Rammstein "Rammstein" (2019)

Rammstein
release date: May 17, 2019
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,02]
producer: Olsen Involtini, Rammstein
label: Universal Music - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Deutschland" - 2. "Radio" - 3. "Zeig dich" (live) - 4. "Ausländer" - 6. "Puppe" (4,5 / 5) (live) - 8. "Diamant"

7th studio album by Rammstein - also referred to as [untitled] - released almost a full decade after Libe ist für alle da (2009). For the first time a studio release is without Swedish producer Jonas Hellner - instead Rammstein has co-produced the album with German guitarist, producer, and engineer Olsen Involtini (aka Olsen Olic), who arranged strings on Mutter (2001) and Reise, Reise (2004) and furthermore is guitarist in the American / German band Emigrate [founded by Rammstein guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe].
2011 saw the best of compilation album Made in Germany 1995-2011 featuring one new track, but other than that, the following 9 years saw Rammstein members engaged with live tours and individual projects including Till Lindemann's collaboration, Lindemann, Richard Z. Kruspe's band Emigrate, and the production on a new Rammstein album was announced on several occasions from 2013 - '17.
A decade is a long time in the music business and even longer than many bands survive together, but for Rammstein time hasn't made the band less popular - all thanks to the widely spread conception of being one of the most fascinating live acts around. Two months before the album release, Rammstein released an extended music video for the first track, "Deutschland" in cinematic proportions, and the single attracted much attention and also peaked at #1 on the national singles chart list. Also the second track, "Radio" was issued prior to the album release - peaking at #4, and following the album, the single "Ausländer" was released as the so far third and last single from the album, peaking at #2. The new album replicates their previous albums by topping the German albums chart list, which was followed in a number of other countries - especially around Europe. It has already been met by international acclaim as one of the band's absolute best studio albums, which I too find very understandable.
The album opens up with four strong tracks, and with the composition, "Puppe" - as a contender to their best song ever - the band reaches new heights of energetic brutality and they successfully explore new territories within industrial metal. On "Diamant" the angry music is exchanged for a surprisingly soft emotional brake. There are so many strong tracks here, and the best thing about it is the sense of revitalisation of a band, which many thought had peaked with Mutter some 18 years ago, but here they produce one of their best albums on which they primarily sound like Rammstein but also by adding new dimensions to its strict stylistic repertoire. They are sort of widening the genre by adding new elements to it, like a sense of humour, sentimentality, and a display of trust in own abilities.
Highly recommended.
[ 👍allmusic.com, Kerrang!, Exclaim!, NME, Clash 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5 stars ]

2019 Favourite releases: 1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Ghosteen - 2. The Cranberries In the End - 3. Rammstein Rammstein

Rammstein "Liebe ist für alle da" (2009)

Liebe ist für alle da
release date: Oct. 16, 2009
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,34]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Universal - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Rammlied" - 2. "Ich tu dir weh" - 3. "Waidmanns Heil" - 4. "Haifisch" - *5. "B********" - 7. "Wiener Blut" - 8. "Pussy" - 9. "Liebe ist für alle da" - 11. "Roter Sand"
*referred to as 'Bückstabü', a nonce word made up to mean whatever the listener wants it to mean

6th studio album by Rammstein. The album is a return to form by the band. This is not outtakes but a fine collection of songs where the band seeks new ways of expressing themselves. The album hasn't got a strong single release like many of its predecessors but it's more a whole album on a higher level than heard since Mutter (2001).
The promotional single "Pussy" became the band's first single to reach #1 on the national singles chart list (also in Finland), and it was released with a controversial and sexually explicit music video directed by Swedish music director Jonas Åkerlund. Two more singles followed as #2 and lastly #4 were selected for singles releases in 2010 without attracting much of the same attention. Like the previous four albums it topped the charts in Germany, which it also did in Austria, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, and in Switzerland. In Germany alone the album sold 2 x Platinum.
A rule of German censorship made the album exclusive to purchase by adults due to an inlay picture displaying Richard Kruspe spanking a nude woman, and the album was subsequently reissued without the picture and without the track "Ich to dir weh".
Overall it's not near their two best albums but neither as poor as the last two studio releases.
[ allmusic.com, Kerrang!, NME, PopMatters 4 / 5 stars ]

