Album Notes

He was birthed upon a frozen shore. Neither a mother nor father was ever known and if he had one, they surely wouldn?t have owned up to their spawning skills upon recognizing their child trophy. He wasn?t a sickly creature but rather a curious one, one versed in silence with a keen ear for details of plunder and misfortune. These silent skills shaped him over the years, forging a soul blacker than polished onyx with rough scars and worn skin to accompany his treasureless heart.

Many moons passed, and the boy became a man. From the very start of his adulthood, it was glaringly apparent that he possessed an acute ability to charm the opposite sex and to a lesser but still quite breathless extent, eyes from his same gender. His brute strength and raw sex appeal served as his metaphoric wings, wings which flapped him around the world many times over. His restless heels would barely cool before another whirlwind erotic escapade would whisk him off to another exciting destination filled with sex, violence and life lessons.

One night, he finds himself in a winter kissed mountain village. He had lived through many a frozen night, but something in the air told him this was not the same as it was before. In fact, it was not the same at all. Love had found its way to his heart earlier in the night by way of the blacksmith?s beautiful daughter. They had consumed half a pot of stewed peaches when she felt wary and rose to her feet to return home. He quashed his feelings for her knowing he?d only bring her pain, and he thought it the justified position until she returned to him about an hour later drenched in the blood of her family. She spoke quickly of beasts from the hills, savage godless creatures existing only for blood and chaos. She screamed for his help knowing of all the strangers to ever wander through her village that he was the strangest. And hands down, the strongest.

She attempted to force a sword into his hands. He explained that his hands were far more lethal than fire and steel combined and that to slow them would do no good. Seconds into elaborating on this fact, a scream arose from the center of the village. With it came howls of something not human, something to be feared, something the night was created for. For if it were seen in the light of day, terror would run rampant in the hearts of all mankind forever.

He kissed her on the knuckles and sighed a sigh of a man anticipating violence. He could run. In fact, he wondered if she even cared about him or rather chose him for being a highly expendable figure in her village. Either way it was too late, and his heart was finally starting to warm after all the years. With this new energy, he raised his fist towards the air and made a plea to the heavens to bring the dawn. And with that, he cupped his hands to his jaw and let out a cry to the giants from far away.

Follow the adventures of our singular hero along with Alter Der Ruine, who provides the soundtrack to this robust tale. It is an album steeped in amazing imagery, beautiful production and a boundless imagination for things far too epic to be considered. Do you dare shield your ears?

Alter Der Ruine sets the bar high for themselves with their new CD "Giants From Far Away". They?ve pulled a lot of different influences into the mix to create an album unlike anything else they?ve done to date. It?s crammed with enough electronics to make the dancefloor happy, as well as generous genre forays to keep a keen listener amused. With elements of electro, industrial, IDM, hardcore and even black metal, Giants From Far Away sets out to be something more than just another album. And it could quite possibly be that something with enough personality to be your new audio best friend.