- Sehnsucht · 1997
- Mutter · 2001
- Rammstein · 2019
- Mutter · 2001
- Reise, Reise · 2004
- Sehnsucht · 1997
- Mutter · 2001
- Mutter · 2001
- Rammstein · 2019
- Mutter · 2001
- Rammstein · 2019
- Zeit · 2022
- Reise, Reise · 2004
Essential Albums
- In their 25th year, German electro-industrial steamrollers Rammstein remain der Goldstandard for New German Hardness, with their mix of industrial sternness, techno hedonism, and metal aggression. Their seventh album lands somewhere between Faith No More and Franz Ferdinand, taut grooves meshing with bludgeoning riffs and disturbing stories. Lead single "DEUTSCHLAND" is scabrous, politically volatile doom-disco laying out conflicted feelings about living in their homeland, even tweaking the verse of the national anthem used in the country's fascist past. The rest follows the chug and bombast of albums like 2001's Mutter and 2009's Liebe ist für alle da: "RADIO" is like a heavy metal Kraftwerk, "SEX" is snaky glam-sludge, and "PUPPE" is a creeper with a coming-undone performance from lead singer Till Lindemann.
- Rammstein became superstars in their native Germany upon the release of their 1995 debut, Herzeleid. However, the industrial-leaning metal band can thank David Lynch for laying the groundwork for the U.S. success of their second album, 1997’s Sehnsucht: The director used a pair of songs from Herzeleid in his high-profile film Lost Highway, which landed in theaters several months before Sehnsucht hit stores. These two tunes, “Heirate mich” and “Rammstein,” also appeared on the star-studded Lost Highway soundtrack—meaning the group were already rubbing elbows with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson. Rammstein’s brawny hard rock fit right in with the output of those musical titans, as Sehnsucht (a word that translates, roughly, to the concept of “longing” in the English language) paired chugging metallic riffs with gruff vocals and futuristic electronic effects. This approach is best embodied by “Du hast,” a rock-chart hit driven by insistent programming pulses and aggressive guitar shards, and the slower “Engel,” which employs sinewy grooves and disorienting digital bursts. Yet Sehnsucht succeeded because of Rammstein’s flair for the dramatic and well-honed sense of dynamics. Expressive frontman Till Lindemann barks out his German-language lyrics like a poised stage actor on the menacing strut “Spiel mit mir.” That song is directly followed by the equally ominous “Klavier,” which alternates between quiet verses full of spidery piano and crashing, loud choruses. Confident and seductive, Sehnsucht was a creative high point of the ’90s industrial-metal boom.
Albums
Artist Playlists
- Teutonic pyromaniacs turn metal machine music into a surprisingly subtle spectacle.
- The German hard rockers show their freaky side.
- Club jams, metal, and alt-rock from the German ragers and others.
- Listen to the hits performed on the blockbuster tour.
Singles & EPs
About Rammstein
Even in a ’90s alt-rock landscape already pounded into submission by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Marilyn Manson, nothing could prepare ears for the sensory-overloading assault and sheer absurdity of Rammstein’s “Du hast.” Alluring and appalling in equal measure, the 1997 single introduced unsuspecting North American audiences to the German band’s singular mix of industrialized crunch, libidinous dance beats, and operatic grandeur. And in contrast to the PVC-clad throat-shredders of the day, Rammstein’s orgy of pyro and perversity was led by the incomparably suave Till Lindemann, who looked like a banking executive cruising an S&M dungeon and sang in a louche delivery that suggested Serge Gainsbourg stage-diving into a mosh pit. By that point, Rammstein were already a Top 10 phenomenon in Germany, where their 1995 debut, Herzeleid, thrust them to the forefront of the Neue Deutsche Härte (New German Hardness) movement of domestic acts who took influence from both metal and techno. But even after their stateside breakthrough, Rammstein refused to make themselves more palatable and, with few exceptions, remained committed to issuing their crude sociopolitical critiques in their native tongue. Over the course of the 2000s, their methods turned ever more provocative, whether devoting an entire album (2004’s Reise, Reise) to re-enacting the infamous Japan Airlines crash of 1985, or promoting the 2009 single “PUSSY” with a hardcore pornographic video uploaded to X-rated sites. Rammstein fell silent for much of the 2010s, but a band this audacious wouldn’t be content with a mere comeback single: With 2019’s chart-topping electro-metal chant “DEUTSCHLAND,” they practically gifted their home country a new national anthem.
- ORIGIN
- Berlin, Germany
- FORMED
- January 1994
- GENRE
- Metal