The release of Rammstein’s much-anticipated eighth studio album may be held up due to a shortage of paper, says German composer/musical director Sven Helbig, who recently completed his contributions to the group’s new album.
In a new interview conducted with the German news website sachsische.de (via Metal Sucks), Helbig, who is credited for choir and string arrangements on two songs on 2019’s Untitled album, reveals that he delivered his additions to the sextet’s new material two weeks ago, but that the group are unsure as to exactly when the collection might emerge due to a “lack of paper” holding up the packaging/production process.
“For the band, this hang-up is annoying now,” Helbig is quoted as saying.
Translated by the good people at RammWiki, Helbig answers the question ‘When will the new [Rammstein] album be released?’ with the response, “The band itself doesn’t know at the moment.”
“The trivial reason: lack of paper,” he continues. “They need to be able to send out a large number of CDs and records, i.e. lots of booklets and covers, worldwide at one go. And that’s probably not feasible right now.
“My work is finished,” Helbig added. “Two weeks ago I finally delivered. For the band, this hang-up is annoying now. The six of them don’t know when the album is coming, they don’t know if the tour is going to happen this year.
“They want to move forward, they want to play, but instead, like almost all musicians, they’re sitting there wringing their hands, waiting for decisions to finally be made.”
Asked to reveal a few details about the new album, the composer remained, understandably, tight-lipped.
“It’s all under wraps,” he says, “but it’s also impossible, because the band often [discard] songs at the last moment, changes them. Till doesn’t want to rewrite a lyric, but Richard thinks it’s stupid. Or the guitarists can’t agree on a riff.
“Already a song is [discarded]. With the previous albums, I often looked forward to something I’d heard and thought it was great.”
The band revealed that they were back in the studio - at La Fabrique studios in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, to be precise - in social media postings in October 2020: keyboardist Flake Lorenz later confirmed that the sextet were recording a new album.
“The fact that we couldn't perform live increased our creativity,” he said. “We had more time to think of new things and less distraction.”
The group are scheduled to return to the road on May 20, when they'll kick off their twice-delayed European stadium tour in Leipzig.
