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Kerrang - Issue 1075 – 24 September 2005

Rammstein aren’t back – We never went away.
The German Industrial metallers step back into the spotlight with new album ‘Rosenrot’

Rammstein have spoken exclusively to Kerrang! about their forthcoming fifth album, ‘Rosenrot’.
The follow-up to 2004’s ‘Reise, Reise’ consists of unreleased tracks that were recorded during their sessions for the band’s last offering, as well as new material recorded at Teldex Studio in Berlin last spring.

“ ‘Reise, Reise’ was a complete album, but we simply made too many good songs, “ reveals rhythm guitarist Christoph ‘Doom’ Schneider. “We decided to hold them back, do our tour, and then continue recording. Originally we were going to call it ‘Reise, Reise Vol. 2’ but then we thought the new album was unique enough to have a name of it’s own”.

“It’s something in between a sequel and a new album,” guitarist Paul Landers explain. “We always take small steps between one album and the next, but if you compare this to our first album (‘Herzeleid’, 1995) the difference is extreme.”

Produced by Rammstein’s long-time producer Jacob Hellner, ‘Rosenrot’ is the product of “some of the most relaxed times the band has ever had”, according to singer Till Lindemann.
“Just before ‘Reise, Reise’ came out there were rumours on the Internet that we were going to break up,” he sighs. “We did need a break after ‘Mutter’ (2001), just like any boxer that’s gone nine rounds, but that time isn’t now.”

“This is some of our most confident material,” adds bassist Oliver Reidel. “Rammstein aren’t back. We never went away.”
Here, then, in Oliver Reidel’s own words, is a track-by-track rundown of ‘Rosenrot’…

‘Benzin’ (Petrol)
“We have so much fire on our shows that we wondered if we could have some lyrics about petrol, because it’s been responsible for our success outside of Germany It’s basically our ode to pyromania.”

‘Spring’ (Jump)
“It’s about a person that gets out of a car just to enjoy the scenery and people start shouting at him because they think he’s about to commit suicide. In the end, he gets so affected by it that he decided to jump.”

‘Rosenrot’ (Rosered)
“It’s the title-track. It’s one of the best songs on the album, but it doesn’t represent everything we’ve done with these new songs and there’s much more to look forward to once you get past this song.”

“Zerstören” (Destroy)
“It’s one of our longer songs but it doesn’t sound long when you listen to it. There’s a lot of keyboards, a lot of melody but it’s not exactly a ballad. It’s angrier.”

“Mann gegen Mann” (Man against man)
“It kind of confronts and showcases German attitudes towards homosexuality. We wanted to fight small-minded segregationist attitudes.”

“Feuer & Wasser” (Fire & Water)
“I won’t comment on whether this is one of our most groundbreaking songs ever, but at over four minutes we’ve got space for some much bigger choruses than you’ll find anywhere else…”

“Wo bist du?” (Where are you?)
“We wanted to make ‘Reise, Reise’ one of the hardest albums we’ve done, so a few of the gentler songs were left over, and this is one of them. But we don’t want you to think that it’s a leftover because it fits on here perfectly.”

“Te quiero puta” (I want you, bitch)
“Till has always listened to Mexican music and loves South America, so this has that vibe going on. In the beginning, though, it sounded very Eastern. In the end, we decided to totally change it and add in a mariachi band. It sounds strange in words but musically it works.”

“Ein Leid” (A song)
“It’s a very quiet song. We were sitting in the studio and Till was choosing his lyrics, and it was a moment were we didn’t write a song but just played spontaneously. When we tried to re-record it, it didn’t work out so well, so we actually used the first recording from the practise room.”

Rammstein’s album ‘Rosenrot’ will be released on October 31 via Universal Music.

© 2005 Sue Lindemann