#untitled and zeit are still missing though i think

[marimayscarlett]

'Mutter' turns 24 years old today 🎶💿

Today marks the 24th anniversary of the release of the band's third studio album, Mutter. The album's pre-production took place from September to December 1999 at Haus Weimar in Heiligendamm. Since the house was unfurnished, the band first had to fully equip it with furniture and essentials. A total of 13 songs were worked on at Haus Weimar. To keep track of everything, Till pinned his lyric ideas to a wall, and there was also a board with musical concepts and notes about what was still missing in each song. These brainstorming walls served as a daily meeting point for the band.

In May 2000, the band moved to the Miraval Studios in France, though they didn’t begin recording immediately. Instead, they spent another six weeks refining Till’s lyrics.

In the Galaxy Studios in Sweden, they worked with producer Ronald Prent, but ultimately, they were not satisfied with the results. The final choice fell on producer Stefan Glaumann, with whom the band worked in the MVG Studios in Stockholm in the fall of 2000. According to Flake, Glaumann was a skilled producer, but incredibly slow: mixing one song took him five days, after which he needed a two-day break. Alongside the 11 songs on the album, additional tracks were recorded during this period, including Halleluja, 5/4, Ohne Dich, Ein Lied, and Seid bereit.

Over Christmas 2000, Rammstein made Links 2 3 4 available for download on their website. Officially, Sonne (which had the working title Klitschko, after boxer Vitali Klitschko) was released as the first single on February 12, 2001, followed by Links 2 3 4 on May 14.

As part of the album promotion, the band released a CD where each song faded out after three minutes. They also distributed promo sheets featuring a "Rammstein Alphabet" (which can be read on the RammWiki page) and an interview CD with Oliver and Flake (which you can listen to here with an English translation). In this interview, Flake mentioned that the band was so moved by Spieluhr that they couldn’t bear the idea of leaving the child figuratively buried, so they added a final verse where it is dug up again.

The concept of an interview CD was later used again on a grander scale for the Reise, Reise album.

The album was released as a standard CD and vinyl LP, as well as a double CD in the U.S., which included the Sonne music video and the song Halleluja. In Japan, Halleluja appeared as a hidden track, playing only after two minutes of silence.

Directly after the release, Mutter immediately topped the charts in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, remaining at Nr. 1 in Germany for four weeks.

The iconic album cover features a fetus that had been preserved for about 200 years. The imagery sparked outrage from both the German tabloid press and the Catholic Church, and the album's release shortly before Mother's Day in 2001 only fueled the controversy.

The band photoshoot for the album followed a similar aesthetic and was created by artist couple Daniel & Geo Fuchs. For the shoot, the band members were hooked by their feet to a weight at the bottom of a Plexiglas tank and tethered with a lead belt. According to Flake, the tank began to stink over time - thanks to apparently the band farting in the water.

The Mutter tour ran from May 13, 2001, to July 13, 2002. Staying true to the album’s title, the band staged their entrance by emerging from a uterus and performed in diaper-like loincloths.

Here's the promotional picture of the band for this tour as well as the tour poster:

Some album facts:

It’s unknown which song it was, but there’s an urban legend that Till had to write 24 different lyric versions of one track before the band was satisfied.

Richard’s well-known tendency for control reached new extremes during this album’s production, making collaboration within the band increasingly difficult. This period is often described as a near breaking point for the band, as his behavior led to significant internal conflicts. Schneider commented on this, saying:

“Richard tried to lead the band, and that reached the point where we couldn’t stand it anymore. He was trying to control everything, he didn’t want to have anybody change anything that came from his word, and that was a tricky time.”

On April 16 2000, almost a year before the album’s release, the band performed a fan club concert at the Knaack Club, where they played nine of the eleven Mutter songs.

The Ich will music video was released on September 10, 2001, but was almost entirely overshadowed by the events of the following day.

After shooting the Sonne video, the band immediately boarded a flight to Australia. According to Flake, they had no time to clean themselves up:

"The flight attendants on the plane were a bit surprised by us; they probably never had such dirty passengers on board. The headrests were pitch black because our hair looked like we’d just gotten out of a mine. Fortunately, the flight attendants were forgiving when they found out why. We transferred in Los Angeles and took another flight with an American company, to whom we couldn’t explain so easily how we got our dirty faces.”

Some voices on the musical direction of the Album:

Schneider:

"The main thing about the new album is we didn’t want to make another Sehnsucht. We wanted to get away from the techno style, from the dance-oriented style. We wanted to sound more natural, more like a rock band. So we focused more on live drums, we experimented with acoustic guitars, and also tried to find innovative guitar sounds. And we used an orchestra for the first time.”

Paul:

"On our first and second albums, we were very dependent on samplers and computerized music machinery, even to write the songs. And with Mutter, we really based the songs on the guitar and are only using technology to enhance it, to give it flavor. So we didn’t want to be slaves to the machines anymore.”

Sources: rammwiki | radiobob | loudersound | morecore | affenknecht | kerrang