Rammstein
Mutter (2001)
Angry German industrial metallers Rammstein are famous for several things:
a) being angry
b) being German
c) playing a brand of industrial metal fused with progressive rock fused with techno fused with you get the picture here
d) their FUCKING INSANE live show
e) their FUCKING INSANE lead singer Till Lindemann
f) that song Pussy and its X rated music video
I don't mind admitting that some of their stuff (ok, ok, Du hast on Rock Band 3) has been a guilty pleasure. There's something cathartic about evil German lyrics being growled at you by a rather scary German dude, even though, for all I know, Till is singing about puppies and rainbows and healing the fuckin' world.
Mutter, the band's third album, is apparently a good bridge between the band's early sound and their later, more melodic/symphonic, sound. To be fair I could have picked just about any of their first four albums and I would have found familiar songs and the Rammstein sound, but Mutter it is. Ich freue mich auf zu hören Rammstein arbeit!
Das Album
Gotta be said - it's bloody good.
Driving industrial metal is the overarching theme of Mutter. Guitarists Paul H Landers and Richard Z Kruspe create a ballsy, dense and glorious crunch to their dual metal riffage, and it can be found on almost every tune, supported by Ollie Riedel's thick bass lines. Keyboard player Flake adds deft touches of organ, keyboard and synth strings for extra texture, and provides a good contrast to all that dark Teutonic ballsiness....and then there's Till Lindemann, and what a voice! He's no sweet crooner, that's for sure (on the one song where he actually tries to sing, it doesn't really work) but he has a throaty growl from the depths of East Germany, and matched with German lyrics it sounds fucking insanely good.
Yet there are plenty of times where that industrial metal aesthetic is supported by other musical styles. Opener Mein Herz brennt is pure symphonic metal, with the metal brutality supported by breezy string arrangements, and it's a kickass track; the album's title track also takes a symphonic route, with a gentler arrangement (particularly more melodic guitar lines) and an attempted non-throaty growl vocal from Lindemann to go with the prominent strings. Nebel forgoes the metal approach for a more progressive sound - clean picked guitar lines, synthesisers and strings - supported by Lindemann's vocal, which threatens to get fiery but never quite does. Nevertheless, it succeeds in being quite an atmospheric, grand tune.
Yet it's heavy industrial metal that the band are famous for, and its these tunes that are the centrepoint of the album (though even then, there are two distinct metal approaches present on Mutter). The band's industrial style (aka Neue Deutsche Harte, or New German Hardness) is found on songs like Ich will, Rein raus, Speiluhr, Links 2-3-4 and Sonne. The picks of those are Ich will, Links 2-3-4 and Sonne (though the other two are still pretty good tunes). Ich will is heavy as fuck - thick, crunchy guitars, a thunderous rhythm section and, of course, Lindemann's 'evil' vocal (yet amongst the heaviness, there's a light synth melody that bubbles away). Links 2-3-4 was written as a response to critics of the band who said they were fascists and Nazis - it in fact outs Rammstein as being incredibly left wing, politically, and draws on the work of Bertolt Brecht (though ironically, the drumming is very military march in style). Sonne is a rather brutal, fearsome tune - which makes sense when you learn it was originally written as an entrance song for heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko. It mixes up the brutal with the melodic really well.
The second distinct approach is that of thrash metal. A few tracks see Rammstein ratchet up the tempo and create an aesthetic that melds their Neue Deutsche Harte style with the old school 80s thrash approach. Feuer frei! is the best example here; not only are the riffs powerful, but Lindemann gives one of his best vocals on the album, and there's a calm breakdown in the middle of the song that acts as a welcome, but brief, breather from the metal frenzy. Zwitter is an underrated gem too, possessing a fistpumping, glorious chorus and some of the album's fiercest metal riffs - it's a total assault on the senses and absolutely wonderful, as is Adios, which, much like Feuer frei!, features some calmer sections to balance out the brutality.
Das Urteil
Mutter is the sound of a band at the top of their game, yet with plenty of room to grow. Even though their lyrics are almost entirely in German, Rammstein are a band who are fucking amazing to listen to, generally. Apart from the fact that they create a great sense of mood and atmosphere in their music, there's also a great deal of theatricality mixed in - it seems that, above all else, Rammstein are about putting on a damn good show, even on a recorded album.
I'll definitely be checking out more of the band's material.
My rating: 8.4/10
Herausragende Songs
Zwitter
Ich will
Feuer frei!
Sonne
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