Rammstein's latest album

[philco]

Probably not a band of special interest to most people here, but Rammstein has become the #1 selling German band of all time. They have a new album out that immediately shot to the top ten all across Europe, and #1, #2, or #3 in the biggest European markets, not to mention sales in USA, Canada, and elsewhere. Metal Reviews gave the album, "Reise, Reise" a 98 out of 100 score. The biggest song is "mein teil", literally meaning "my tool", about a violent act that became a big murder trial in Germany. The other big song is "Amerika", as this country seems to be getting a lot of attention in Europe these days.

Rammstein seems to be taking the early Rolling Stones business approach and doing music that is not quite ready for prime time, and something that parents hate for their kids to listen to, making it very attractive to the kids. Reviews say the music on the new album is less mechanical and precise and more dynamic and improvisational, having more conventional rock music overtones than their earlier albums of industrial metal, but still very much Rammstein in nature. I have to admit, the first time I heard their music on a video I said "what kind of sh*! is this?", but it is infectious and there is actually quite a bit of layering and some real musicianship involved, just like those earlier "dirtbags", The Rolling Stones. Their live acts are a bit outrageous. Has anybody heard the album yet? One metal reviewer said it was absolute sh!* the first time he listened, but after a few more plays the virus set in and wouldn't let go of him. If this album causes some kind of possession, I would rather one of you try it first and report back to me.

I got into an English translation of this band's German lyrics, and they say things that might make Mick Jagger back off a bit. When they sing in English, it just doesn't come across the same, and I would rather have not known in some cases. I have a rare promotional copy of Sennsucht, their second album, and it has some alternate takes in English. The band is tight, not a single personnel change through all the years. I think Kiss, the only American band that remotely compared, is a bit tame compared to these guys, and these guys get into really controversial issues. Also, Til Lindemann could probably mop up the floor with Gene Simmons in more ways than one. Sort of Jim Morrison meets Arnold Schwarzenner meets......Frankenstein? He weaved baskets and wrote poetry and was an olympic level swimmer before Rammstein. Strange. I'm not quite sure where they stand, but probably trying to be controversial above all else. Their showmanship talent is unquestioned, and their musicianship is more than I thought at first. I'm not sure my mind wants to go to all the places theirs does, however. It's clear that the Europeans lead in metal music, however. Many interesting bands are springing up there, and a lot of their metal music seems more rooted in classical and folk music than R&B and jazz as in USA and UK rock music. It takes a while to make the transition, but I'm picking up on some of the new wave of European metal. Euro metal bands will probably play a bigger part in rock music in the near future. So much of conventional rock has went really stale.

[atomic_punk]

They've sold more than Hasselhoff? Was die Hölle? Ich kann das nicht glauben!

[sowhat]

Rammstein is cool, but "Moskau" (it's the song from "Reise reise", or am i wrong?) is something i cannot really get... "Moskau - raz, dva, tri... (one-two-three), Moskau - posmotri (look at it): Pionery tam idut (pioneers go by), pesni Leninu pojut (sing songs to Lenin)..." Gosh... i haven't seen pioneers here for more than ten years, and i work in Moscow... I wonder WHERE have they seen'em, especially pioneers singin' songs to Lenin...

[philco]

My brother had the new "Reise, Reise" album and I gave it a listen this weekend. Rammstein's music is still about social extremes. Normal is boring, and they don't do boring. I think that Flake nailed their whole philosophy when he said that Rammstein made music that parents hate. Remember that one member of the band actually escaped eastern Europe before the iron curtain fell. They are anti-establishment rebels. Something about the Moskau song was meant to aggravate somebody. Negative publicity is the best kind when it comes from the older establishment, and you can get it for almost free if you aggravate the establishment enough. The Rolling Stone's manager Andrew Loog Oldham mastered this approach. Many bands have copied it to this day, but Rammstein does a better job than most and makes sure the live concert goes as far as practical into questionable territory without getting outright banned.

I noticed that Russian teenagers really liked Rammstein (I know one personally who is a big fan). I was also surprised that older Russians my age often preferred music like Rush to the Tom Petty music I sent over there.

