Berlin (dpa) – “Big tits” will hardly be enough for a scandal. In the new album “Zeit” Rammstein sets the title as a dream of a lonely old wanderer, whose fantasies sound more ridiculous than lustful.
Can encourage one or the other male fan to sing together at the stadium concert. But there is no more anger material on the eighth studio album of the strong metal band Berlin.
Eleven new titles, about 45 minutes of anticipated Rammstein music tracks – which will make many of the huge fan base around the world happy. But an astonishing number of songs revolve around the end, farewell, old age, diminishing time. It is already being discussed in the relevant forums if and which of these can be interpreted as a sign.
The sensitive bourgeois mind is accustomed to much more difficult things with Rammstein, despite the music. The band advertised the previous untitled album three years ago with a short video excerpt from the song “Deutschland”: three band members before the execution, with a cloak reminiscent of concentration camp inmates.
The call was great: it was about the lack of empathy for the victims, about the advertising at the expense of the Jews killed by the Nazis. Such reactions are said to have caused great thought even to musicians who otherwise laugh with emotion.
Slowed down by the virus – time for new songs
So for now without scandal fuss. The whole album is however a consequence of a lot of time for reflection. Rammstein is not even harder than Corona. The virus slowed down the successful stadium tour. Repeatedly delayed performances also meant freedom in the time already planned together for a group whose members have lost sight of each other for a year or two in almost three decades of the group’s history.
Instead of stadiums sold, singer Till Lindemann (59), guitarists Richard Kruspe (54) and Paul Landers (57), bassist Oliver Riedel (51), keyboardist Christian “Flake” Lorenz (55) and drummer Christoph Schneider (55) we met in late 2020 at the studio “La Fabrique” in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. “It’s fantastic to be back in the studio,” the band said – and recorded new songs for an album.
The German band, which has been the most successful international for years, seems to be able to continue to rely on approval: the two songs “Zeit” and “Zick Zack” immediately landed at number one on the charts after their release.
Rammstein leaves a lot of space on this album for keyboardist Lorenz and his sometimes enjoyable phrases in synthesizer. Where individual songs threaten to enter the pop sphere, Kruspe and Landers close with their strong, often staccato guitar riffs. Some passages, for example in “Gift”, “OK” or “Angst” are very reminiscent of old Rammstein rigidity.
Return to the song about the great characteristics of the female sex. The song comes as a pastiche, the music of the brass band defines the entrance, there is a marque atmosphere, the fresh lederhosen and the dirndls embracing the figures do not look far away. Schneider ends up with a brutal use of drums and delivers strong chords to the guitar. The only thing left of the song from happy dirndl is “Big Tits” in the chorus. The song is also an example of how the group can demonstrate double bourgeois standards with flagrant labels.
Farewell, time, transient
Time has a lot to do with permanence. It becomes grotesque when “Zick Zack” satirizes body cult and aesthetic surgery. The song titled “Zeit” (“please stay still, stay still”) comes pathetically, Grim Reaper is already very close. “There will be more behind us,” Lindemann then sings, or “youth becomes trouble.” In “Army of the Sad” the sad go to the “step of blocking against happiness” in the common sadness: “We want to be sad together.”
Many would fit in for a recent album. “When our time has come, then it is time to go / stop when it is most beautiful, the hours stop,” they say. The last song (!) Of the album, the very solemn “Adieu” – ostensibly for a deceased – is full of allusions to an end.
Does “Even the sun will burn” mean the hit “Sonne” that is wildly celebrated in concerts for 20 years? Consolation seems to follow: “Do not worry, we are with you.” But immediately: “One last song, one last kiss, no miracle will happen.”
All of this can also be one of the group gags, a game of expectation and disappointment. The song “Lügen” also says: “No one believes me, not even me.” And finally there is a tournament that will be played to the end. With Rammstein it is always – combined with lots of fireworks and fog, fireworks, lights – a very, very long tour.
The elaborate display probably needs to be adjusted. Fans will hardly accept a concert without songs from the new album. She has to get on stage very quickly. The long-sold German concerts kick off on May 20 and 21 in Leipzig.