This CD+DVD special edition is limited to 5999 copies only and belies its name with a total playing time of almost THREE hours and proves how much really can be done with that format:
The masterpiece 'Fremd' still haunts our auditory channels, the memories of the bygone tour still are fresh in our minds. Yet there are already news from the outland - in guise of an elaborate single. What is so special about this release is that you have chosen which track would be lifted next from this bottomless treasure chest of musical Gothic novels - in an unparalleled fan voting where
put their entire trust into their followers.
This firm belief in their fans was not disappointed: With an overwhelming majority, 'Eisige Wirklichkeit' won the battle - this club storming Electro Rock anthem that made the walls in the halls of the past tour shake alarmingly. Several versions, reworked with much love for elaborate detail, illuminate the title track from completely different angles. Very special highlights among them are the extremely club compatible Tanznacht version and the so-called horror score version that approaches the subject in a very fitting way and features arrangements reminding of the soundtrack to a creepy movie.
But the band also felt responsible for other tracks from their top 10 album. Thus, one can listen to a fragile, handmade piano version of the in itself moving ballad 'Rücken an Rücken' that comes along so intimate that one wants to coil up with it under a warm blanket. And this is still not it: Faster than was deemed possible, 'Eisige Wirklichkeit' will contain selected live versions from the completed first part of the 'Fremd' tour - thereby setting the right mood for the second part of the journey that is accompanied by this brimful single horror story.
As always with
ASP, 'Eisige Wirklichkeit' is a work from music lovers for music lovers, an elaborate gift for the true fans of the Gothic Novel Rock masters. Passionate to the bone, steeped by a mystique of its own and graced in an artwork so stunning it only can come from
ASP - as indispensable as the Edgar Allan Poe anthology in the bookshelf.
Still,
ASP would not be
ASP if he would be satisfied with this: Always trying to give more than is possible, always delivering a work that can be seen as a nonplusultra in terms of atmospheric depth, content and fan cordiality, he complements the limited special edition of the single with a bonus DVD. It features the entire gig at the M'era Luna 2011 where
ASP were the headliners in secret with their stirring performance. Despite several camera errors and technical problems, it was decided to save this grandiose live snap-shot and consigning it to the memory of the fans.