Rammstein "Rosenrot" (2005)

Rosenrot
release date: Oct. 28, 2005
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,88]
producer: Jacob Hellner
label: Universal - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Benzin" - 2. "Mann gegen Mann" - 3. "Rosenrot"

5th studio album by Rammstein and for the 5th time with Swedish producer Jacob Hellner who is credited as producer solely. It's the band's first studio release on Universal, although, it contains six tracks recorded for but omitted on the previous album Reise, Reise (2004).
The style and compositions are much alike the former album, only this one has even fever good and memorable compositions. Actually, with the material from both albums they could have made one really fine release instead of producing two lesser albums.
Not really recommended and most likely the band's least favourable album to date.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

Rammstein "Reise, Reise" (2004)

Reise, Reise
release date: Sep. 27, 2004
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
pro. by Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Reise, Reise" - 2. "Mein Teil" - 4. "Keine Lust" - 6. "Amerika" (4 / 5) - 7. "Moskau" - 8. "Morgenstern" - 10. "Ohne dich"
[ The making of 'Keine Lust' ]

4th studio album by Rammstein is like the two previous albums produced by the band in collaboration with Jacob Hellner, and it's the band's last studio album on Motor Music. It follows the band's so far most successful album Mutter after a 3½ years hiatus.
Reise, Reise contains the much viewed video single "Amerika", which is a great tune and with both "Keine Lust" and fine songs like "Mein Teil" and "Moskau", Rammstein has made another solid release, although, the album lacks compositions on the same level as their great Mutter, and what is more important: for the first time I find that the band doesn't deliver truly new material but in way keeps to repeating itself. The tight and confined Rammstein universe doesn't leave room for much new if the band doesn't progress. At least they may try, but the new elements are like drawn on either themselves or other metal bands. I find several traces of the American alt. metal band System of a Down, e.g. "Morgenstern", and the album really doesn't come near the strong 2001 album. It's not great, not bad, and not really unforgettable.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, BBC 3 / 5 stars ]

Rammstein "Links 2-3-4" (2001) (single)

Links 2-3-4, single
release date: May 14, 2001
format: digital
[single rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Tracklist: 1. "Links 2-3-4" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Halleluja" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "Links 2-3-4 (Clawfinger Geradeaus Remix)" (2,5 / 5) - 4. "Links 2-3-4 (Westbam Technoelectro Mix)" (2,5 / 5) - 5. "Links 2-3-4 (Westbam Hard Rock Café Bonus Mix)" (2,5 / 5)

Single release by Rammstein from the album Mutter.

Rammstein "Mutter" (2001)

Mutter
release date: Apr. 2, 2001
format: cd
[album rate; 4 / 5] [3,92]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Mein Herz brennt" (5 / 5) - 2. "Links 2-3-4" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Sonne" (4,5 / 5) - 4. "Ich will" - 5. "Feuer frei!" - 6. "Mutter" (4,5 / 5) - 7. "Spieluhr" - 9. "Rein raus"

3rd studio album by Rammstein who continues to work with Swedish producer Jacob Hellner. He has been with the band from the beginning i.e. since 1995.
Compared to the previous album Sehnsucht (1997) the style remains the same. It's a collection of almost brutal energy and with the usual one or two slow songs - the title track and "Nebel" (#11) to balance the high tempo. The recipe worked on the '97 album, so why not repeat the formula with a bunch of new songs, you may ask, and the end result is that the band succeeds like never before.
Mutter is stronger than any of their previous albums, and in hindsight it's also the band's best album ever. It contains several (blasting) great compositions (the first three + the title track).
The album produced several singles - "Sonne" was the first and only to precede the album release, and it was followed by #2, #4, #6 and #5 in that order, and with a total of five single releases. The first single peaked at number #2 on the national singles chart list, and the remainders failed to enter top 10. Nationally, the album topped the charts, which it also did in Austria and in Switzerland, and it was the band's first to sell double platinum (+600.000 copies) in Germany.
The track "Links 2-3-4" is the band's answer to critics accusing it for right-wing and fascist sympathy. In the chorus line it says: "My heart beats to the left, 2-3-4" implying a political stand on the left with supposed allusions to a revolutionary Bertolt Brecht song.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Blender 3 / 5, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5 stars ]

