EMIGRATE, the side project of RAMMSTEIN guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe, will release its sophomore album, "Silent So Long", on October 17. According to Amazon.de, the CD, which was mixed in February/March by Ben Grosse (MARILYN MANSON, DISTURBED), features guest appearances by Lemmy Kilmister (MOTÖRHEAD) and Jonathan Davis (KORN).

Says Kruspe: "For me, it was important to reach a new level of songwriting, singing and production, and I can honestly say we made it."

EMIGRATE's current recording lineup includes drummer Mikko Sirén of Finnish cello rockers APOCALYPTICA. Kruspe says: "[Mikko] did a great job laying down the drum tracks in the studio." The team is rounded out by co-producer and guitarist Olson Involtini and bassist Arnaud Giroux.

"Silent So Long" track listing:

01. Eat You Alive (featuring Frank Dellé)

02. Get Down (featuring Peaches)

03. Rock City (featuring Lemmy Kilmister)

04. Hypothetical

05. Rainbow

06. Born On My Own

07. Giving Up

08. My Pleasure

09. Happy Times

10. Faust

11. Silent So Long (featuring Jonathan Davis)

A teaser for "Silent So Long" is available below.

In a 2008 interview with All Access Magazine, Kruspe said about EMIGRATE: "It's not a side project. It's a new project and it will continue, and will be always a part of me."

Regarding his decision to launch a band that was different from what he does with RAMMSTEIN, Kruspe said: "It was really important for me to distance myself from what I did with RAMMSTEIN because [several] years I did not feel healthy being in that band. I needed something else. EMIGRATE was formed to balance myself out to cure myself to go back to RAMMSTEIN and be back at the top of my game. Both with RAMMSTEIN and with EMIGRATE."

Asked in another 2008 interview how long he had been wanting to get his solo project off the ground, Kruspe told Ultimate-Gutar.com : "It actually started a long time ago. I think every guitar player kind of has this thing in their head that they actually want to be a singer, and they're just afraid or whatever. I think when I'm in RAMMSTEIN, I always thought I'd want to sing. This time I think I had the confidence to do it. I think not getting the attention of the singer, it all comes down to this anyway. I compromised a lot of things in RAMMSTEIN. I didn't get along with the energy and the rhythm of the other members, and something was wrong. I felt like I wasn't really happy."

He continued: "I think to make music, it is something really selfish. You have to do what you're going to do. That's the only way you can really make the best music possible. You can't think in the beginning about anything else besides yourself. So for that, I never really thought about what everybody else was going to think. I had to make myself happy and do what I have to do. I think it's really important in life in general. We're here basically to do our own things. One of the reasons why I feel this way is because you learn when you go the unsafe way. It's really, really important as an artist to explore and to give yourself a challenge, to go the unsafe way. When I did the record, I realized that there was a dangerous part where the fans would basically try to judge me or think that I would break up the band. I would try to let them be a part of it. At the beginning, I would put songs online that they could listen to, showing them what I was doing right now. I tried to be as truthful as possible to let them know that this is something I had to do basically to go back to my old band and be happy again."