Rammstein

Diesel 11

As you scream into the web of silence...
Kinda surprised these guys don't have a thread yet. Anyway, new song was released a couple days ago:


Really digging the vibe here. It's got a lot of bite to it and the dark shift in melodies is great. The lyrics are pretty good too, an interesting take on Germany's dark history and how it affects the country to this day. The music video is pretty controversial - lots of people seem to think they've taken things too far. Personally it's not mindblowing but I get what they were going for. As a whole, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do next.
 
About time there was a thread. Thought the new song was great, good heavy guitar work and great chorus vocals. Looking forward to the rest of the album
 
^Very much so. It got me questioning how much my opinion of their music in general is based on their videos.
 
I don't listen to a lot of super complicated technical stuff, but the appeal of Rammstein's songs seems to wear off after a short time for me. I don't know what it is. I'll give this a listen at some point, though I don't watch music videos so I don't know if I'll get as much out of it.
 
I just went through Rammstein's discography, and my album rankings are as follows:

topsters2 (34).png

I'm more excited than ever for the new album, because I still really, really like "Deutschland". It's probably in my top 4 from them, alongside "Feuer Frei", "Rosenrot", and "Mein Herz Brennt". I get some of what you guys are saying, but for me, I don't even care about the video, I just really love the song. I also think they put a lot more thought into it than - at the very least - everything on that last album, and a lot of their previous work, Their tackling of what separates "nationalism" from "patriotism" is a pretty great one, and I'm really hoping the album as a whole can live up to that song. It's been nearly ten years since Liebe was released, so hopefully that means we're getting something great from them.
 
Okay, so I've basically been listening to Rammstein non-stop for the last week, and I've come to two conclusions: 1. They have a ton of bland songs. 2. The good ones are fucking awesome. I tried ranking them but it got to the point where I had no clue what I was doing anymore. The best I could scrape out is a top 20, which is as follows:

20. "Waidmanns Heil" - great song about the thrill of the hunt, with a more sexual meaning also within.
19. "Links 2-3-4" - great militaristic song about political alignment.
18. "Benzin" - a blast, love the lyrics to this one, really fun.
17. "Du Hast" - the immortal classic and it's still a great song.
16. "Amour" - pretty beautiful ending to Reise, Reise.
15. "Los" - not heavy at all, but it's still really cool. The lyrics are pretty great.
14. "Spieluhr" - Till shows a lot of emotion here and I love the way the child vocals mix in on the song.
13. "Amerika" - absolutely savage take-down of America and yet so damn catchy at the same time.
12. "Mutter" - epic title track with some dark yet emotional lyrics.
11. "Ohne Dich" - an awesome power ballad that works better than you'd expect from Rammstein
10. "Reise, Reise" - sets up its album very well with an exploration of man's abuse of the sea.
9. "Engel" - a forerunner to the greats from the next two albums. Bobo's vocals are awesome and help make Till's clincher better than it would have been otherwise.
8. "Rosenrot" - epic telling of a tragic tale. The guitars in here are absolutely huge.
7. "Deutschland" - it's new but damn is it great. The look at Germany and her history, coupled with the whole "nationalism vs. patriotism" issue, makes for a really memorable track.
6. "Sonne" - Heavy yet melodic, with Till really soaring on that chorus. Awesome.
5. "Ich Will" - A terrific song about the government and how it views its citizens. The chorus seems built for live shows.
4. "Mein Teil" - That heavy fucking opening with rising atmospherics, the sinister verse, the epic pre-chorus and chorus... this song is awesome.
3. "Mein Herz Brennt" - Great way to begin an album. It's heavy, it's huge, and yet it's layered well at the same time.
2. "Feuer Frei!" - Definitely one of their most popular songs for a reason. It's a fantastic banger.
1. "Moskau" - There's something about this song that just keeps pulling me back in again and again and again. The build-up into the song, the not-so-heavy guitar driving it, the verses, with lyrics that aren't quite so nice yet describe the city's past and present in very vivid ways, and that chorus that just gets stick in your head day after day after day. I love Viktoria Fersh on here, helping to bring the song to life with lyrics in Russian. Her vocals work well with Till's and I love it. Right now, this is definitely my favorite song from them. Раз, два, три!

But again, a lot of other Rammstein songs just don't really do anything for me. These are the ones that I can literally listen to on repeat. It's a very small number in comparison to a lot of the other bands I listen to.
 
