Rammstein's second album Sehnsucht has placed them in the enviable position atop the Industrial genre. As the genre continues to evolve it continues to blur the line between itself and Metal.
Sehnsucht also begins blurring the line between Industrial and Funk. Sehnsucht is the perfect fusion of the two genres with a only mild overtones of Electronic thrown in the mix. Rammstein's sound is distinctive and compelling. They are able to surpass Industrial stalwarts KMFDM with a sound that is drier, harsher, groovier while also being uncomplicated. Their music is a brutal assault musically and vocally.
I first got exposed to Rammstein on the soundtrack for David Lynch's The Lost Highway in the summer of '97. Later that autumn while at BAGG, I heard the 2nd track of Sehnsucht, Engel. It had a really thick groove, heavy guitars, and a killer "High Plains Drifter" intro.
I forgot about them except at the club until I was in Rasputin's and saw the album. It had a cool cover, and despite previous negative experience with most Industrial music, I bought it. By this point at BAGG, they had been playing the 3rd track Tier and the 5th track Du Hast.
The record blew me away.
It is intense, powerful, and funky as shit.
The Electronic side of the band only supercedes the guitar side on two of the tracks. The rest is very martial, forceful and amazing.
Much Industrial can teeter on the brink of self-indulgence with most songs in the five to six minute range (I mean they are dance songs after all), but Rammstein has kept their songs all around the four minute mark. In my mind this normally reflects a greater degree of compositional control, as the idea can be easily stated without flourish and embroidery to make up for a weak melody or rhythm.
Vocally, there is almost an operatic character to much of the phrasing. Vocalist Till Lindemann has a very deep bass voice that can climb several octaves into a high tenor if needed. But most of his work is a low growl which serves to accentuate the driving dual guitars.
In addition to the vocals, much of the music has a similar operatic character, leading my friends and I to refer to Rammstein as Wagner for the 21st Century.
In addition to the aforementioned tracks is Buck Dich an anomaly on the record as it is one of the only tracks without a groove-oriented bass line. It's almost a metal/thrash song, except of course for the sophisticated vocals.
Also of note is the title track, which is very heavy though somewhat "techno" in delivery. Sehnsucht has 11 originals (plus English-lyric versions of Engel and Du Hast) all of which are outstanding, with five exceptional offerings.
The lyrics are somewhat difficult to grasp in you don't happen to speak German, but the bands web site has English translations of their work.
The truth is that the foreign lyrics add to the edge of the music. German is a very ugly language to hear (sorry Dad), but that harshness works wonderfully in Industrial music, which unsurprisingly has always been dominated by Germanic bands.
I recently had the opportunity to see the band perform live, and they exceeded even my high expectations. They were able to make Industrial (which is often heavily produced, and thus difficult to re-create live) sound better than the studio versions of their material. Plus the show was incredible. Beavis would have a field day with a presentation that saw every member of the band, and most of the equipment set afire.
This album is rare as it is one of the few transitional works in the evolutionary flow of art. I was at BAGG last night, and heard a song from the first of what I'm sure will be many Rammstein "rip-off" bands.
This record will not appeal to some, and as such I can not give it five stars, but in the Industrial genre, it stands alone at the moment as the reigning King. Review Text