The Story of Rammstein
[Story by some unknown person at iMusic]
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 together For 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 Highway 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"-also a top 10 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."
+ Back to Main +
