Published on Apr 27, 2001
With drool practically trickling down my cheek, I embraced into
my capitalist, greedy arms one of the most highly anticipated
albums of the year so far: the new Rammstein album called
Mutter (Mother). Well, after a seemingly endless four-year
wait since the last studio album (which was also their breakthrough
in North America),
Sehnsucht in 1997,
Mutter delivers on all accounts and then some.
Sehnsucht was a solid effort and contained numerous superb
songs, but the album had a tendency to overstay its welcome a bit
because the last three or four songs did not particularly stand out
in any way. That is not the case with
Mutter. The flow of the album is excellent, starting with a
bombastic opening number, a grand epic in the middle, and a solemn,
melancholy parting at the end, with oodles of teutonic explosive
aggression and typically gloomy German self examination in
between.
I just simply cannnot get enough of Rammstein’s music…it’s the
ultimate marriage of crushingly violent, primal aggression and
wistful sentimental melodicism with it’s roots in the classical
German romantic era of the 19th century with its extremely
Wagnerian overtones. It seems like such a paradox, but they pull it
off brilliantly; each song has an extremely catchy chorus without
sounding commercial at all, and these fantastic melodies are
embedded beneath an unbelievably powerful layer of thundering
rhythms and monstrous guitar riffs that pound you into submission,
accompanied by the ever present electronic sounds and
keyboards.
What makes
Mutter their finest hour to date is the fact that the band
sounds tighter and more confident in actual musicianship,
development of melodic ideas, arrangements, and lyric writing. What
surprised me even more was that of the 11 tracks, none of them are
filler as opposed to a good three or four last time around. Sure,
there’s not a great deal of stylistic diversity or experimentation,
but Rammstein have an unmistakably distinctive sound all their own
which they have perfected and refined on this release.
The sheer blitzkrieg force of intensity cannot be ignored, and
the songs do not become repetitive due to the presence of a
plethora of massively engaging hooks combined with a dramatic
delivery that make each track unique and a joy to listen to. It
reminds me of the scene in
A Clockwork Orange where Alex beats the stuffing out a
hapless victim while cheerfully humming the theme from
Singing In The Rain.
While the electonic element may be a tad more restrained and
subtle this time around, this in no way weakens the overall work.
From the prominent orchestral riffs on the bombastic opener “Mein
Herz Brennt” (My Heart Burns), to the military marching sounds on
“Links 2-3-4” (Left 2-3-4), to the grandeur of “Mutter” (Mother),
to the anarchy of “Adios”, to the haunting Depeche Modian album
closing ballad “Nebel” (Haze, or Fog), the album is guaranteed to
entertain on multiple levels.
The lead vocals as usual are one of Rammstein’s most distinctive
trademarks, raging from a gruff, robotic SS Officer type delivery
one minute to gentle, soft, and sorrowful the next. Till Lindemann
really shines throughout in this regard, showing us his
versatility. Seeing how I’ve begun the name dropping, it would be
unfair not to mention the other players: Dual lead guitars supplied
by Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers, bass by Oliver Riedel, drums by
Christoph Schneider, and keyboards/electronic programming by Flake
Lorenz.
For me personally there is also the added bonus that I can
understand all the lyrics as well, and let me say that they range
from Grimm-like chilling to downright depressing most of the time.
Usually they deal with lost love, despair, eternal sorrow,
erroneous guilt, vengeance, atrocity, doomed romance, lonliness,
hate, perversion, and death…happy stuff eh! It’s all very
typically German. There are many recurring mentions of flames,
flesh, blood, and mothers. Weird stuff, but the lyrics are written
much more expertly than on
Sehnsucht, which went a bit overboard in the perverted
sleaze department.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this record to everyone,
especially people who like their earlier output, but also anyone
who has an appreciation for aggressive music, be it of the metal or
industrial kind, and yes, even opera. Even though we are only four
months into the year, in my opinion
Mutter is already a frontrunner for best album of 2001.