Rammstein are set to return to European festival stages in the spring and summer next year (they’ll headline at Donnington’s Download Festival (UK), Hurricane and Southside Festivals in Germany, Rock Werchter in Belgium, Rock in Vienna and others). Also, there is rumour that the band are working on a new album set for release in late 2016 or 2017. Yesterday German public television channel Arte showed a documentary from the band’s 2010 Madison Square Garden concert.

In an article published in the SZ (Suddeutsche Zeitung) Johannes Boie discussed the documentary and wrote: “Rammstein have done more for the German language abroad than the Goethe Institute.” In the article he writes about Rammstein related questions being asked more than questions about the Oktoberfest, and compares their influence on the popularisation of the German language with that of the publicly funded Goethe-Institute. He might be right. Rammstein lyrics are easy to remember, even though they are often nonsense, the pronunciation of the words is pretty clear. Below is a video of the band performing “Engel” at the Madison Square Garden in New York City.

If you want to sing along: “Wer zu Lebzeit gut auf Erden - Wird nach dem Tod ein Engel werden- Den Blick gen Himmel fragst du dann - Warum man sie nicht sehen kann ...”