Operation Ostfront (German for “Eastern Front”) was the sortie into the Arctic Ocean by the German warship Scharnhorst during World War II. In May 1941, after the loss of the German battleship Bismarck, Adolf Hitler had forbidden any German capital ship from venturing into contested seas. By December 1943 the tide had turned against Germany. The Battle of the Atlantic had been lost, and supplies poured into the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. In September 1943 the German battleship Tirpitz was disabled during the British Operation Source, leaving Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen the only operational heavy ships in the Kriegsmarine. In November 1943 the Arctic Convoys restarted. On 19 December 1943 Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz submitted a request to Hitler to allow Scharnhorst to attack the next convoy sailing through the Barents Sea. On the 25 December 1943 Dönitz ordered Ostfront to commence. Admiral Fraser, alerted by Norwegian resistance information to the possibility of an interception by Scharnhorst, prepared a trap for the German warship.
On 25 December Scharnhorst sailed to intercept the British convoy, JW 55B, believing it to be sparsely protected. In the ensuing Battle of the North Cape Scharnhorst was separated from her escorting destroyers and was sunk. This is history.
Neue Deutsche Härte – “New German Hardness” it’s a term invented by the German music press in 1995 specially to describe/defined the music delivered by Rammstein on their debut album “Herzeleid”. Also known as German Electronic Metal or Dance Metal (tanzmetall), this new genre has its roots in the music of bands such as Laibach, Die Krupps and Oomph! and along Rammstein the genre is proudly represented by bands such as Eisbrecher, Megaherz, Megaherz, Tanzwut, Umbra et Imago, In Extremo, Omega Lithium, Stahlhammer, Fleischmann, etc.
Ost+Front will definitively delight all and each Rammstein fan. Read more Ostfront – Ave Maria (2012)
Neue Deutsche Härte
Eisbrecher – Die Holle Muss Warten (2012)
The fifth studio album by the German Neue Deutsche Härte band takes down on a quite gothic/romantic side of the industrial metal, and from my point of view more than one ballad on a this kind of album it’s already too much. And – unfortunately – “Die Hölle muss warten” have several ballads, slow and pretty boring bitter-sweet songs, all of them filled with cliches, rather then with feeling. The faster, darker, pulsing songs of Eisbrecher sounds like a collision of The Sisters of Mercy with Rammstein and some of them are quite anthematics as the leading single: “Verrückt”.
No more “This is Deutsch”, but still, Eisbrecher rocks hard as they always should with tracks like “Herz aus Eis” where they managed to merged the slow and gothic mood with dark and heavy contortions. Love that track! And few others as “Abgrund”. Read more Eisbrecher – Die Holle Muss Warten (2012)
Tanzwut – White Nights (2011)
What results from the mixture of bagpipes, medieval and folk elements and industrial metal? Tanzwut. Originated as a sideproject of Corvus Corax-members, a German band playing Neo-Medieval music using an abundance of authentic instruments which often uses bagpipes as the solo instrument, and in 1996 they released the EP “Tanzwut” which combined the elements of metal music with their brand sound of bagpipes. The CD turned out to be a commercially successful experiment and the band decided to continue the tradition of that album in a separate musical project called Tanzwut and became part of the Neue Deutsche Härte movement. In few words: Rammstein with bagpipes.
“Weiße Nächte” is the project’s fifth studio album released on 16th September 2011. Read more Tanzwut – White Nights (2011)
Samsas Traum – Anleitung zum Totsein (2011)
Gregor Samsa wakes up to find that he has been transformed into a giant insect-like creature. This is the starting point of the novella “The Metamorphosis” (Die Verwandlung) by Franz Kafka which inspired Alexander Kaschte to use “Samsa’s Dream” as name for his project. Formed in 1996, after Alexander performed as vocalist and guitarist in several Black, Death, Doom and Melodic Metal bands before, he decided to step forward into the wider fields of darker electronic and neoclassical music, including both elements of elements of Neue Deutsche Härte and cantastoria.
Three years after the release of the first solo tape, the project became a group of three, and their official debut “Die Liebe Gottes – Eine märchenhafte black metal Operette” (“The Love of God – a black metal fairytale-like Operetta”) divided the scene: some people considered that Samsas Traum was the best newcomer band of the year, others started hate them, mainly because of some provocative statements of Alexander Kaschte. The band relocate from Germany to Austria.
If I count correctly, “Anleitung zum Totsein” is the 17th album by Samsas Traum. Read more Samsas Traum – Anleitung zum Totsein (2011)
Schwarzer Engel – Träume Einer Nacht (2011)
The term “Neue Deutsche Härte” was invented by the German music press after the release of the debut album “Herzeleid” by Rammstein in 1995, but bands such Oomph! set the standards of this (sub) genre years before.
Schwarzer Engle sounds like a blending of Rammstein with Umbra et Imago, elements of industrial metal, German rock, alternative metal are mixed with Gothic textures and epic constructions. “Träume Einer Nacht” (“Dreams of a night”) is the band’s second full-length album following the critically acclaimed “Apokalypse” from 2010. Read more Schwarzer Engel – Träume Einer Nacht (2011)
