Rammstein announce new album

There are plenty of musicians who wanted to go on tour in 2020 — with new albums in their luggage that they wanted to launch to live audiences. The coronavirus thwarted those plans and continues to pose problems for many artists to this day.

The industrial metal band Rammstein was also planning to go on tour, before numerous appearances had to be postponed due to the pandemic.

As the most successful German band internationally, however, Rammstein is in the fortunate position of not having to worry about its financial existence even if they have had to cancel a tour. So instead of setting the stages on fire live, the band made the best of the situation and recorded a new album, their eighth.

More time and fewer distractions

"The fact that we couldn't perform live actually increased our creativity," said keyboardist Flake in an interview with the online magazine of the record label Motor, to which the band is under contract.

"We had more time to think of new things and less distraction. That way we recorded an album that we really hadn't planned on."

In March, there was concern about singer Till Lindemann, who had been hospitalized with pneumonia. His COVID-19 test turned out negative.

While most people have stayed at home for the last 12 months, Rammstein rented a studio in La Fabrique in September; in a former farm from the beginning of the 19th century in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just under an hour's drive from the Mediterranean — not a bad option to endure lockdown and monotony.

Flake says that in the past year he's had more inspiration, as well as time to consciously listen to new releases and older records. The band would not have had any problems finding ideas: "Our topics are generally from daily experience and world events and something always happens there," said Flake. "We basically deal with people's madness and that is not much different in coronavirus times than in normal ones."

Rammstein's keyboardist hints that some inspiration came from ex-US president Donald Trump. Most of the band's ideas played out in their heads anyway, said the keyboardist, although "occasional small bumps come in from outside" — and there's enough madness out there even when the streets are only half as full, Flake said.

According to current planning, the interrupted tour is to be continued from May. A date for the release of the new album is not yet known.

 

Adapted from German by Carl Holm