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Rammstein is a German metal band which was formed in 1994, in Berlin, and consists of Till Lindemann (lead vocals), Richard Kruspe (lead guitar and backing vocals), Paul Landers (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Oliver Riedel (bass guitar, "Ollie"), Christoph Schneider (drums and Electronic percussion, "Doom") and Christian Lorenz (keyboards, "Flake"). The band is widely accepted as part of the Neue Deutsche Härte scene, alongside bands such as Oomph!, Laibach, and Die Krupps. Their songs are performed almost exclusively in German. They have sold over 22 million records worldwide. Rammstein's entire catalogue is published by Universal Music Group. Since its formation, Rammstein has had no changes in lineup.
Although the majority of their songs are written in German, Rammstein has had success across the world.

Name

Rammstein takes its name indirectly from the West German town of Ramstein-Miesenbach, the site of the flight show disaster on August 28, 1988. The band's signature song, the eponymous Rammstein, is a commemoration of the tragedy that took place at the Ramstein Air Base. The extra "m" in the band's name makes it translate literally as "ramming stone" to convey the Teutonic sound of their music. In a short period before the band became well known, they performed using the name "Rammstein-Flugschau" (literally meaning Rammstein-Airshow.)

Formation

Rammstein was founded by guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe. In 1989, he escaped to West Berlin and started the band, Orgasm Death Gimmick. At that time, he was heavily influenced by American music, especially that of Kiss. After the Berlin Wall came down, he moved back home to Schwerin where Till Lindemann worked as a basket weaver and played drums in the band First Arsch (loosely translated as "Apex Ass"). At this time, Richard lived with Oliver Riedel, of the band The Inchtabokatables, and Christoph "Doom" Schneider (of Die Firma). Richard realized that the music he had previously created did not properly suit him. He envisioned something that would combine machines as well as the sound of hard guitars. The three started working together on a new project. Richard soon found it extremely difficult to write both music and lyrics at the same time, so he persuaded Lindemann to join Rammstein. Richard first discovered Till when he overheard him singing while he was working.

Early Years (Pre-Herzeleid Era - 1994)

A contest was held in Berlin for amateur bands in 1994, the winner of which would receive the opportunity to record a four track demo CD in a professional studio. Kruspe, Schneider, Riedel, and Lindemann entered and won the contest, which sparked the attention of Paul Landers, who wanted in on the project upon hearing their demo. To complete their sound, Rammstein then attempted to recruit Christian "Flake" Lorenz, who had played with Paul Landers previously in Feeling B. At first, Lorenz was hesitant, but eventually agreed to join the band.

Herzeleid (1995 - 1997)

Rammstein began to record their first studio album entitled Herzeleid in March 1995 with producer Jacob Hellner. They released their first single Du riechst so gut on August 17th and later released the album on September 24th 1995. Later that same year, they toured with Clawfinger in Warsaw and Prague. Rammstein headlined a tour of their own through Germany from December 2nd to December 22nd consisting of 17 shows which helped to boost the band's popularity. They then went on several tours throughout early 1996, releasing their second single entitled Seemann on January 8th 1996.

On March 27, Rammstein performed on MTV's Hanging Out in London; their first performance in the UK. Rammstein's first major boost in popularity outside of Germany came when music director Trent Reznor chose two Rammstein songs, namely Heirate Mich and Rammstein, for David Lynch's new film, Lost Highway. The soundtrack for the movie was released in the US in the fall of 1996 and later in Europe April 1997.

Rammstein then went on to tour through Germany, Austria and Switzerland from September to October 1996, doing an anniversary concert on 27th September called '100 years of Rammstein'. Guests to the concert included Moby, Christiane Herbold (of Bobo) and The Berlin Session Orchestra, Berlin director Gert Hof was responsible for the light show.

Sehnsucht/Live aus Berlin (late 1996 - 2000)

Rammstein started recording Sehnsucht in November 1996 at the Temple Studios in Malta. The album was again produced by Jacob Hellner. The first single off the album, entitled Engel was released on April 1 1997 and later reached gold on May 23. This prompted the release of a fan edition of the single, appropriately named Engel: Fan Edition. This contained two previously unreleased songs Feuerräder and Wilder Wein. Release of the 2nd single off the album "Sehnsucht" was Du Hast which hit the German single charts August 1997 at number 5.

