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Revolver - Review of Reise, Reise

Industrial Strength – Revolver : December 2004
German giants Rammstein stay tough on their fourth release.

Germany’s Rammstein record auditory S&M, a relentlessly pounding mixture of stompy drums, mechanical low-end electronics, and ball-busting guitars. Their lyrics, sung entirely in their native tongue, are indecipherable to most in the States, but let’s face it, between the guttural German and vocalist Till Lindemann’s deep bass rumble, the band could extol the virtues of flossing and make it sound badass. And Rammstein’s concerts – grand affairs of fire, fetishistic sex, and post-Cold War nihilism – are so powerful that Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl once declared that only a band of idiots would try to headline a show following these Teutonic titans.

Rammstein built their Stateside success on this volatile delivery, but, ironically, it eventually led to their dismissal from the hearts and minds of all but a few dire-hard metal and industrial fans. To most Americans, the band’s breakthrough release, 1998’s sehnsucht, with it’s infectious single “Du Hast”, played like a novelty record; by the time the band’s 2001 follow-up Mutter, hit our shores, few cared. Which is a damn shame, because Rammstein, unlike so many modern metal acts, just keep getting better with age. While their first two records (1996’s Herzeleid, and Sehnsucht) relied on straightforward four-on-the-floor beats and single minded rhythm-guitar chug, their third studio album Mutter, found the band flexing it’s considerable muscle as it constructed epic songs with depth and character. Thankfully, Reise, Reise follows in this vein, delivering metal that Wagner, if he owned an electric guitar and stack of amps, would be proud to write.

Though not quite as tightly wrought as Mutter, Reise, Reise still succeeds on its a own terms. From the bombastic opening of the title track to the sinister march of the first single, "Mein Teil,” Rammstein's soaring hooks and brute force command immediate attention. But the band shows off a delicate side as well: “Amore,” with its sincere emoting and delicate melodies, and “Ohne Dich," full of subtle shifts of mood and atmosphere, both demonstrate the soul within Rammstein's machine (even if there is something quietly discomforting about muscle-bound Germans revealing that much of their souls' inner workings). If Reise, Reise suffers at all, it's actually from a dearth of lock-step industrial-metal dance numbers. While an entire album of such music quickly becomes monotonous, tracks from previous records, like the aforementioned "Du Hast" and Mutter's "Links 234" and "Feuer Frei!," provided solid sonic and dynamic contrast to the band's moodier pieces. It would have been nice if Rammstein had thrown a few more onto the new record. On the plus side, a separately sold Pet Shop Boys remix of "Mein Teil" -yes, you read that correctly- amps up the original even further, providing an aggressively driving addition to the record. Who would have thought two disco-loving Brits could whup a group of Germany's biggest badasses? Churchill would be proud.

Rammstein sell out European arenas, and albums like Reise, Reise demonstrate why. If American audiences can get past the language barrier -something, by the way, international audiences have no problem doing for groups like Metallica, Slayer, and Slip- knot - the band would no doubt gain the ample recognition it deserves over here as well. Brian Stillman

© 2005 Sue Lindemann