song, and even the remix of the latter earns its place with its substantially differnet take on it. I’m eager to find out if the forces behind this project are able to conjure up a whole album that’s as complete and thorough as Unter dem Eis. For all you who don’t mind a touch of pop in your gothic rock and enjoy an expertly produced piece of music, Eisblume is something you should not miss.

Check out our previous coverage on Eisblume and Unter dem Eis for tracklisting, a video and more.

Hi everybody,

I’m very sorry about the lack of posts this past week. I have been hit with several unexpected computer problems at the beginning of last week. Then, just one day after I got everything working again, my internet connection stopped working and it took a few more days to solve this new problem. I am glad to say that it looks like everything is working properly now, but I’m still crossing my fingers for the next few days…

The news will continue tomorrow!

-Greg

Just a little bit of news today…
May 25th marks the first birthday of GERMANIACdotcom! Technically, the site plans began before that, but the first news post was made on this day just one year ago, so this is the day we are remembering. And of course, it wouldn’t be a birthday without a proper party, so I am taking the weekend off for some celebration. We’ll be back with some more news tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for your attention and all your support over the past year. I’m really glad to see the site doing well and being read by so many readers. Let’s make this next year even better!

Sinnflut is back with their 6th studio album to date, Epik, which will be released on Biohazzard Records. There have been conflicting release dates, either today (May 23rd) or next week (May 30th), but the date doesn’t matter as much as the phenomenal music does. Sinnflut and combines symphonic and darkwave elements in the manner of Janus or Der Eremit. It’s a really great sound that should appeal to a variety of listeners.

Check out the extended MP3 samples of Epik that are available for download on the band’s website. They also have a few full length songs from various albums on this page. There’s also a “music video” that the band posted on YouTube, but I’m not posting the actual video for it here because it’s not really worth watching. It’s better just so you can hear another full length song.

If you like what you hear, you can get the album from either AlphaMusic.de which has it the cheapest at 9.99, or you can choose to pay a bit more but support the band more directly by getting it from their own website for €12.00.

Sinnflut - Epik tracklisting
01. Intro
02. Wortkarg
03. Wie ein Gewittern
04. Wenn es leise wird
05. Spiegelverkehrt
06. Sie atmet nicht einmal
07. Mir ist das Bild
08. Eine Last voll Glück

The old saying “time flies” is certainly true. It seems like Unheilig’s current album Puppenspieler was just released last week, but it has already been 3 long months since it came out on February 22nd. During that time, the band performed a very successful tour (until Der Graf’s vocals gave up and some concerts had to be cancelled, but thankfully he is doing much better now) with the bands goJA Moon Rockah and F.A.Q. as their opening acts. Now, these 3 bands have been brought together once more, but this time it’s not on stage, it’s on a round piece of plastic.

Just yesterday, May 20th, the split album Schattenspiel was released. The tracklisting, which is packed with unreleased and live versions of songs from all 3 bands, is set up just like it was in the concerts with the 2 opening bands first and then Unheilig being the main event at the end. The idea, of course, is for the lesser-known openers to get some extra exposure and gain some new fans. And it’s a good idea, too, especially because both goJA moon Rockah and F.A.Q. are very talented bands and definitely worth a listen. Be sure to visit both of the bands’ MySpace pages and listen to some of their music: goJA’s is here and F.A.Q.’s is here.

Once you’ve determined that you like all 3 bands and you want to snatch this album up (because it’s limited to just 3,333 units and is sure to sell out fast), head on over to Emso.de if you’re in Europe or Isotank.com if you call North America home. I know there are a lot of Unheilig fans here, you’ll really like this.

Schattenspiel split CD tracklisting

goJA moon Rockah section
01. Attackah Massakah
02. Rockah
03. Schwarz

F.A.Q. section
04. Ten bells
05. Leather Apron

Unheilig section
06. Schutzengel (live)
07. Kalt (exclusive)
08. Sage Ja (live)
09. Brief an Dich (exclusive)
10. Freiheit (live)
11. Leblos (exclusive)
12. Mein Stern (live)
13. Dornröschen (exclusive)

Wrongkong (I love that name) is a new indie-electro-pop collaboration between musicians from Nuremburg, Germany and Calgary, Canada. Their style is very interesting and makes use of some non-traditional song structures, creating an overall sound similar to some electroclash musicians (Peaches comes to mind, for example). Cyrena’s vocals feel right at home with the quick rhythms and upbeat electronics. I’m really liking it. Go listen to some of Wongkong’s 6 full-length songs on their MySpace page. Check out the video below, too. What do you think?

If you like their music, you’ll be happy to know that their roots on both sides of the Atlantic have also allowed them to get record deals for both Europe and the USA. In the EU, Wrongkong’s self-titled album was just released this past Friday, May 16th, on Modern Soul. There, you can find it on Amazon.de for 15.97 Euros. In the USA, the album is out on Minty Fresh but is only available as a digital download. You can get it on iTunes or from the Minty Fresh website. Enjoy!

Wrongkong - Wrongkong tracklisting
01. In this moment
02. Ooh good
03. Real boy
04. Sweat
05. We sleep together
06. Wide open
07. Catch up
08. Clearly too nice
09. The science of your pleasant dreams
10. Quality retriver
11. Lighthouse
12. Better
13. Hiding

Wrongkong’s “Better” music video

A few days ago, Eisbrecher’s website was updated with more news about their forthcoming third album. We now know that the name of it will be Suende (or more appropriately, Sünde, imo). Production of the album is nearly complete now, keeping the band on course for an expected release date in August. No artwork, tracklisting, or other details have been released yet, but we are all eagerly awaiting more info (and some previews, too!).

The first single from Eisbrecher’s new album will be released sometime in July, although the title and exact release date are still unknown. And if you’re lucky enough to be in Europe, be sure to check out their site’s news page for tourdates which are being scheduled for September.

Don’t forget to sign up for the street team
Eisbrecher’s international street team is still open for new members to join. Just check out our last Eisbrecher update or the Eisbrecher forum for details.

Megaherz has just updated their website with the latest info about their highly anticipated 6th album. We can easily pick out the 3 most important pieces of info from the article. First up, the album’s name: Heuchler. Second, the release date: July 25th. Third, there’s a new song online: “Fauler Zauber”.

The band’s announcement also says that there will be a pre-listening of the entire album scheduled 1 week before the release date on their MySpace page. Mark your calendars and be sure to check it out on July 18th. There will also be a preview of Heuchler on May 23rd in the virtual world of Second Life at the Club Dark Refuge. Lex will be online there to chat and answer all fo yoru questions.

Finally, as you might expect, the Megaherz team is gearing up for promotions in the media. Look for them in the June editions of magazines like Orkus, Zillo and Sonic Seducer.