2001 Favourite releases: 1. Björk Vespertine - 2. Nathalie Merchant Motherland - 3. Rammstein Mutter

Rammstein "Stripped" (single) (1998)

Stripped, single
release date: Jul. 27, 1998
format: cd
[single rate: 3 / 5] [3,15]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Tracklist: 1. "Stripped" (3 / 5) - 2. "Stripped (Psilonaut Mix by Johan Edlund - Tiamat)" (2,5 / 5) - 3. "Stripped (Heavy Mental Mix by Charlie Clouser)" (3 / 5) - 4. "Stripped (Tribute to Düsseldorf Mix by Charlie Clouser)" (2,5 / 5) - 5. "Stripped (FKK Mix by Günter Schulz - KMFDM)" (2,5 / 5)

Single release by Rammstein, which had no official album release except from being part of the Depeche Mode compilation tribute album For the Masses (1998) - it may, however, also be found as a "hidden track" on certain German reissues of Rammstein's second album Sehnsucht (1997). The original song is featured on the Depeche Mode album Black Celebration from 1986.
I don't find this cover particularly successful - not that it's bad, but it's more of a peculiarity to listen to Till Lindemann's English and the other remixes of the track are really not that fine. The official video was one of a few points that had critics link Rammstein with neo-nazism as the video-footage is from Third Reich director Leni Riefenstahl's film "Olympia" from 1938. All suggestions to the band's sympathy for the political far right have been officially denied, although, the band members also have declared their admiration for Riefenstahl's style.
[ "Rammstein - Stripped (Official Making Of)" music video ]

Rammstein "Das Modell" (1997), single

Das Modell, single
release date: Nov. 23, 1997
format: cd
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Tracklist: 1. "Das Modell" - 2. "Kokain" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "Alter Mann (Special Version)" (3 / 5)

Single release by Rammstein is not from an album release. The title track is a cover of the perhaps most well-known single by Kraftwerk originally released in 1978.
This is a rather fine cover where Rammstein doesn't try hard to copy the original but pretty much make it their own industrial metal track only keeping the famous Kraftwerk keyboard chorus intact. The second track is a new Rammstein composition which is rather original, and the last is officially an alternate version of the track from Sehnsucht, although I find them identical.

Rammstein "Sehnsucht" (1997)

Sehnsucht
release date: Aug. 22, 1997
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]
producer Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Sehnsucht" (4 / 5) - 2. "Engel" (feat. Bobo) (4 / 5) - 3. "Tier" - 5. "Du hast" (5 / 5) - 6. "Bück dich" - 9. "Alter Mann" - 10. "Eifersucht" - 11. "Küss Mich (Fellfrosch)"

2nd studio album by Rammstein released two years after the debut from '95 is produced in collaboration with Swedish producer Jacob Hellner who was also engaged on the debut.
The album reveals a step forward in more than one aspect as it's first and foremost a better produced collection of songs that also show a progression in terms of compositional skills with several strong individually sounding tracks.
Two singles were released prior to the album as "Engel" and then "Du hast" were cleverly hand-picked to promote the new album with the former peaking at number #3 on the German singles chart list and later "Du hast" followed closely by reaching number #4 on the same list - but the track basically became the band's internationally so far most renowned single.
Sehnsucht is a fine step forward from an interesting but also slightly mediocre debut. Here the band has tightened up the compositions and also shaped them as both simpler yet more detailed by a clearer differentiation from track to track. It's industrial metal in the way only a German band can play. "Du hast" is probably the strongest track here but several others are great - especially the first half of the album is worth the lot and makes the album a much stronger and more favourable listen than the '95 debut album.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

     

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Rammstein "Du hast" (1997), single

Du hast, single
release date: Jul. 21, 1997
format: cd
[single rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Tracklist: 1. "Du hast (Single Version)" (5 / 5) - 2. "Bück dich (Album Version)" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "Du hast (Remix by Jacob Hellner)" - 4. "Du hast (Remix by Clawfinger)"

Single release by Rammstein and the second single issue prior to the release of the forthcoming second album Sehnsucht to be released the following month. The title track seems the same as on the album, which also goes for the second track, whereas the last two remixes offers new versions. The first and best remix by producer Jacob Hellner is an electronic big beat (The Prodigy-like) version of the single, and the last Clawfinger remix is an alt. metal hard rock version, which is a rather inferior version; however, the original version is a truly fabulous track.

