Rammstein News

According to the oficial site, 700.000 people have attended Rammstein’s lattest performance, at the Rock Nad Volgoi Festival (in Samara, Russia).

Rock Nad Volgoi Festival (photo by Max Koriath)

Rock Nad Volgoi is the major open-air festival in Russia, and took place for the fifth time. This year’s edition had Rammstein headling the event, as well as performances from Mordor, Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii, Bi-2, Chizh & CO, Piknik, Aquarium, Kipelov and Alisa.

The oficial site announced that Volbeat is set to be the opening act for their open-air show on July 11st in Udine, Italy.

Volbeat

Volbeat is a Danish metal band from Copenhagen. Their current line-up consists of vocalist and guitarist Michael Poulsen, bassist Anders Kjølholm, guitarist Rob Caggiano, and drummer Jon Larsen.

According to the Germany’s Amazon store, Till Lindemann will release a book entitled In stillen nachten: Gedichte (“In silent nights: poems”). This book is a new compilation of poems written by Lindemann similar to Messer, which was published in November 2002.

In stillen Nächten: Gedichte

According to the publisher’s website, In stillen nachten contais an introduction written by Alexander Gorkov (author of the report for Süddeutsche Zeitung-Magazine) and black and white illustrations drawn by artist Matthias Matthies.

The book will be released on October 2th, 2013. It can be pre-ordered already via amazon.de.

The band members in Rammstein were all living under the rules of the former GDR before finally meeting up in the ’90s and selling out concert tickets as Rammstein, under a unified Germany. It wasn’t easy being a musician then. The rules of the former GDR did not allow unemployment and refused to count being a musician as a job. While all the band members had some sort of experience with music, they also maintained part-time jobs to please the GDR.

Keyboardist Flake Lorenz, who was responsible for the band’s thematic contrasts, had taken on an internship to please the former GDR so he could practice music on the side. “I completed an apprenticeship as a toolmaker,” said Lorenz in a translated documentary on the band. “I went to rehearsals right after work, slept for a bit, and then went straight back to work.”

While Lorenz was studying as a toolmaker, guitarist Paul Landers was working part-time in East Germany. In the same documentary, Landers talks about the circumstances under which he worked. “In the East, work was compulsory. If you did not pay your rent, you could sometimes end up in prison. To avoid this, I got a job in the library as a boiler worker. I spent my time reading and heating. This is what most East German musicians did.” Lander goes on to call these part-time jobs “alibi jobs” for musicians.

Lorenz and Flanders have often talked about their alibi jobs, but lead guitarist Richard Kruspe likes to talk more about his time playing music before Rammstein. “I had a band before Rammstein,” he says in the documentary, “but I was always a little bit bored so I started side projects with other bands and this was the origins of Rammstein.” Kruspe was always playing the guitar ever since he met a girl who asked him to play for her. Kruspe noticed the girl’s rising excitement as he played. He describes this as the moment he realized girls like guys who play guitar. This was the impetus for Kruspe learning to play guitar professionally.

Before being able to focus completely on music like Kruspe, drummer Christoph Schneider had to fit his music playing in between his job and military career. Schneider often speaks fondly of his time as a telecommunications assistant. Afterwards, he joined the German army and became the only band member of Rammstein to have served in the army.

An alternative version of Mein Herz Brennt’s videoclip as recently been released. This version is totally directed by Eugenio Recuenco, and can be viewed exclusively at his official website.

Mein Herz Brennt (Alternative Version)

The official videoclip for Mein Herz Brennt – released in December of 2012 – was directed by Zoran Bihac. However, the first version of this videoclip was created by Eugenio Recuenco in 2011, which was rejected by the band. Due to this situation, Zoran Bihac was asked to reshoot the videoclip, while still using partial footage created by Recuenco.

Rammstein are nominated for Germany’s Echo Awards 2013, in the category Musik-DVD-Produktion, for their videoclip compilation “Videos 1995-2012″.

Also nominated in the same category are artists Fische Helene, Peter Maffay, Toten Hosen and Unheilig. The ceremony will take place at Messe Berlin, on March 21st.

This is the third consecutive year in which the band gets nominated for the Echo Awards. In 2012 they were nominated in 4 categories (winning two of those nominations), and in 2011 they were nominated for the category of best national video (which they also won).

A few days ago a video started spreading across many Rammstein communities. This video depicted footage of Rammstein complementing Jonas Åkerlund as an artist. The initial source that presented this footage claimed that it was filmed during Bercy’s double-gig in 2012. The same source claimed that it was a behind-the-scenes from the next live DVD/Bluray.

However, all this information is erroneous. The footage is not set to be part of Rammstein’s next live DVD/Bluray. In fact, it belongs to a tribute film dedicated to Åkerlund, that is available in his oficial website. You can see the original tribute film in this link (you need to click on “ICON AWARDS 2011 – Tribute Film”).

The oficial site has announced DJ Joe Letz as Rammstein’s support act for the upcoming European tour. He shall warm up the crowd with his DJ set.

DJ Joe Letz

Joe Letz has already served has the band’s supporting act through out North America last year. You can consult the official announcement here.

Rammstein are nominated for the 5th edition of the Revolver Golden Gods Awards, in the category of most dedicated fans.

Revolver Golden Gods 2013

Also nominated in the same category are Day To Remember, Black Label Society, Black Veil Brides, HIM and Slipknot. You can cast your vote here.

The ceremony will be held on May 2sd at Club Nokia (Los Angeles). Recall that Rammstein were part of the 2011 edition of this event, winning in best live band category. They were again nominated last year for best international band, but lost to X Japan.

Rammstein were confirmed as one of the bands joining Movimentos Festival 2013. They are scheduled to perform on May 4th and 5th, 2013.

Movimentos Festival 2013

This will be the 11st edition of this festival, which is going to take place in Wolfsburg, Germany. The upcoming edition is dedicated to the theme of tolerance. The band will perform in Kraftwerk, a room with a maximum capacity of 1400 people.

Tickets will go on sale at 9 pm (GMT +1) on February 2nd at tickets.de. Sales will be limited to 2 tickets per person.