Viking Metal music goes so far as having been blamed as a contributory factor for some racial crime incidents in Scandinavia, but probably no more so than some Rap music in this country. The rhythms of metal music is often quite unlike the syncopated rhythms of African music, and more like Celtic, Folk, or Classical. A lot of the early metal music from the USA and UK had R&B influences and basically grew from Hard Blues Rock , but the young Europeans are throwing that off and making some really innovative new music.

The "devil worship" aspects that have been part of western metal music for too long are being ignored by lots of the newer bands from northern and eastern Europe. Viking Metal bands basically denounce Middle Ages Catholicism and its view of Satanism as a foreign influence that polluted ancient Scandinavian culture. A talk with an educated Danish woman confirmed this, as she said that many of the younger Danish generation were ignoring Catholic and Protestant Christian marriage customs and actually being married according to ancient Viking customs (one of those customs being the "honeymoon", a month of drinking mead made from honey). This whole European Metal Music scene is little understood in this country.

Rammstein is merely one of the biggest metal acts, highly commercialized, and not truly representative of a lot of the rest of European Metal. Unfortunately, most of the Celtic, Folk and Classically inspired metal music I would like to audition is not in stock at the local music stores in small town USA where I live. I have to travel all the way to Dallas to one of the largest used CD stores (where you can listen before buying) to find it or order it at discount prices. Hardly any typical USA or UK metal music interests me. Rammstein's "Amerika" seemed to be a commentary of our cultural influence on the rest of the world. Rammstein members grew up in a Russian dominated eastern Europe, not the Moscow of today. They probably aren't too fond of either influence. They like to be controversial. I expect European Metal Music to keep to a White European viewpoint of things, so it might not be too raging popular outside of Europe except for a few acts like Rammstein. In fact, few older people I know ever heard of Rammstein even.

I've never been to Moscow, but I have been to St. Petersburg twice, and many Russian people there have a view of Moscow as a place to avoid. East Germans would be more negative than that I would think. Remember that Russians and Americans get along better than Russians and certain other Europeans, so ask somebody from the old GDR for their view of the song.

[ozover50]

Rammstein?? Hell, my 16 year old son listens to nothing else (except a bit of Metallica)! He's got all the CDs and DVDs and plays them loud and non-stop. I'm getting a bit sick of it - clashes with me trying to relive the 60s, 70s and 80s before I die!

Mind you, he can play along like a champion on his lefty BC Rich Platinum Warlock!!. He's got the sound just perfect using my Roland Cube 60 and a Zoom 505II effects pedal.

Somehow Rammstein and Rics just don't seen to sound right in the same sentence!

Cheers

[philco]

Buy your son a RIC 650D. It can do Rammstein, and anything else. Looks a lot better than the BC Rich, and he might let you borrow it.

Bestrafe mich.

[ozover50]

No worries, Phil. Like I just got my first Ric this week - do you think I'm going to buy him one before I get two? Also, it would probably take at least a year to get a lefty delivered out here in Australia.

I'm sure thr 650D can do anything but he would have a problem with the look of it - not EVIL enough!

He's had the Warlock for just over a year now and I think it's time to move on (well, sometime this year anyway). I would like to replace the ****** tuners on it (Grovers perhaps) but I don't want to spend a couple of hundred on a $1000 guitar if it's going to be put back in its case and never touched again when he gets his new one. His Squier hardly gets touched since he got the Warlock.

Unfortunately he's a lefty so that limits the possibilities severely for him. It also means that it's no good me borrowing it - can't play left-handed for nuts. Mind you, the little bugger plays my Yamaha APX5 upside down, back to front, right-handed nearly as well as he can play left-handed.

I'll have to have a serious chat with him about his next guitar. I will be in a position to spend two or three grand on him so as well as being top quality, it's got to suit the style of music he plays (at 16 he doesn't understand that looks aren't everything!).

Got to invest in a couple of decent amps, too!

Cheers

[sowhat]

Philip: many people from Moscow tell the same story about St. Petersburg... so it's a kind of a mutual feeling...
(truthfully speakin', i'd say that about both Moscow and St. Petersburg, but Cherepovetz is really a place to be... as well as many other towns