Untitled Rammstein album
The untitled seventh studio album by German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein, titled Rammstein on digital platforms, was released through Universal Music on 17 May 2019. Their first studio album in ten years, it is their first not to be produced by Jacob Hellner; it was instead produced by Emigrate's member Olsen Involtini.
The album received positive reviews from critics. It was also commercially successful, reaching number one in over ten countries. It set a record for the most units of an album sold in its first week in Germany, during the 21st century, and was the best-selling album of 2019 in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was also certified double-platinum by the BVMI for selling at least 400,000 copies in Germany. The album was supported by the singles "Deutschland", "Radio", and "Ausländer", with "Deutschland" becoming their second number-one hit in Germany and the other two entering the top-5.
Promotion and release
In an interview with Kerrang! in January 2019, Richard Kruspe noted that there would be five music videos created for the album. Teaser clips for the first music video were released during late March. These clips featured visuals from the video along with the Roman numerals for the date 28 March 2019. On that day, the song "Deutschland" was released as the album's lead single on digital platforms, and its 10-minute-long music video was uploaded onto YouTube. The single also came with a remix by Kruspe. The band formally revealed the release date of the album, 17 May 2019, as well. They did not reveal the cover art but noted the album had no title.After being up for just four days, the music video garnered 19 million views. "Deutschland" was released physically as both a 7-inch vinyl and CD single on 12 April, with the remix acting as the B-side. The track list was revealed between 16 April and 19 April on the band's YouTube channel with snippets of riffs from each song. The cover of the album was also revealed there on 18 April. Less than a week later, the band began teasing a music video for the song "Radio", which was released on 26 April. On 26 May, the band teased a music video for the album's third single, "Ausländer". The video was released on 28 May and the single was released on 31 May.
Critical reception
The album received general acclaim from professional critics. On review aggregator website Metacritic, it holds an average review score of 82/100, based on 11 reviews indicating "universal acclaim". In a positive review, NME wrote, "this album is undoubtedly a resounding triumph". Nick Ruskell at Kerrang! wrote, "this is a record made with care, craft, and nothing allowed in that isn't just-so". Wall of Sound gave the album 9.5/10 stating: "Rammstein is seemingly a culmination of the previous six studio albums, taking the best parts of the last few decades and putting it all in one album, while throwing in a few unexpected surprises.";Year-end rankings
Publication | List | Rank | |
GQ | The 20 Best Albums of 2019 |
Commercial performance
The album debuted atop the German album charts on issue date 24 May 2019. In the first week in Germany, it moved 260,000 album-equivalent units, making it the best-performing album in the first week from a band in the 21st century. The album spent the next two weeks at No. 2 before climbing back up to No. 1 on 14 June. It spent two more non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 afterward. The album also spent an entire year inside the top 40 of the chart, not leaving it until 12 June 2020.Elsewhere, the album peaked at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart, selling 12,130 copies and spent three consecutive weeks atop the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart. In the United States, the album peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, earning 28,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. The album is the band's first to reach the top 10 in the United States. Additionally, it topped the Hard Rock Albums chart, the second Rammstein album to do so and World Albums chart, which make it the first German-language studio album to top this chart. On 11 July 2019, the album was certified 2× Platinum by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie for sales of over 400,000 album-equivalent units in Germany.
Track listing
On digital releases, the album title and track names are stylized as uppercase letters; e.g., "Was ich liebe" is "WAS ICH LIEBE".Personnel
Personnel adapted from album notes.Rammstein
- Till Lindemann – lead vocals, music, lyrics
- Richard Kruspe – lead guitar, music, lyrics, backing vocals
- Oliver Riedel – bass guitar, music, lyrics
- Paul Landers – rhythm guitar, music, lyrics
- Christian Lorenz – keyboards, music, lyrics
- Christoph Schneider – drums, music, lyrics
- The Academic Choir and the Symphony Orchestra of the National Television and Radio Company of Belarus, Minsk – strings, choir
- Meral Al-Mer – backing vocals
- Carla Bruhn – backing vocals
- Florian Ammon – engineer, editing
- Ben Bazzazian – programming
- Lutz Buch – guitar technician
- Daniel Cayotte – studio assistant
- Siarhei Chaika – recording engineer
- Tom Dalgety – additional producer, recording engineer
- Svante Forsbäck – mastering
- Sven Helbig – choir and string arrangements
- Olsen Involtini – producer, mixer, recording engineer
- Dzmitry Karshakevich – recording engineer
- Wilhelm Keitel – conductor
- Rammstein – producer
- Rossi Rossberg – drum technician
- Sky van Hoff – additional producer, recording engineer
- Jes Larsen – photography
- Rocket & Wink – artwork
Charts