Do you ever get the strong feeling we're living in really confusing times? I for one do. Especially when it comes to music. I am always open to new musical ideas, new styles (well, always in relation to Metal and Rock) despite the fact that a lot of new age stuff have really disappointed me. Lack of feeling by most Nu Metal (or whatever) bands? Only a few things have struck me as profound and have managed to blow my brains away. Rammstein is among the bands that I truly enjoy listening to and in my humble, personal opinion cannot be categorized as only Metal or only something else or a simple mix of two-three styles. This band is one of the most unique in style bands ever to arise in our days of new world order...
It all started one cloudy German day (...I'm just presuming it was cloudy) somewhere in East Berlin. In 1993 Paul Landers (guitar) and 'Doktor' Flake Lorenz (keyboards) who were both band members of Feeling B created Rammstein. Shortly after, they were joined by Till Lindemann (ex-First Arsch drummer) as their vocalist, Richard Kruspe-Bernstein (Orgasm Death Gimmick) as second guitarist, bassist Oliver Riedel (ex-The Inchtaboktables) and former Die Firma drummer Christoph Schneider. Two years later Rammstein released their debut album, Herzeleid through Motor Music instantly making their way into the German music charts (#8). Their unique blend of Metal/Industrial/Atmospheric/Electronic ideas together with their mother tongue (German) and a futuristic/rebellious attitude started spreading the word...Something really interesting was born in Europe - something worth saying never heard this before and it fuckin' rocks!. Then, in 1997 came Sehnsucht (with its worldwide hit-song Du Hast - the album hit #1 position in the German charts), in 1999 came Live Aus Berlin (by Polygram), then came Mutter (personally my favorite Rammstein album - went #1 in Germany, #2 in Sweden, #7 in Belgium and also Finland) and now...oh well now it's simply time for Reise, Reise!
The militaristic brain-crushing rhythms are back to haunt your stereos. Rammstein's journey (that's what the German word reise means) is once again a swim through the dirty waters of our times. The band always likes making understatements through their songs about what's going on in our planet. Take the track Amerika for example and pay closer attention to the song's lyrics. We're all living in Amerika, Amerika, it's wundarbar, we're all living in Amerika, Amerika, Amerika...  and then we're all living in Amerika, Coca-Cola wonder-bra. Well, surely not a surprising attitude by the profound Rammstein anyway, it's just something you surely expect because whoever's dug into these guys knows that this is surely the band's cup of tea (when it comes to lyrics - be it German or English).
This album's got it all once more. Pick from heavy songs (heavier than their previous works in sound, in my humble opinion - not faster, just heavier) like Mein Teil (as shocking as it may sound, this song was written for a horrible incident of cannibalism that took place in Germany a couple of years ago), Kein Lust and Morgenstern; heavy & melodic (with a great atmosphere) like Stein Um Stein and Ohne Dich; catchy/radio friendly (but very clever - mixing English & German in a rather peculiar way...) like Amerika; rhythm holding/mystique songs like Los & Dalai Lama and of course the unusual Amour (a really interesting ballad as Till Lindemman tries out his deep voice in a softer song and what do you know, it's great!)  and Moskau (a blend of electro beats and Viktoria Fersh's voice...and Rammstein - as usual).
Rammstein is not a Heavy Metal band yet countless metalheads listen to their music. This is probably (as heard on this record too) because Rammstein also blend Heavy Metal elements in their musical blender. This is a band that will always come up with something genuinely impressive and you wanna know why? Because they've left all the clichés behind them, because they knew it was time to move on. Rammstein in my humble opinion (always) makes tons of self-proclaimed new age crap seem like McD*nalds trying to sell lace panties together with hamburgers to ten year old kids.
...this is not a love song (Amerika)
- Album Highlights: The entire album is one interesting experience.