Rammstein then continued touring in the summer whilst Sehnsucht was released on August 22nd 1997. The album reached number 1 after only two weeks in the charts. Simultaneously, Herzeleid and both the singles off Sehnsucht (Du Hast and Engel) were in the Top 20 of the German charts. Rammstein continued to headline sold out shows throughout Europe in September, October and November 1997 before releasing their cover of the Kraftwerk song, Das Modell. The single included another unreleased song entitled Kokain. On December 5th 1997, Rammstein embarked on their first tour of the United States, with support from KMFDM. On August 22nd and 23rd 1998, Rammstein played to over 17,000 fans at the Wuhlheide in Berlin; the biggest show the band have ever played there up to that date. Supporting acts were Danzig, Nina Hagen, Joachim Witt and Alaska. The show was professionally videotaped, intended to be released on their upcoming live DVD, Live aus Berlin. Rammstein embarked on a live tour with Korn, Ice Cube, Orgy and Limp Bizkit called the Family Values tour in September through to late October 1998. To further continue their success in the US, Sehnsucht received Gold record status on November 2nd. The Band was nominated at the MTV European Music Awards for Best Rock Act and performed Du Hast live on November 12th of that year.

Rammstein had further success in 1999, starting off the year in February with a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 42nd-annual Grammy Awards. A year after it was filmed, the Live aus Berlin concert was released on CD on 30th August 1999, with a limited edition double CD also available. Two weeks after it was released, Live aus Berlin went to number one in the German Album Charts. On September 13th and November 26th 1999 the video and DVD versions of the concert were released respectively.

Mutter (2000 - 2002)

Rammstein's album Mutter recording took place in the south of France between May 2000 and June 2000, and was later mixed in Stockholm in October of that year. During the Christmas holidays 2000, Rammstein released an MP3 of Links 2 3 4 as a taster for their new album. 2001 was a busy year for Rammstein, starting out in January and February with the band playing the Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand. January also heralded the shooting of the video for their upcoming single Sonne, recorded in Potsdam at Babelsberger Filmstudios from 13th to the 15th. The video was released on 29th January 2001. The single for Sonne was released on February 12th 2001 in Europe, featuring an Instrumental version of the song, two remixes by Clawfinger, and Adios off the upcoming album. Mutter was released on April 2nd 2001, sparking another Rammstein tour through Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On May 14th, the second single off the album Links 2 3 4 was released, along with a video of the single on May 18th. After a tour throughout Europe in June, the band then toured USA, Canada and Mexico from June 2001 to August 2001. Ich Will, the third single from the album was released on September 10th 2001 and a Tour edition of the Mutter album was released, featuring alternative artwork and live versions of Ich Will, Links 2 3 4, Sonne, and Spieluhr. Between January 8th and January 12th 2002, Rammstein travelled to Prague to participate in a minor scene from the movie 'xXx'. The band is seen in the opening scene of the action movie performing a concert with their song Feuer frei!. Feuer frei! was released across Europe as first single from the xXx Soundtrack on 14th October 2002. Rammstein released two remixes of the song, Furthermore, the single's tracklisting included Du Hast and Bück Dich cover versions by Battery. The single cover was an artwork by New York artist Robert Longo. The video for the single was cut by Rob Cohen, which is partly the Rammstein performance at the beginning of the movie and partly snippets from the movie itself.

Reise, Reise (2003 - 2005)

Rammstein recorded Reise, Reise at the El Cortijo studio in southern Spain between November 2003 and December 2003, it was later mixed at Toytown studio in Stockholm, Sweden in April and May 2004. The first single off of the album was Mein Teil, released on 26th July 2004. The shooting for the video is shot in the Arena, in the Treptow district of Berlin. Outdoor shooting takes place at the Deutsche Oper (Opera House) U-Bahn station on Bismarckstrasse. The director is Zoran Bihac, who was also behind the Links 2 3 4 video. The Amerika video is filmed on the 6th and 7th of August 2004 in the ruins of the former chemical factory in Rüdersdorf near Berlin, Germany under the direction of Jörn Heitmann (who also directed the Ich will video, among others). The spacesuits for the moon scenes were borrowed from Hollywood and 240 tons of ash was needed to create the moon landscape. The video premiered on 20th August 2004.

