RAMMSTEIN

RAMMSTEIN
Biography

Rammstein are a German band formed in Berlin in 1994. Till Lindemann on vocals, Richard Z. Kruspe on lead guitar, Paul Landers on rhythm guitar, Oliver Riedel on bass, Christoph Schneider on drums and Christian “Flake” Lorenz on keyboards have been the band from the first day to this one, with no change of personnel at all. Their Japanese label puts their worldwide sales at more than twenty million albums.

Six men in Berlin (1994- )

The band was formed in Berlin in 1994. Before it, some of the members had been involved with the punk rock acts Feeling B and First Arsch.

The way they write has not changed since. The other five finish an instrumental piece and Lindemann then writes and sings the lyrics over it. Those lyrics are in German, and they still are.

Herzeleid and Sehnsucht (1995-1997)

The debut album, Herzeleid, was released by Motor Music in September 1995. It was recorded at Polar Studios and BomKrash in Stockholm and produced by Jacob Hellner, and reached two in Germany and four in Switzerland.

Sehnsucht, released on 22 August 1997, went to number one in Germany and Austria and reached forty-five on the Billboard 200. It was recorded at Temple Studio in St. Paul’s Bay, Malta, between November 1996 and July 1997. It is the only album sung entirely in German ever certified platinum by the RIAA in the United States. One of its singles, “Du hast”, was later nominated for a Grammy.

Mutter and America (2001)

Mutter, in 2001, was followed by a North American tour. The pattern that has held ever since starts here: large American rooms, with the lyrics still in German.

Reise, Reise and Rosenrot (2004-2005)

Reise, Reise was released by Universal Music in Germany on 27 September 2004 and by Republic Records in North America on 16 November that year. It was recorded at El Cortijo Studios in Málaga, Spain, between November 2003 and May 2004, produced by the band with Jacob Hellner, and went to number one in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Iceland, Finland, Estonia and Mexico. Its single “Mein Teil” was also nominated for a Grammy.

Rosenrot, from 2005, includes six songs written for the previous album and left off it. Its working title was Reise, Reise Volume Two; the title Rosenrot was announced on 18 August 2005. The sleeve is a slightly altered photograph of the icebreaker USS Atka, taken on 13 March 1960 at McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

A ten-year gap (2009-2019)

After Liebe ist für alle da in 2009 the band toured North America again, for the first time since 2001. Their headline show at Madison Square Garden in December 2010 sold out in under twenty minutes, and during the North American tours of 2011 and 2012 they made their first appearance on US network television, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The next album took ten years. Rammstein, from 2019, carries no title; it reached number nine in the United States, their first top ten there, and number one in fourteen countries.

Zeit (2022)

Zeit, from 2022, is their most recent studio album, and they have gone on touring stadiums since.

Live in Mexico City (2026)

Live in Mexico City, with a release date of 20 November 2026, documents the three sold-out concerts at Mexico City’s Foro Sol on 1, 2 and 4 October 2022 that ended the North American leg of the band’s 2019-2024 stadium tour, with close to 200,000 people across the three nights.

Current line-up

These six are the members the Japanese label’s official biography lists, and they are the six the band was formed with.

Member	Instrument
Till Lindemann	lead vocals
Richard Z. Kruspe	lead guitar
Paul Landers	rhythm guitar
Oliver Riedel	bass
Christoph Schneider	drums
Christian “Flake” Lorenz	keyboards

Discography

Eight studio albums are registered on this site. The live albums (Live aus Berlin, Völkerball, Paris) and the compilation Made in Germany are not among them.

#	Album	Released
1	Herzeleid	1995
2	Sehnsucht	1997-08-22
3	Mutter	2001-04-02
4	Reise, Reise	2004-09-27
5	Rosenrot	2005
6	Liebe ist für alle da	2009-10-16
7	Rammstein	2019-05-17
8	Zeit	2022-04-29

Other releases (live)

• Live in Mexico City (release date 20 November 2026) - the three Foro Sol concerts in Mexico City of October 2022: 24 tracks on two CDs, with Blu-ray, 4LP and a deluxe edition with a photo book among the formats. In Japan, Universal Music has two limited imports for the Japanese market: the deluxe (2CD + Blu-ray, UICY-80818) and the 2CD (UICY-16547/8).

Japanese shows

The band last played Japan on 3 June 2005, at CLUB CITTA’ in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. That show is one of the four venues recorded for Völkerball, their official live album and DVD (Universal, 17 November 2006), and the product copy for the Japanese edition dates the performance to 3 June 2005.

They had been billed for SUMMER SONIC 05 at Makuhari Messe on 14 August that year and cancelled after Till Lindemann injured his right leg. Earlier Japanese appearances - the Fuji Rock Festival in 2000 and shows at BIG CAT in Osaka and LIQUIDROOM in Tokyo in 2001 - are not in this site’s LIVE listings, because none of the sources read here gives their dates.

A note on sources

The facts here rest on the official Rammstein biography published by Universal Music Japan, on the English Wikipedia article about the band and on the article for each album, on MusicBrainz release rows for dates, labels and running orders, on Spotify embed payloads for album identity, and - for the 2005 Japanese concert - on Tower Records’ product page for the Japanese edition of Völkerball. All were read on 28 September 2026.