[kj] Gathering Digest, Vol 101, Issue 10 Rammstein

[Marcel]

Am 11.12.2011 22:05, schrieb gathering-request at misera.net:

Hey, I'm german and I hated Rammstein when they started and when 
listening to their first two records after visiting a show last week I 
know why: Most of the first two records - except for the two, or three 
odd hits - is rubbish. Might have been cool at the time, but only 
because of the "shock-effect". Everrrry newshound herrre starrrrted to 
howl at theirrr lyrrrics and attitude, which was totally ironic from the 
very start - calculated and not naive as they claim - those guys aren't 
dumb....
Back then they used to be just sex, violence and rrrrrrrrr, but with 
"Mutter", which one of them claims to be their masterpiece in a recent 
interview in the german Rolling Stone they started to change. "Links 2 3 
4" has a clear political message that leaves no room for ambiguity. It 
says: Fuck those who envy our success, we're leftists. By the way 
"Mutter" would be a good choice for starters for a newcomer... Lyrically 
their masterpiece would be "Reise, Reise" in my humble opinion, as they 
manage to merge the usual drama with irony and a bunch of rather clever 
citations of classical stuff. F.e. "Dalai Lama" is a pretty good modern 
mock version of Goethe's ballad "Erlkönig".

Sure: pull the plug and they're out. That is very true. I personally 
don't care about pyros and stuff, but that opera kinda show thing does 
work out. Lindemann, being called "one of the best frontmen" actually 
hardly moves at all except for his head/bodybanging and a few moves when 
throwing flames in one way or another. hm....

One comment here on a CD package struck me as a perfect comment on 
Rammstein as a whole, and not in a necessarily negative way:

The thing is an annoying size and sticks out in my collection

cheers, Marcel