The second single from Reise, Reise was Amerika, released on September 13th 2004. With the album released on September 27th, it went straight to top 10 charts throughout Europe. According to the Billboard charts, Rammstein were now the most successful German-language band of all time. Rammstein then toured Germany through November and some of December 2004, releasing the single Ohne Dich on 22nd November.

In February 2005, Rammstein tour Europe again. Ending on February 28, 2005, Rammstein will have played 21 concerts in front of more than 200,000 spectators in 10 countries. Keine Lust was the fourth single released from Reise, Reise on 28th February 2005. From May 27th 2005 to July 30th 2005, Rammstein play festivals all around Europe and in Russia. Footage from these concerts eventually end up on Rammstein's live DVD Völkerball, released later in November 2006.

Rosenrot/Völkerball (2005 - 2006)

In August 2005, Rammstein revealed the name of their latest studio album, Rosenrot. Their first single from the new album, Benzin, was released on October 5th 2005, with its video premiere on 16th September 2005. The album Rosenrot was released worldwide on October 28th 2005. Directly following the release, the album continues the success-story of forerunner Reise, Reise and takes the top 10 charts in 20 different countries. December 16th 2005 spelled the release of the title track on the album Rosenrot. The video for Mann Gegen Mann was released on 6th February 2006, with the single being released on March 3rd. On February 19th 2006, Rammstein had the honour of having an asteroid named after them, 110393 Rammstein. Some believe their name was chosen because of the music video for Amerika, which displayed the six members of the band floating above the moon sporting NASA's astronaut suits. On November 17th the first Rammstein Live DVD since Live aus Berlin from 1998 is released. Völkerball shows concert-performances by the band in England, France, Japan and Russia. The Special Edition is extended by a second DVD, which contains the documentaries “Anaconda in the net” by Mathilde Bonnefoy and the “Making of the album Reise, Reise” by Rammstein guitarist Paul Landers. The limited Edition is released as a large black/white photo-book with photos by Frederic Batier, who had accompanied the band through their recent tours. The Photo-book edition contains 2 DVDs and 2 Live albums.

Liebe ist für alle da & Tour (2007–2011)

The band took a time out in 2006, and began work again in 2007. The band didn't tour during 2007 due to album production. The recording process took reportedly two years.

In July 2009, the title track "Liebe ist für alle da" leaked onto the internet, along with promotional materials. This has led Universal Music to take action against certain fan sites.

The single "Pussy" was released on September 16, 2009, especially for the adult website Visit-x. The video contains graphic scenes of male and female nudity as well as women engaging in sexual activity with the band members, although the actual sex scenes were performed by body doubles. The women featured in the video are German porn stars.

The album Liebe ist für alle da was released October 16. On November 8, 2009 Rammstein began the first leg of the Liebe ist für alle da Tour In Lisbon, Portugal.

The video to "Ich tu dir weh" was released on December 21, 2009 on the adult website Visit-x, just like the video to "Pussy", after advertisement on the band's official German website; it depicts the band on stage in a similar configuration as the one on their 2009/10 tour. Any references to the video on the official website have since been deleted. The single has been released on January 15, 2010.

On April 23, 2010, Rammstein released their video "Haifisch". Unlike the video to "Ich tu dir weh", it contains more of a storyline rather than a performance. The single was released during May and June 2010.

As part of their European summer tour, Rammstein performed at the 2010 Rock AM Ring Festival on Friday 4th - Sunday 6 June 2010. They also headlined several shows across Europe on the Sonisphere Festival, including their first ever outdoor UK performance at Knebworth Park, performing the day before Iron Maiden. On Sunday July 18, 2010, Rammstein played in front of more than 130,000 people in Quebec City on the Plains of Abraham as the closing show for the Festival d'été de Québec. It was their first North American appearance in 9 years. The band have confirmed that their last tour dates of 2010 will be in the Americas. After several South American dates the band will perform a show at the famous Madison Square Garden in New York- their first US show in nine years, Tickets sold out within 30 minutes of being on sale. It is also confirmed that they will be playing at Big Day Out 2011 in Australia and New Zealand.

Made In Germany 1995–2011 (2011–present)
On November 11, 2011 Rammstein released the single "Mein Land", on December 2 the album "Made in Germany 1995–2011".

