Rammstein released their new video for the 9 minute epic “Deutschland” from their upcoming album “Rammstein”, which is out on May 17th through UME/Spinefarm in Europe and Caroline Records in the USA. It’s the first album from the band since “Liebe ist Fuer Alle Da”, which was released in 2009 and their seventh in total.
The band faced severe criticism in Germany. “With this video, the band has crossed a line,” Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told mass-selling daily Bild. “The instrumentalization and trivialization of the Holocaust, as shown in the images, is irresponsible”. Felix Klein, the government’s commissioner for anti-semitism, said if the video was simply to promote sales, “I think it is a tasteless exploitation of artistic freedom.” Note that in 2009 the government banned Rammstein’s hit album “Liebe ist Fuer Alle Da” (“Love is For All”) from public display in stores because of its depictions of sado-masochism (source: Reuters).
Back to music with guitarist Richard Kruspe interview on Metal Wani where he said: “”Well, when I thought to do another Rammstein record, I was like, ‘No, I’m going to do that. I’m not going through more suffering,'” he said. “That was four years ago. But what we did in the beginning is we said ‘Let’s get together and try to come up with three or four songs.’ We didn’t really put any pressure on us, which was very important at this time. While we were starting to rehearse and stuff and getting ideas, I thought, ‘Wow, it’s actually very good. Things have changed.’ All of a sudden, there’s a certain kind of respect that I always missed a little bit. We just had good chemistry, which reminded me of the first time when we started. Then I felt, like, ‘What would interest me on a new Rammstein record?’ I thought, ‘Every time people talk Rammstein, it’s about fire. It’s all about the show.’ Nobody talks about the music anymore for Rammstein, and it kind of bothered me. I was thinking, ‘I want to do another record. It has to be musical in a way that can really stand out from other records.’ That was my goal, or our goal.”
As for the disc’s musical direction and how it compares to the band’s previous efforts, Kruspe said: “It’s so hard to say it, because I’m working four years on the record, I’m so close. I think when I listen to the record — we’re still in the process, but it’s almost Rammstein 3D’ is how I describe it. We have written a lot of stuff, but we recorded, I think, 16 songs right now. We’re probably going to mix 11 songs because we’re running out of time right now. I think it’s going to be out in April, which will be the release date. Then, we’ll be on our first stadium tour, which is very exciting.”
