Angel (song)

Angel
Rammstein
publication	March 28, 1997
length	4:24
Genre (s)	New German Hardness
Author (s)	Rammstein
Label	Motor Music
album	nostalgia
Cover versions
2016	Platform 8
2016	Annett Louisan

Rammstein plays Engel live

Engel is a song of the German New German Hardness - band Rammstein . The song was written by Rammstein and produced by Jacob Hellner together with the band. It is the first single from their second album Sehnsucht and was released on March 28, 1997.

background

Engel was recorded in the winter of 1996/1997 at the Temple Studios in Malta . Christiane Bobolina Herbold, singer of the band Bobo In White Wooden Houses , who also sang the song at the live concerts and the first Rammstein live album Live from Berlin, took on the female vocal part .

The song reached number 3 in the German, number 4 in the Austrian and number 17 in the Swiss charts. In Germany, the single stayed in the top 10 of the single charts for 13 weeks. Lars Thieleke wrote in 2008 for the German-language edition of Rolling Stone that the appearance of the single Engel was the point at which Rammstein became an authority. In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Swantje-Britt Koerner attributed a little German melancholy to the song Engel in addition to all the brutal guitar riffs. Often overlooked messages from Rammstein, such as paranoid self-doubt and the horror of complete isolation, are said to have been perfectly represented by angels .

Music video

The famous snake dance scene with Salma Hayek from the film From Dusk Till Dawn served as the inspiration for the music video shot in the Hamburg Prinzenbar (Art Director: Philipp Stölzl , Director: Norbert Heitker , Director: Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher ) for this song. Since Till Lindemann , Christoph Schneider and Christian Lorenz were included as actors in the video, Richard Kruspe and Oliver Riedel took over the vocal part while guitarist Paul Landers can be seen as the drummer. The aesthetic elements of the video (bare skin, zombie children in cages, phallic imagery, foot fetishism, and guitars as flamethrowers) led MTV to refuse to broadcast the video. Engel's video doesn't match MTV's onair look.

Rammstein protested against MTV's video boycott by tying an MTV manager to a chair at the 1997 Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel and tying a smoke bomb to his leg in the style of the one used by Lindemann during the show, and then triggering it . The production was seen as a tasteless but successful promotion for the album Sehnsucht , which was released shortly afterwards . In April 1998 guitarist Paul Landers told a magazine that the action was not a protest because the video was not broadcast on MTV, but was to be seen as an action against the harassed behavior of the MTV manager concerned, which made work more difficult for many musicians with his methods . The manager then reported the band for assault. Norbert Heitker, the director of the video, was awarded the Echo in 1998 for this music video in the Best National Video category. In the video, among others, the professional wrestler Ulf Herman alias "Herman the German" acted as an extra. After shooting the video, he worked for the band as a bodyguard for several years.

Single releases

On March 30, 1997, Engel appeared on a single release in Europe and Great Britain. On May 23, 1997 Motor Music released a fan edition with a special cover artwork and demo versions of the songs Feuerräder and Wilder Wein . In America a promo CD was released with an album and an English version of Engel .

Trivia

David Lynch , who already used songs by Rammstein for the soundtrack in his movie Lost Highway , alludes to angels in the third season of his series Twin Peaks . In episode 7 he whistles the opening phrase of the song in his role as Gordon Cole.

Track list of the maxi single

1. Angels - 4:23
2. Longing - 4:02
3. Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Radio Edit) - 3:41
4. Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Instrumental Edit) - 3:27
5. Rammstein (original) - 4:25

Fan Edition track list

1. Engel (Extended Version) - 4:34
2. Fire Wheels (Live Demo Version 1994) - 4:47
3. Wild Wine (demo version 1994) - 5:41
4. Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Instrumental Edit) - 3:27

reception

Chart placements

Chart placements Charts Top ranking Weeks Chart placements  Germany (GfK) 3 (25 weeks) 25th  Austria (Ö3) 4th (18 weeks) 18th  Switzerland (IFPI) 17th (14 weeks) 14th

Annual charts Charts (1997) placement Annual charts (1997)  Germany (GfK) 11  Austria (Ö3) 23

Awards for music sales

For more than 250,000 units sold in Germany, Engel received a gold record in the year of publication , making the song the band's most commercially successful single to this day.

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Germany (BVMI)	gold	250,000
All in all	1 × gold	250,000

Main article: Rammstein / Awards for Music Sales

Cover versions and trivia

The satirical program Extra 3 used the theme melody of the song Engel in a report about the US military base Ramstein .

In addition, the German first division soccer club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim has been using this theme tune as warm-up music for home games since the 2013/2014 Bundesliga season.

From 2009 to 2012 it was also the theme music of the docu-soap The strictest parents in the world .

The chanson singer Hildegard Knef recorded a cover version in 2001. In addition, cover versions of the song were released in 2016 by both the band Gleis 8 and Annett Louisan .

Web links

• Angels at Discogs (English)
• Rammstein - Engel (Official Video)
• Rammstein - Engel (Official Making Of)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Charts.de Rammstein: Diskografie / singles , accessed on March 12, 2014
2. ^ Rammstein - Engel on hitparade.ch; accessed on October 31, 2013.
3. ↑ Rammstein - Engel , Rolling Stone issue 07/2008.
4. ↑ How “German” can Rammstein stay? , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of April 3, 2004.
5. ↑ David Fricke, Hell, Marsch, Metal: As Americans See Rammstein , Rolling Stone, November 30, 2011
6. ↑ imvdb.com Rammstein-Engel , accessed on June 12, 2015
7. ↑ ^{a b} Hauke ​​Goos, Fire and Flame for MTV , KulturSpiegel issue 8/1997 from July 28, 1997.
8. ↑ www.mucke-und-mehr.de: Rammstein on their album “Sehnsucht” (04/98) , April 16, 1998, accessed on May 27, 2018
9. ↑ Credits on the Norbert Heitkers homepage ( memento of the original from October 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
10. ↑ Rammstein: Videos 1995-2012, making-of for "Engel", original sound Paul Landers from 7.30 min., DVD 1, Universal Music Domestic Division
11. ↑ Discogs.com Releases: Rammstein - Engel , accessed on March 12, 2014
12. ↑ Engel (Rammstein) in the German charts
13. ↑ austriancharts.at
14. ↑ hitparade.ch
15. ↑ German annual charts 1997
16. ↑ Austrian annual charts 1997
17. ↑ DE: Gold