Okay, so I've basically been listening to Rammstein non-stop for the last week, and I've come to two conclusions: 1. They have a ton of bland songs. 2. The good ones are fucking awesome. I tried ranking them but it got to the point where I had no clue what I was doing anymore. The best I could scrape out is a top 20, which is as follows:

20. "Waidmanns Heil" - great song about the thrill of the hunt, with a more sexual meaning also within.
19. "Links 2-3-4" - great militaristic song about political alignment.
18. "Benzin" - a blast, love the lyrics to this one, really fun.
17. "Du Hast" - the immortal classic and it's still a great song.
16. "Amour" - pretty beautiful ending to Reise, Reise.
15. "Los" - not heavy at all, but it's still really cool. The lyrics are pretty great.
14. "Spieluhr" - Till shows a lot of emotion here and I love the way the child vocals mix in on the song.
13. "Amerika" - absolutely savage take-down of America and yet so damn catchy at the same time.
12. "Mutter" - epic title track with some dark yet emotional lyrics.
11. "Ohne Dich" - an awesome power ballad that works better than you'd expect from Rammstein
10. "Reise, Reise" - sets up its album very well with an exploration of man's abuse of the sea.
9. "Engel" - a forerunner to the greats from the next two albums. Bobo's vocals are awesome and help make Till's clincher better than it would have been otherwise.
8. "Rosenrot" - epic telling of a tragic tale. The guitars in here are absolutely huge.
7. "Deutschland" - it's new but damn is it great. The look at Germany and her history, coupled with the whole "nationalism vs. patriotism" issue, makes for a really memorable track.
6. "Sonne" - Heavy yet melodic, with Till really soaring on that chorus. Awesome.
5. "Ich Will" - A terrific song about the government and how it views its citizens. The chorus seems built for live shows.
4. "Mein Teil" - That heavy fucking opening with rising atmospherics, the sinister verse, the epic pre-chorus and chorus... this song is awesome.
3. "Mein Herz Brennt" - Great way to begin an album. It's heavy, it's huge, and yet it's layered well at the same time.
2. "Feuer Frei!" - Definitely one of their most popular songs for a reason. It's a fantastic banger.
1. "Moskau" - There's something about this song that just keeps pulling me back in again and again and again. The build-up into the song, the not-so-heavy guitar driving it, the verses, with lyrics that aren't quite so nice yet describe the city's past and present in very vivid ways, and that chorus that just gets stick in your head day after day after day. I love Viktoria Fersh on here, helping to bring the song to life with lyrics in Russian. Her vocals work well with Till's and I love it. Right now, this is definitely my favorite song from them. Раз, два, три!

But again, a lot of other Rammstein songs just don't really do anything for me. These are the ones that I can literally listen to on repeat. It's a very small number in comparison to a lot of the other bands I listen to.
Do a top 50!
 
Best Rammstein is in the 1990s, the debut and the sophomore album, afterwards they started heavily rehashing. I guess Mutter is good too but it brings nothing new. This is the first band I followed and had a keen interest in, at that time. They seem to have played a lot of shows around Germany at the time, from clubs to open airs, they didn't rely on props that much and had a great energy. I taped a lot of those shows that were broadcast on cable on German music channels.

In any case one interesting thing about the band is they never changed the lineup.
 
I'd add Weiner Blut into that list somewhere personally, one of their heaviest and darkest songs.
"Wiener Blut" is dark and heavy, yes, but it suffers from a lot of what its album suffers - it just really isn't interesting. I'm also not big on Till's performance throughout and on that song it feels like he's trying to invoke something but fails to do so. Sorry, I don't like that song.

Do a top 50!
I tried. Maybe I'll try again in future.

Best Rammstein is in the 1990s, the debut and the sophomore album, afterwards they started heavily rehashing. I guess Mutter is good too but it brings nothing new.
I think Herzeleid is pretty bland and proof that 95% of the time, a band's debut is not going to be their best effort. Even the best songs on there just don't really engage as well as their stuff on Mutter and Reise, Reise. Sehnsucht is way better, and while it holds out a bit for some of the nonsense they did on their debut, it does move further into what they were becoming. Mutter's first seven songs are all great, and though it dips in quality after that, it's worth it for that string. Reise, Reise is definitely their best album. From front to back, it's pretty great, and its low points really aren't that low. Rosenrot is the middle man between RR and LIFAD, a good album but not really mind-blowing. Their last album is where they genuinely fell off the bridge. Some good songs, way too much shit. Obviously you had different experiences with them than I had, but I definitely don't think they peaked in the '90s. Their peak, for me, was 2004, and everything else is leading up to or down from Reise, Reise.
 

New song teaser. It's just ten seconds of drums, but it sounds intriguing. Given the title and the video's hashtags I expect it to be about sex dolls.

EDIT: They've actually released a whole string of these. Sweet.
 
Okay, so it looks like the song titles are as follows:
  • Hallomann
  • Tattoo
  • Weit Weg
  • Diamant
  • Was Ich Liebe
  • Puppe
  • Sex
  • Ausländer
  • Zeig Dich
  • Radio
  • Deutschland
This means they're sticking with their theme of 11 songs for an album. Dunno what the actual tracklisting is, but the snippets they've uploaded sound quite interesting.
 
I'm quite digging it, it's a cool jam. Certainly better than most of the previous album so I still have high hopes for this one.
 
Back
Top