Michael Schinkel’s Eternal Flame release their fifth album, Man Or God, on Friday 30 October 2026. It comes out through Fastball Music, part of the German promotion house BOB-MEDIA, which sent it to LRMA with its autumn releases. The band’s first single from the record was “Lord of Flies”; the second, “Run”, arrived on 9 October with a video.

The label describes the album as classic hard rock meeting melodic metal. That is the label’s wording, not ours: LRMA has not yet heard the record, and nothing below should be read as a verdict.

A band with a gap in the middle

The name tells you whose band it is. Michael Schinkel plays guitar and sings; keyboard player Helmut Kohlpaintner co-produced the 2018 album with him. The label’s mailing dates the band to 1992, a split in 2004 and a revival in 2018. We could not confirm the first two dates independently.

What the public record does show is a 2018 comeback. Smoke On The Mountain came out that May as the band’s third album, after Desire (1998) and King of the King (2002). According to a 2019 report on Rockposer, Schinkel and Kohlpaintner spent the years in between as composers and producers in Munich, and began work on a new Eternal Flame record in 2012 after repeated requests from fans. A review of the 2018 album on MyGlobalMind drew comparisons with Yngwie Malmsteen’s work.

The label counts Man Or God as the fifth album; we have not checked the full discography ourselves.

Key details

  • Album: Man Or God
  • Artist: Michael Schinkel’s Eternal Flame (Germany)
  • Release date: Friday, 30 October 2026
  • Label: Fastball Music, promoted by BOB-MEDIA
  • Singles: “Lord of Flies”; “Run” (9 October 2026, with video)
  • Genre as stated by the label: classic hard rock meeting melodic metal

Context

Fastball Music’s mailings reach Latvian inboxes regularly. At the end of September LRMA covered another artist from the same roster, Jimmy Martin: Forty years, and a new duet. The label also offers interviews and live reports to press.

Links

Sources

  • Press release, BOB-MEDIA GmbH & Co. KG / Fastball Music, mailed to LRMA on 9 October 2026
  • Rockposer (2019) and MyGlobalMind (2018), linked above

Image: LRMA.