Rammstein release full video for Deutschland and announce new album details
German metal band say they are taking a new approach with their latest record
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Your support makes all the difference.Rammstein have released the full video for "Deutschland" after sparking controversy over what many interpreted as imagery referencing the Holocaust.
The video accompanied the announcement of the band's seventh album, Rammstein, which will be released on 17 May and produced by Olsen Involtini with the band themselves. It will mark the band's first full-length release in a decade.
It shows a group of soldiers moving through a forest towards a mysterious beam of red light. The video then alternates between different eras and places with the band at the centre of each scenario.
A teaser for the video prompted early complaints from German government officials and Jewish community leaders over scenes where the band appeared dressed in striped prison uniforms, with nooses around their necks.
Felix Klein, the German government's commissioner for anti-Semitism, called it a "tasteless exploitation of artistic freedom". Charlotte Knobloch, former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the band had "crossed a line". So far Rammstein have not commented on the controversy or the meaning behind the imagery.
Speaking to Guitar World, guitarists Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers said the band were taking a different approach with their new record.
"It's not too sterile, not too clean," Lander said. "It has a lot of life and energy in it, but it's not all angry. The music is more than that. It's different for Rammstein. You might even say it's fun to listen to."
"Everyone with a computer can make music at home," he added. "You can programme stuff and get nice-sounding drum programmes and the sound is very good off the soundcards you have at home. That's fine, but our goal was to have something that could never be done at home, where you really hear the humans behind the instruments."
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