Speaking with Guitar World, Rammstein's Paul Landers and Richard Z. Kruspe opened up about the band's forthcoming album. Following is an excerpt from the story.

Because of the emphasis on drama and the dominance of pyro (in the live shows), some have accused Rammstein of being style over substance. But extinguish the flames and the band remains — after 25 years — one of the most inventive and successful industrial metal bands since prime-era Nine Inch Nails. A colossal and eclectic combination of palm muted metal riffs, operatic vocals, unnerving samples, gothic keys and pop hooks, Rammstein have crafted a catalog of martial metal that has kept fans coming back, and their upcoming album could be their most captivating to date.

“It’s not too sterile, not too clean,” says guitarist Paul Landers, “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.”

In the past, primary riff writer Kruspe walked into the studio with full songs and the band spent many months refining the material. This time, Kruspe had nothing new prepared, so he played the band passages he had written but didn’t use for his solo project, Emigrate. Since he thought the music was outside of Rammstein’s comfort zone he expected negative feedback, but that’s not what happened.

“I was sitting with Till (Lindemann), our singer, and to my great surprise he loved the stuff I was playing,” Kruspe recalls. “There are all these different moods that he liked. Obviously, if you listen to the record there are still Rammstein elements in there. It’s still us. But we experimented a lot with certain kinds of harmony through the verses and a lot of melodic structures in the songs. I feel like we came up with great stuff that I wouldn’t have dreamed before could be Rammstein.”

Read the complete story here.

On December 31st, Rammstein performed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at Explanada Flamingos. Fan-filmed video including frontman Till Lindemann's New Year's Eve countdown is available below.

The setlist on the night was as follows:

"Ramm 4"
"Reise, Reise"
"Hallelujah"
"Zerstören"
"Keine Lust"
"Feuer Frei!"
"Seemann"
"Mein Teil" (first live performance since 2013)
"Du Riechst So Gut"
"Mein Herz Brennt"
"Links 2-3-4"
"Ich Will"
"Du Hast"
"Ohne Dich"

Encore:
"Sonne"
"Amerika"
"Stripped" (Depeche Mode cover - countdown 2019)

Encore 2:
"Te Quiero Puta!"