Who is on the cover of sehnsucht?
The cover most commonly seen features Till Lindemann with a muzzle and odd metal objects blocking his view, as they are placed over his eyes. The cover art was created by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein. The album is the only album entirely in German to be certified Platinum by the RIAA in the United States.
Sehnsucht (German pronunciation: ; "Desire" or "Longing") is the second studio album by German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. It was released on 22 August 1997 through Motor Music in Europe and Slash Records in the United States. It is the only album entirely in German to be certified platinum by the RIAA in the US. The album peaked at No. 1 on the Austrian and German charts.
In 2020, Metal Hammer included it in their list of top 10 1997 albums.
The album booklet folds out to reveal six different covers, one for each band member (each photo depicting the member with vintage medical / surgical instruments). The cover most commonly seen shows Till Lindemann with a surgical metal wire utensil worn as a muzzle and surgical forks over his eyes. The cover art was created by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, who also created the cover for the Scorpions' Blackout album, which the Sehnsucht cover resembles.
Multiple special editions of Sehnsucht were released, offering different bonus tracks:
Pre-production for the album started around September 1996, which was followed by a second pre-production in Berlin, this time including a producer. The album recording started in mid-November 1996 in the Temple Studios in Malta, followed by additional recordings in the Wisselord Studio in Hilversum, Netherlands. The album has again been mixed by Ronald Prent at Chateau Du Pape in Hamburg. 13 songs are known to have been recorded, which includes the 11 songs on the album, plus Das Modell and Kokain, which were both released on the single for Das Modell. Additionally it is known that the band was still working on their old song Schwarzes Glas, but it's unknown if a studio version of it has been recorded in these sessions.
Around January/February '97, the band played five songs of the album to journalists in a studio in Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg. Two of the premiered songs were Du hast and Bestrafe mich.
The album was first scheduled to be released in April. But "due to small delays in the proudction process" it was re-scheduled for the end of May. From May it was re-scheduled again to August. In an interview Olli was asked about re-scheduling the album:
The band recorded a total of 13 new songs, and two alternate version of album songs. Except for one of those alternate versions, all songs have been released:
The promotional copy of the album came with a promotional folder, of which the following text is taken from:
For the release in the USA, the label Slash Records gave promotional sheets out, which had the following info:
On 15 April 2023, Rammstein released a short teaser to their social media channels, showing the album's various front covers along to the intro of Bück dich. A day later, another teaser was posted, with footage of the band rehearsing Engel on 18 April 1997. The caption of that video announced the "Sehnsucht Anniversary Edition". On 17 April 2023, a third teaser followed, including footage from Live aus Berlin and the announcement, that the pre-order of the anniversary edition would start the next day, 19 April. The Anniversary Edition of Sehnsucht was made available for pre-order around 10 AM CEST.
The Anniversary Edition is scheduled for release on June 9th, 2023.
Besides being remastered, the album features an exclusive new mix of Spiel mit mir, titled "2023 Mix", and a 40 page booklet with previously unreleased photos of Gottfried Helnwein. The album is available in the following formats:
Two promotional CDrs surfaced on Discogs. Their origin and exact content is unknown.
The CDr for Sehnsucht was made to promote the 2001 reissue of Sehnsucht. It is dated 3 January 2001 and marked as "For Promotional Use Only - Not For Resale".
The CDr for Sehnsucht (Instrumentals) includes instrumental tracks of all songs and was made to promote the 2001 reissue of Sehnsucht. It is dated 23 February 2001 and marked as "For Internal Use Only - Not For Resale". Additionally, a handwritten note *UNMASTERED* is present.
