RAMMSTEIN has finally released its long awaited seventh album, available as of May 17 for purchase and/or streaming.
US Label: Caroline l UK Label: Spinefarm l FR Label: Mercury
Comprised of 11 new RAMMSTEIN tracks including “ZEIG DICH” and singles “RADIO” and “DEUTSCHLAND,” the new untitled record is RAMMSTEIN’s first studio album since 2009’s LIEBE IST FÜR ALLE DA.
To date, “RADIO” and “DEUTSCHLAND” have amassed combined streams and views exceeding 100 million.
The new album is produced by Olsen Involtini with RAMMSTEIN. The band will debut material from the new album on its upcoming sold out stadium tour, beginning May 27 and running through August 23.
RAMMSTEIN is CHRISTOPH SCHNEIDER, FLAKE LORENZ, OLIVER RIEDEL, PAUL LANDERS, RICHARD Z. KRUSPE, and TILL LINDEMANN.
RAMMSTEIN WILL PLAY STADIUM MK, ENGLAND, ON 6TH JULY AS PART OF THEIR EXTENSIVE EUROPE STADIUM TOUR 2019. (SOLD OUT)
Thorsten Zahn recently interviewed the band for METAL HAMMER Germany. An excerpt of the interview is below:
If you can leave a gap of ten years between records, then instantly cause a genuinely seismic stir with a 35-second video trailer, chances are you’re doing something right. And meaningful.
On deciding to go in a new direction for this recording…
Richard Z. Kruspe: We just wanted to try something new – how we write, basically. And even the way we produce – first we went to France with Tom Dalgety (producer of Ghost, Royal Blood – ed.) and Olsen Involtini (Rammstein’s front of house engineer) instead of Jacob Hellner and Stefan Glaumann (long-time mixer for the band – ed.) as previously. Change is always a fragile thing: On the one hand, you don’t want to change something you’ve had success with. But on the other hand, you’ve got that desire to develop as a musician. We decided to step out of our comfort zone. It wasn’t always plain sailing, at the start we didn’t really get along that well with Tom and Olsen. And Jacob Hellner was also a father figure to a certain extent, someone who really leads a production. Olsen doesn’t do that, Tom doesn’t do that. So for me it just felt like: Nobody knows where we’re supposed to go any more… This is when you realise: from an astrological point of view, Rammstein is fire, water and earth at the same time. What we’re missing is air, in other words lightness. We tried to bring in air. Olsen Involtini is an air sign.
Christoph Schneider: He managed to guide us through the difficult formative stages of the album. We often end up in a stalemate situation: three of us for one solution, three for the other. After that, we just don’t get any further, the idea falls by the wayside. This is where Olsen came into play – he took the reins as producer, and you notice that in the songs. Through him, we arrived at new inspirations we wouldn’t have found on our own.
Paul Landers: This development was so important for us. We didn’t want to make another album without any challenges. For us, the aim was to do things differently just for the sake of it. With Jacob, it was like being on a school trip with a teacher. The longer we were on the trip, the more our respect for each other disappeared. I love trying something new, where you don’t know at the start what it’s going to be like at the end. That’s why it was a good idea of Richard’s to involve Olsen. If we have someone we accept – and that’s not always easy with us – then it feels good to hear a competent opinion. With six people, everything is always very uncoordinated.
The success, particularly of the first single ‘Deutschland’ and its video, shows you’ve got it right. Does the song stand out in your opinion?
Paul Landers: There definitely were long discussions about this song. We put a lot of thought into how to do a song about Germany that wasn’t embarrassing. With this song in particular, every point, every word was fought over until everyone was happy.
Christoph Schneider: Everyone in the band was enthusiastic about the song. Initially there were two different versions, thanks to Olsen we were able as a group to choose one of them. For me, this song is about the ambivalent emotional relationship to this country. People from my generation can understand that. First there were two countries, then suddenly one was gone. There were also times when I couldn’t have brought myself to say the word ‘Deutschland’. There was the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) and the GDR (German Democratic Republic), not Germany. Nowadays I’m better able to deal with it. It’s a subject that has preoccupied us forever. German lyrics with heavy music – that’s what we do. And now we’ve managed to do a song about Germany, that’s a major step for the band. For me, the video is also something very special: a reminder not to forget what everything once was – in Rammstein style. A wall filled with emotional historical events that come together in one clip. It’s like a teaser for an epic film that you want to watch afterwards.
Were you not afraid that the song could be misinterpreted?
Christoph Schneider: The song for me is an attempt to describe the state our generation finds itself in. We’re living in a time when many people now dare to come out with opinions that are no longer just being preached from the bar stool.
How does the new album hold up compared to your earlier work?
Richard Z. Kruspe: I’m a big fan of MUTTER. That to me is ‘our’ album, so we also play almost all of the songs live. The new songs also have this potential: I think they’ll be accepted live more quickly than the older albums, because they’re catchy. In retrospect, LIEBE IST FÜR ALLE DA was not our strongest album. The new album I think is much more interesting and more musical, less controlled. We’re breaking out now somehow – at least that’s how I feel about it. I’m often asked about the difference between the last album and the current one. My answer is: For me, the new album sounds like Rammstein in 3D. It has a depth that we didn’t have before.
CREDITS:
Thorsten Zahn, METAL HAMMER Germany / www.metalhammer.de/rammstein-en
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