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Review: Evelyn O'Connell
AFTER 2004's Reise, Reise, I was expecting something
great from Rammstein's latest album, Rosenrot.
Rammstein has thrown its anchor into the depths of German literature.
The title song, Rosenrot, blends the fairy tales Snow-White
and Red-Rose with Goethe’s Heidenrslen (Rose on the Heath).
Till Lindemann (vocals) is a former top athlete and author and
is known for cryptic text arrangements – even if he prefers
in public to hide his flair for heart-rending rhymes, stirring
metaphors, and rousing parables behind a tough exterior.
Rosenrot teems with stories by people about people,
and plunges with them into the treacherous depths of the emotional
abyss.
In their descent, Rammstein salvages foremost the problems, the
absurdities, and the anomalies hidden behind the faade of our
supposedly normal, conventional everyday life.
The contents are buried in the jungle of words, revealed only
to those who listen closely. Those who do will hear about people
with an insatiable but never quenchable longing for the other,
such as Feuer Und Wasser (Fire and Water), the power
of primeval instincts of Zerstoren (Destroy) and fatal
misunderstandings in Spring.
Having said all this, and in case you don’t know any of
Rammstein’s previous releases, you must understand that
this album is mostly sung in German with the exception of Spring;
so if you managed to gleam any of the above from listening to
the tracks then your GCSE German must be far better than mine!
Rosenrot forms a 'uniform and integrated whole', seeing as this
is a German band I guess you can’t escape uniformity as
they like things to be nice and neat.
However, the songs derive not from one, but from several recording
sessions. A few songs originated whilst recording Reise, Reise,
other songs in turn were produced later in the spring of this
year in Berlin.
Seeing as some of the songs were recorded originally for Reise,
Reise but never made it to the final cut Rosenrot was
almost called Reise, Reise Vol 2.
But the tracks are just not up to scratch and it shows; this
album could be looked upon as the 'tracks that didn’t make
it onto Reise, Reise.
There were very few good points for me on this album, but if
I had to choose I would say Benzin and Rosenrot
are the highlights.
Ein Lied is an ok sounding quiet song at the end.
But Te Quiero Puta! and Stirb Nicht Vor Mir are
terrible songs and a very low point on the album.
Te Quiero Puta! in particular is awful, featuring a
lot of Spanish sounds and vocals, which must have been inspired
while recording Reise, Reise at the El Cortijo studios
in Spanish Malaga.
Overall, Rosenrot is an average album if you’re
into the German Industrial Rock band, full of 'Reise, Reise
leftovers'. I’d imagine that serious fans will feel really
let down.
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