Style

Although Rammstein is often generalized as Neue Deutsche Härte, its music spans a variety of related styles, including industrial hard rock, heavy metal and electronic music with influences of punk rock, pop music and gothic rock, due to their use of keyboards to emulate strings, choirs or pianos. The band was influenced by Laibach, a Slovenian neo-classical and industrial group. Other influences include, Oomph!, and Ministry, but the contrast between individual songs such as Du riechst so gut, Bestrafe mich, Ohne dich and Te quiero puta! makes the band difficult to classify, though most simply refer to them as industrial metal. The band's diverse range of influence has made them appealing to tastes of all kinds, but they are chiefly renowned in industrial, electronica, and heavy metal circles.

The band has a flair for costumes of all sorts, both in live shows and in videos. In the Keine Lust video, all members of the band except Flake were dressed in fat suits. In the Amerika video, all members of the band wore space suits. Live, the band experiments even more with costumes. In the Volkerball concert, among others, Till would change constumes in between songs, dressed accordingly for each song. For example, in Mein Teil, he was dressed as a butcher, in Reise, Reise, a sailor. The rest of the band each wears their own preferred costume, but none as outlandish or themed as Till's.

Rammstein's style has tended to divide critics, some of whom have responded with memorable comments. Jam Showbiz (April 2001) described Mutter as "music to invade Poland to." New Zealand's Southland Times (Dec. 17, 1999) suggested that Till Lindemann's "booming, sub-sonic voice" would send "the peasants fleeing into their barns and bolting their doors," while the New York Times (Jan. 9, 2005) commented that on the stage, "Mr. Lindemann gave off an air of such brute masculinity and barely contained violence that it seemed that he could have reached into the crowd, snatched up a fan, and bitten off his head." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic commented that "their blend of industrial noise, grinding metal guitars, and operatic vocals is staggeringly powerful." "We just push boundaries," said Till Lindemann in an interview with rock magazine Kerrang!. "We can't help it if people don't like those boundaries being pushed."

Lyrics

Nearly all of Rammstein's songs are in German. However, the band did record Engel (English version) (Angel), Du hast (English version) ("You have", which is most commonly confused with "You hate", since 'hast' and 'hasst' sound phonetically identical. In the English version of the song, the lyric is translated to "You hate" for stylization purposes.), and Amerika (English version), as well as covers of the songs Stripped (Depeche Mode) and Pet Sematary (The Ramones). In addition, the songs Amerika, Stirb nicht vor mir (Don't Die Before I Do) and Moskau ("Moscow") contain not only German verses, but also English and Russian choruses, respectively; Te quiero puta! ("I love you, whore!") is entirely in Spanish. Oliver Riedel commented that, "German language suits heavy metal music. French might be the language of love, but German is the language of anger".

The lyrics of Rammstein and above all their talk by singer Till Lindemann are an essential element of music and shape the perception by fans and a wider public. This is, among other things that are often very controversial, and taboo subjects such as sadomasochism (Bück Dich, Rein Raus and Bestrafe Mich), homosexuality (Mann gegen Mann), incest (Spiel mit mir and Tier), pedophilia (Tier and Halleluja) , Necrophilia (Heirate mich), Pyromania (Benzin and Hilf mir), cannibalism (Mein Teil), the game with religious images (Asche zu Asche, Engel) having sex and violence (Wollt ihr das Bett in Flammen sehen?).

Wordplay is a fundamental component of Rammstein's lyrics. In many instances, the lyrics are phrased such that they can be interpreted in several ways. The song Du hast, for example, is a play on German marriage vows (Willst Du, bis der Tod euch scheidet, treu ihr sein für alle Tage? - "Will you, until Death separates you, be faithful to her for the rest of your days?"). In the song, the traditional affirmative response, Ja ("Yes"), is replaced by its negation Nein ("No"). The final repetition of this line further perverts the meaning of the original vows through a minor change in the wording Willst Du, bis zum Tod der Scheide ... (Will you, until the Death of the vagina ...). The song starts, in fact, with a play on words: Du... Du hast... Du hast mich... meaning "You have me". This line is often mistaken for "You hate me", because in German, there is no clear distinction between the pronunciation of Du hasst which means "you hate" and Du hast which means "you have". The word game is later resolved as the line is completed; Du hast mich gefragt ("You [have] asked me"). Confusingly, the band did also make an English version of the song named You hate which was not translated directly from Du hast. While many arguments about 'Du Hast' are around, it is known that Rammstein used this wording to mislead and create humour in...

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