Like many other people in North America, I first heard of this
\nband and their music due to the inclusion of two of their tracks on
\nthe
\nLost Highway<\/i> soundtrack (1997), both of which were taken
\nfrom
\nHerzeleid<\/i>, their debut album. At the time I was quite
\nintrigued by their sound, which I would describe loosely as Wagner
\non crack!<\/p>\n
The band’s name translates into “ramming stone”, which I must
\nsay is quite an apt description; they are about as subtle as an
\natomic bomb. Their signature sound is an inspiring combination of
\nvery crunchy, heavy, dark, metallic guitar riffs, interestingly
\nlayered electronic loops alongside surprisingly poppy, almost ill
\nadvised melodic keyboard passages and sound effects, straight
\nforward pounding drumming, and a very low, almost robotic vocal
\ndelivery that come chorus time spews out wonderful melodies that
\nseem to draw heavily from the dramatic Wagnerian German romantic
\nclassical period. It’s a fascinating sound, although the formula
\ndoes not change much from song to song.<\/p>\n
The first track, “Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen” (Do You
\nWant To See The Bed In Flames) starts with a simple, almost
\ndisco-like beat with the keyboard playing the main riff for several
\nbars before the ultra heavy guitar sound takes over, playing the
\nsame melody. It sets the dark tone of the album immediately and
\nnever lets up…listening to Rammstein is somewhat like a
\nrelentless Panzer assualt rolling over your helpless head! You
\ncan’t help but sit up and take notice.<\/p>\n
The same pattern continues for the next three songs, “Der
\nMeister” (The Master), “Weisses Fleisch” (White Meat), and “Asche
\nZu Asche” (Ashes To Ashes)…they all have the relentless brutal
\nattack with interesting electronic keyboards and the robotic yet
\ncatchy vocals. Then we have “Seeman” (Sea Man), which is an
\nunexpected change of pace! It’s a soft ballad with a gorgeous
\nmelancholy, almost sentimental melody, but without sounding very
\ncommercial or sappy. Very nicely done, with an interesting finger
\npicked melody courtesy of the bass player. It shows a dimension
\nthat you wouldn’t think this sort of band could possibly have.<\/p>\n
“Du Riechst So Gut” (You Smell So Good) is a mid tempo hard
\ncharging song which has a few more captivating melodies and parts
\nto the song to make it more interesting than the standard
\nones…there’s even a violin in there! Another noteworthy song is
\n“Heirate Mich” (Marry Me), a very dark sounding gothic tune before
\nit explodes into headbanging fury! It’s one of their best songs,
\nand was one of the two on the
\nLost Highway<\/i> soundtrack…in part of the chorus there’s even
\na repeat of “Hei”, the first three letters of “Heirate” in what I
\nthink is an obvious attempt to play up their fascist image…these
\nguys have fun!<\/p>\n
After that, there are a few more solid, yet not really
\nnoteworthy songs, “Herzeleid” (Sorrow Of The Heart), and
\n“Laichzeit” (Time of the Corpses). The last track was the other one
\non
\nLost Highway<\/i>, simply called “Rammstein”, and this is a very
\nslow, plodding tune with a sludgy, heavy riff that recalls the best
\nof Black Sabbath. Very dark, but a bit slow for my tastes.<\/p>\n
As for the lyrics, they are all in German and deal mostly with
\ntwisted subject matter, but a surprising amount are rather sexually
\nperverted…they are a rather amusing band!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":25812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6567],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37018","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-rammstein","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37018"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37018"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}