Rammstein "Engel (Fan-Edition)" (1997) (single)

Engel (Fan-Edition), single
release date: May 23, 1997
format: cd
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Tracklist: 1. "Engel (Extended Version)" (4 / 5) - 2. "Feuerräder (Live Demo Version 1994)" - 3. "Wilder Wein (Demo Version 1994)" (3,5 / 5) - 4. "Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Instrumental)"

Single release by Rammstein taken from the forthcoming second album Sehnsucht. It's a variation from the first issue of Engel and offers an extended version of the album track (it's 12 seconds longer). The single also contains two demo versions and "Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Instrumental)", which is also included on the standard single version of Engel.

Rammstein "Engel" (1997) (single)

Engel, single
release date: Apr. 1, 1997
format: cd
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Tracklist: 1. "Engel" (4 / 5) - 2. "Sehnsucht" (4 / 5) - 3. "Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Radio Edit)" - 4. "Rammstein (Eskimos & Egypt Instrumental)" - 5. "Rammstein (Original)"

Single release by Rammstein taken from the forthcoming second album Sehnsucht. It contains two strong single tracks from the new album and an additional three versions of the album track Rammstein from the debut Herzeleid (1995) which seems like mere fillers.

Rammstein "Seemann" (1996) (single)

Seemann, single
release date: Jan. 2, 1996
format: cd
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Carl-Michael Herlöffson
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Seemann" - 2. "Der Meister" - 3. "Rammstein in the House (Timewriter Rmx)"

Single release taken from the debut album Herzeleid by Rammstein.

Rammstein "Herzeleid" (1995)

Herzeleid [debut]
release date: Sep. 24, 1995
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Carl-Michael Herlöfsson
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 2. "Der Meister" - 5. "Seemann" - 6. "Du riechst so gut" (4 / 5) - 8. "Heirate mich" - 9. "Herzeleid" - 10. "Laichzeit" - 11. "Rammstein"

Studio debut album by German quintet Rammstein consisting of Till Lindemann on vocals, Richard Z. Kruspe on guitar, Paul Landers on guitar, Oliver Riedel on bass guitar, Christian Lorenz on keyboards, and with Christoph Schneider on drums.
Rammstein play industrial metal and what has become known as "Neue Deutsche Härte" ['New German Hardness'], a German variation of hard rock and metal rock often in combination with electronic dance or dance metal. The style of the band seems fostered from several sources of inspiration - most evidently French band KMFDM, American band Nine Inch Nails, Belgian industrial electronic band Front242 and the two Canadian bands, Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy; however, Rammstein play its own quite original tight version of industrial metal.
The album attracted international attention, it reached #6 on the national albums chart list - #11 in Austria and top 100 entries in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and France.
I only heard the album after being introduced to the successor Sehnsucht (1997) and never found it a memorable or strong debut, although, it contains a few fine compositions. Some tracks are "just" a collection of very similar sounding tracks of hardcore metal and industrial metal that seem built on more or less the same formula and only expose little complexity.
The album spawned two single releases: "Du riechst so gut" and "Seemann" with the former pointing more to the style on the preceding albums, and together with "Der Meister" they are also the best tracks found on what appears as the uneven but promising debut.
The video for the song "Rammstein" was made with director David Lynch who used the track for a scene to his 1997 movie "Lost Highway", which also feature a scene with the song "Heirate mich".
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, Sputnik Music 4 / 5 stars ]

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Rammstein "Du riechst so gut" (1995) (single)

Du riechst so gut, single
release date: Aug. 24, 1995
format: cd
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,34]
producer: Jacob Hellner, Carl-Michael Herlöffson
label: Motor Music - nationality: Germany

Tracklist: 1. "Du riechst so gut" (4 / 5) - 2. "Wollt ihr das Bett in Flammen sehen?" - 3. "Du riechst so gut (Scal remix)"

Single debut by German industrial metal band Rammstein taken from the forthcoming debut album Herzeleid to be released one month later.