German industrial metallers RAMMSTEIN have updated their official web site with the following message:

"After finishing the first part of their studio recordings [for the new RAMMSTEIN album] successfully, RAMMSTEIN have started to put the final touches to their new songs. For example, they're thinking about the usage of strings and choirs. Therefore, the band sat down with the orchestra arranger Sven Helbig last week. Aside from the last musical changes, the final lyrical changes are being made, too. We're highly awaiting the next steps of the album production: the mixing of the songs. It is supposed to start mid-March and will take about six up to eight weeks."

RAMMSTEIN recorded the initial tracks for the new album in Los Angeles with Jacob Hellner and the production team of Ulf Kruckenberg and Florian Ammon. A studio was rented near San Francisco for the bulk of the main recording work.

RAMMSTEIN's "Völkerball" DVD was released in North America in September 2007. The disc features performances from France, England, Japan and Russia. The DVD was released in three different formats. The standard two-disc DVD/CD package contains a 140-minute live video and 75-minute live CD. The special-edition package also includes a tour documentary and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Reise, Reise". Finally, the limited collectors' edition contains four discs packaged in a 190-page book with photos from the tour.

RAMMSTEIN's last album, "Rosenrot", received its long-overdue U.S. release in March 2006 via Universal Music. The CD, which was certified platinum in Germany for sales in excess of 200,000 copies within two weeks of release in October 2005, topped the official album chart in Germany, Austria and Finland, and landed at No. 2 in Sweden and Denmark, No. 4 in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, No. 5 in France, No. 6 in Mexico, No. 11 in Italy and No. 29 in the U.K. In addition, "Rosenrot" achieved gold status in Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.