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Metal Hammer - October 2004

Rammstein
Reise Reise
(Motor)

German industrial grinders go goth
Up until now you could be forgiven for thinking you know exactly what to expect from a Rammstein album. Chugging military guitars and regimental drums with a grimacing edge courtesy of Till Lindemann’s sinister Teutonic tones perhaps? Well, while the latter may still be firmly in check, Rammstein 2004 are a much more well-oiled machine.

For on ‘Reise Reise’ the German arsonists have taken a turn not unlike the one that Korn took on their risqué, goth-tinged ‘Untouchables’ album (albeit that this is a direction that Rammstein are far more suited to that Jonathan Davis’s Bakersfield crew were ever going to be) First single ‘Mein Tiel’*1 launches a colossal main riff that fights its way through an almost Danny Elfman styled gothic backdrop of dark keyboards and haunting operatic baking vocals. Album opener ‘Flug Aust’*2 wraps itself in swirling pianos and lets the guitars, that are so often the prominent factor in a Rammstein song, take a back seat for once, and ballad ‘Ohne Dich’ is a gargantuan orchestral centrepiece that sees Lindemann crooning his way through the sound of misery.

Sure those German vocals are as alien as ever and occasionally sound more comical than carnivorous (I defy anyone who doesn’t laugh their arse off at the rhyming of ‘wunderbar’ and ‘wonderbra’ in ‘Amerika’). But this is an album which maintains Rammstein’s crunching dynamics while implanting the kind of visuals inside the listener’s head which Fear Factory used to do so well.

The downside is that if you never understood Rammstein before then you probably won’t get it this time either. The German language is still ridiculously harsh on the ears leaving even the tender moments sounding a little too aggressive. ‘Reise Reise’ is more a case of a band adding texture to themselves than a complete makeover but this is nevertheless a monster of a comeback that will both shock and impress. Terry Bezer (7)

Influenced by:
Ministry, FMFDM, Korn

Also Try:
Faith No More - ‘Album of the year’ (Warners, 1999)
Rammstein – ‘Mutter’ (Motor Music 2001)
Korn – ‘Untouchables’ (Epic 2002).

Notes:
Spelling errors are as shown in actual article:
*1:Mein Tiel should read ‘Mein Teil’
*2:Flug Aust should read ‘Flugangst’

© 2005 Sue Lindemann