ATROCITY's Cover Of BRONSKI BEAT's 'Smalltown Boy' Posted Online

Long-running German metallers ATROCITY have posted an audio sample of their cover version of BRONSKI BEAT's "Smalltown Boy" at this location. The track comes off ATROCITY's long-awaited new album, "Werk 80 II", which is scheduled for release in Europe on February 29, 2008 (March 4 in the U.S.). Like the first "Werk 80" release, which came out in 1997, "Werk 80 II" features ATROCITY's interpretations of hit songs from the '80s.

When asked why the band chose to put "Smalltown Boy" on the new album, vocalist Alex Krull said, "The original 'Smalltown Boy' sounds quite melancholic and very sad in a sense. After all, the song tells a story of somebody who is very different from the rest, has to leave his home and is about to make a new start. In the video from BRONSKI BEAT you recognize that it is about the problems of homosexuals which are excluded from society. It is surely still a sensitive issue in a small town today, even if there are some celebs and politicians outing themselves as being gay. That's not a surprise if you look, for example, at the Catholic Church, still trying to segregate and condemn people because of that. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with Christian charity if you want to forbid gay marriages and to denounce homosexual love. Where do we go to if we start to eliminate love? What the heck do this people think who they are? How can they dare to judge people if they even can't have a partner in life themselves, at least in public. I don't wanna know how many gay priests there are forced to conceal their sexuality. Anyway, for us as a metal band, it was clear that we had to enforce the heaviness for 'Smalltown Boy'. For me, you can interpret the song as of somebody being an outsider in society just because he's got long hair or listens to heavy metal music, for example. I guess many of us know this, be it a metalhead, gothic or punk, to live with prejudices because of your favourite music and outfit and to stand outside society. I recently had to experience this for myself. It is unbelievable what a metal musician is imputed and framed to all kinds of things. That's why we perform 'Smalltown Boy' with some anger and I think that fits very well to our kind of music and the way we interpret the song!"

"Werk 80 II" track listing:

01. People Are People (DEPECHE MODE)
02. Smalltown Boy (BRONSKI BEAT)
03. Relax (FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD)
04. Don't You (Forget About Me) (SIMPLE MINDS)
05. The Sun Always Shines on TV (A-HA)
06. Hey Little Girl (ICEHOUSE)
07. Fade To Grey (VISAGE)
08. Such A Shame (TALK TALK)
09. Keine Heimat (IDEAL)
10. Here Comes The Rain Again (EURYTHMICS)
11. Forever Young (ALPHAVILLE)
12. Feels Like Heaven (FICTION FACTORY) (bonus track for special edition)

World-famous burlesque dancer and Marilyn Manson's estranged wife Dita Von Teese is the cover model on "Werk 80 II". Check out the cover at this location.

Commented Alex Krull: "We took a lot of time for the production to get the best result. All fans of the first 'Werk 80' will like the second one too. This time we have worked together with an orchestra and a choir. So the whole album has gained a bit more of a classical touch, which I personally like a lot. Everything sounds very harmonic and organic. The work on this album has been intense and thrilling. On the first 'Werk 80' album we also used classical elements but we enforced this on the new one. Thus the electronic parts got moved a little bit into the background. We didn't want to do the same on this successive album but including new elements and developing our style. I promise you 'Werk 80 II' is gonna be a class of its own worth waiting for it."