Status: 06.05.2022 18:22
After a break of three years, Ramstein released his new album “Zeit”. It sold 160,000 copies in a week and topped the charts.
Top charts, stadium tours that sell out in seconds, marketing strategies like midnight sales to die-hard audiences – of which there are many: Ramstein is Germany’s most internationally successful band. The new album sold 160,000 copies within a week, GfK Entertainment announced on Friday. A spokesperson explained that this was the strongest start for all German musicians and all international rock acts on the German charts since Rammstein’s predecessor three years ago.
Rammstein symbolizes self-defense, vandalism, bass, and melancholy
Berlin Metal about singer Till Lindemann (second from left) will release their new album “Zeit” on April 29. In the eponymous song, boom and bluff melodies perfectly intertwine.
Aimed at brave German band music, it means melancholy. One can hate Rammstein. So much does. Ornate, military. But a lot of people felt this way back in the late ’90s: That bass, that blues! Theatrical show with fire orgy. This is somehow subversive, mysterious and disgusting. Point Ramstein directly into the gut. It was different and new. This is no longer new. Rammstein has been doing the same for a quarter of a century now. truly. Always the same! Only with objective differences. Also in the new album – nothing surprising.
“Zeit” album: Forever stomping rhythm, all the way to the pity chest
Exactly the same stomping rhythm, double country, rolling R as Riefenstahl: there is hardly any musical development, one quotes oneself. There is a repertoire of words such as body, night, time, body and darkness. Quick access to the pity box.
Calculated taboo breaks: songs like “Okay” and “Big Tits”
And, of course, a calculated taboo break: the band members appeared in the videos as cannibals, hardcore porn stars and prisoners in concentration camps. This time songs like “OK” – which means Ohne Kondom – or “Big Tits” or the question “Who’s Afraid of the Black Man?” Seriously now?
Even if you want to see it as a bona fide xenophobic statement: it’s just too clumsy and not too complicated. One wished for more joke that the band, which lives socially in East Germany, could do. About a mess that keyboardist Flick so brilliantly describes in his autobiography, which is totally worth a read — and which shimmers at least on the new album with the “I Have to Go to Städele” variation.
Ramstein supports Ukraine and wants to sing in Kyiv
By the way, Ramstein clearly positioned himself in the Ukraine war: the troupe, which has a huge fan base in Russia, canceled planned concerts there – they want to continue performing in Kyiv. Singer Till Lindemann is now auctioning his art for the second time in order to support people from Ukraine with proceeds.
The song “Zeit” is one of the band’s best songs
Rammstein is always surprisingly good at the quiet moments – and that might seem at odds with a brute provocative machine like Rammstein. In the song “Zeit”, boom and bluff melodies intertwine perfectly, and singer Till Lindemann, son of famous East German children’s book author Werner Lindemann and author of poetry books, shows he can do just that: touch with words.
One of the band’s best songs in the last 25 years. And also the album: As in the nostalgic review, the band delivers on everything that makes them special. Matching rumors that this eighth album could also be the last. Rammstein fans will love this album. The rest do not.
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