Back

Kerrang!Bands of the Year

The 10 bands that graduated with first class honours degrees in rock...

At #9 = RAMMSTEIN
Last year: Maintaining a stony silence as they – ‘considered' their future.
This year: They're back – Hurrah! In skirts, er, double Hurrah!

To quote one famous sage: the two worst things in life are not having what you want and getting it. After a decade of pushing their unique, filthily epic industrial lights and magic around the globe, Rammstein found themselves both on top of the world and at crisis point.

The armour-plated crusade of 2001's 'Mutter' might have reaped them sales dividends, but in driving their brilliantly depraved live spectacular to its limits Rammstein suddenly found themselves with nowhere to go. Bored with their music and each other, they retreated behind a wall of grim silence, while those who had thrilled to the Germans' thrusting rhythms, fireworks and phallic supersoakers were solemnly wondering if they'd ever get a faceful of Till Lindemann's jizz-spurting dildo again.

Frankly, it would have been rude to end it there - so they didn't. When it arrived, 'Reise, Reise' showed that absence had made Rammstein's heart harder, bolder and sicker than before. First single 'Mein Teil' was a love song, but only as Rammstein could tell it, relaying the tale of German Internet cannibal Armin Miewes to a chorus of knife-sharpenings and Lindemann's touching refrain that, "You are what you eat". It was plain that rock's most twisted freaks on leashes had guaranteed that music in 2004 (and 2005 for that matter) would be a more interesting and infinitely more fun place to be. (CY)

Next year: UK live shows are scheduled for February. Pack some flame-retardant gel.

The Top 10 run down:
(10) The Darkness
(09)RAMMSTEIN
(08) Good Charlotte
(07) Metallica
(06) Muse
(05) The Hives
(04) Slayer
(03) My Chemical Romance
(02) Slipknot
(01) Greenday

© 2005 Sue Lindemann