Little
is known of the six East German men who have ascended to international
fame and notoriety under the moniker of Rammstein. There is speculation,
for instance, as to whether the band takes its name from the site of an
inordinate number of plane crashes in its homeland, or from its more literal
translation: A battering ram made of stone. A ramming stone.” Rammstein.
As
it happens, either would be appropriate. The relentless “Tanzmetall” (figure
that one out for yourself, schdtze) pulse of the band’s sound and the unparalleled
pyromania of its live show have accounted in equal measure to Rammstein’s
meteoric rise to fame in its native Germany. Formed in 1993 by an assemblage
of factory-weary proletarians raised in East Berlin and the more remote
Schwerin, Rammstein wasted no time in crafting a distinctive voice: The
unerring utilitarian synchronicity of Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers’
guitars locked with the bolt-tight rhythmic backbone of bassist Oliver
Riedel and drummer Christoph Schneider, providing an unshakable foundation.
The crowning touches that distinguished Rammstein from ... well, anyone
were the keyboards of Flake (pronounced flah-keh) and the booming basso
profundo poetics of onetime Olympic swimmer Till Lindemann. “Our style
came out of knowing exactly what we didn’t want,” explains Flake. “We didn’t
want to make American ftink music, or punk. That’s something we couldn’t
do at all. We realized we could only make the music we make.”
Word
of Rammstein’s “Horror Romanticist” blend of theatre and muzik spread like
wildfire. Literally: Lindemann would sing entire songs engulfed in flame
from head to toe. This obsession with fire meshed perfectly with the band’s
driving operatic melodies and dramatically intoned tales of lost love and
longing, tragedy and deviance, dominance and submission. “The main thing
is love in all its shapes and variations,” countered Till Lindemann. Adds
Flake, “They are completely normal, romantic lyrics.” This was naturally
taken to be with a grain of salt, coming from a man who set himself on
fire nightly and the colleague who would break fluorescent lighting tubes
over his bare chest. However, a passage from any number of Rammstein lyrics
would bear out Lindemann’s claim. Take, for instance, this rough
translation of a snippet from the title track of Rammstein’s 1995 debut,
Herzeleid (or “Heartache”):
“Protect
one another from heartachelfor short is the time you will have togetherIFor
although it may be many yearslit will someday seem to have passed like
minutes...” (Forgive the somewhat rusty translation).
On
some level, it all struck a primal and resounding chord with the German
populace. Herzeleld built relentlessly on the groundswell created by the
band’s live reputation, ultimately providing bonafide entry into the European
mainstream. Scaling the heights of the German charts (and remaining there
until the release of the second Rammstein LP some two years later), the
album inadvertently introduced the band to the world outside the Germany/Switzerland/Austria
region: When it came time to make a Rammstein video, the band innocently
sent copies of Herzeleid to its favorite filmmakers. One responded: David
Lynch. While Lynch replied that he was too busy working on Lost Hif4h@a
to direct a Rammstein video, he had become so enamored with the record
that he eventually included two songs ftom Herzeleid in the film and soundtrack:
“Rammstein” and “Heirate Mich” (or “Marry Me”).
Herzeleid’s
increasing success and visibility did not come without a measure of controversy,
specifically accusations of Nazism and fascism leveled at Rammstein by
the German media. The origin of these allegations is unclear. Some said
Herzeleid’s cover art- the six members of Rammstein shirtless, buff and
shiny against a backdrop of giant yellow flowers-suggested the band members
as progenitors of a new master race. “That’s complete rubbish,” says Flake.
“It’s just a photo.” Stranger still, others decried a similarity between
Lindemann’s rolling r’s and Adolf Hitler’s diction (!). Whatever.
The fact remains that the band has never penned a political lyric and continues
to laugh off such conjecture. “If we were Spanish,” says Landers, “Then
we wouldn’t have to deal with this hassle. If some of the journalists want
to stick us in the Nazi corner, we can’t help it. It’s the same they did
with Kraftwerk twenty years ago...”
As
Rammstein’s second album, Sehnsucht (or “Longing”), was released, the band
was headlining throughout Europe to crowds of 10,000 to 30,000. Sehnsucht
entered the German charts at #1 immediately upon its August release, and
came very close to doing to the same in Austria and Switzerland. Within
weeks, entries on other countries’ charts had Sehnsucht rubbing elbows
with Prodigy, Radiohead and the Rolling Stones on Billboard’s cumulative
Eurochart.
By
the time you read this, Sehnsucht will have gone double-platinum in Germany,
platinum in Switzerland, gold in Austria, and will be ascending the top
100 of Finland, Sweden and Hungary. Rammstein will have also completed
a debut U.S. mini-tour, introducing a scaled down version of its
pyro-psycho pastiche to a routing suspiciously similar to the Sex Pistols’
first American jaunt: Tulsa OK, Texas ... concluding not in San Francisco,
but in Los Angeles, where the band blew away a capacity crowd of KMFDM
and Lords Of Acid fans (Literally and figuratively; there were quite a
few explosions lighting up the Hollywood Palladium that night). What’s
more, this landmark performance had Rammstein merchandise flying out the
door-no mean feat for the opening act on a three-band bill- and U.S. rock
luminaries including members of the Foo Fighters and Afghan Whigs re-routing
their travel itineraries to catch the band’s L.A. debut.
All
this and Rammstein has yet to release a record in the U.S. Sehnsucht
will be issued Stateside by February 1998 on Slash Records. Whether or
not the drum ‘n’bass interludes of the title track, the haunting whistling
and eerie chil(Iren’s choir of the German #1 single “Engel” (“Angel”),
or the riff-driven techno-metal of “Du Hast” (“You Hate” [ Du Hast translates
to "You have" RNW Editor] -also a top I 0 hit in Germany) will resonate
with an American audience is anyone’s guess. One thing, however, is certain:
Rammstein will not compromise. Fire codes will be subverted, lyrics
will remain in German, videos will continue to push the envelope. Otherwise,
it just wouldn’t be Rammstein.
“We
can’t help the way we are,” says Lindemann.
Or
as Landers so succinctly puts it: “Rammstein is Rammstein.”
