Rammstein‘s Richard Z. Kruspe has accused the rise of hip hop of killing rock music, because “guitars are not annoying any more”.

“Rock is dead. It’s sad, I know it is. But sometimes you kind of have to make peace with the facts of reality,” he told Revolver.

“Kids these days don’t have that feeling when they play their favorite rock tracks to annoy the parents. It’s all about hip-hop at the moment, which is hard to me because hip-hop was always kind of a music that I couldn’t relate to.


“If I got to a festival and see a hip-hop group play, I’m so bored. That’s one advantage rock still has over hip-hop. There’s a visual and sonic connection between the band and the audience.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Kruspe gave an update on Rammstein’s long-awaited new album, saying that they’re “in a different cosmos” to other groups.

“It’s exhausting, but it’s exciting at the same time. At the moment, we’re going through the last polish. We had some test mixes made from certain big names and I wasn’t really happy… At the last second, Rich Costey made a mix and, bang, it was there.”

He says he was reluctant to record a new album in the first place owing to the band’s fractious studio relationship, and that when Rammstein first reconvened in 2015 “We made a deal and said, ‘Let’s get together with no record in mind and see how it works while we’re playing.'”


Rammstein are on tour throughout 2019. The German icons will play their only UK at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes on July 6. For their full tour dates, click here.

Recently, ticket resale site Viagogo was told by German courts that it is forbidden to offer second-hand tickets for the forthcoming tour, and that tickets purchased through them will be invalid.