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Rating:
7.0 |
Rammstein - Reise, Reise
20 September 2004
01. Reise, Reise
02. Mein Teil
03. Dalai Lama
04. Keine Lust
05. Los
06. Amerika
07. Moskau [Feat. Viktoria Fersh]
08. Morgenstern
09. Stein Um Stein
10. Ohne Dich
11. Amour
With nervousness and anxiety, I went out from the disc store to my house as fast as possible, almost running across a sea of people by the pedestrian streets in downtown, and then waiting with desperation for a bus to take me home quickly to check my expected new acquisition. While finally in my room, I remove with trembling hands the plastic covering the CD, open it with strength and the disc finally finds its way to my player.
This introduction is based on a real story, and it was made just to show you how important was for me to have in my hands "Reise, Reise", the new Rammstein's release. These Germans, absolute masters of European industrial metal, had always amazed me so much not only with each album, but also with every single song, choir, riff and vocal work, that I didn't expected less than a truly masterpiece with their 4th studio production; that is why I was waiting for so long to this moment to come.
It is doubtless that these previous expectations had a lot to do with my deception after listening to the whole album. My confusion began since the opening track, named the same as the disc, which is far from being the explosive, punch-to-the-face song that uses to introduce each Rammstein's album. You're always expecting the great choir, something big to happen, so is really frustrating when that piece ends with the same boring mid-tempo with which began. Unfortunately, that will be a constant that is going to be present in almost every part of the disc. Drums are boring and monotone, keyboard saves some situations but doesn't make the difference and the riffs do their job, but just the necessary, being so predictable. There are not "bad" songs (with the exception of "Los", by far the worst in the band's career), but nothing extraordinary neither; some of them just carry out what we could expect from Rammstein and that is ok, titles like Mein Teil, Dalai Lama, Moskau or Ohne Dich are worth enough to own this album, but there's a strong sensation that the masterpiece we were waiting for is so far from here.
Another fact that could help us to understand the lack of confidence of the band about this album, is looking to Amerika, the first single. All it has to give us is an extremely catchy choir, I would bet that the "We are living in Amerika, Amerika ist wunderbar, we are living in Amerika, Amerika, Amerika" will buzz around your brain for a long, long time. The real plus of this song is based just on its political content, which uses the over-abused idea of anti-Americanism, that is becoming a "political correct" trend all over the world outside the US.
A mention apart deserves Moskau, which is a rather strange experiment. Mixing normal German singing with female vocals in Russian, creates a kind of musical dialogue which is more funny than good. By the way, I am sure it is one of the worst feminine voices I had ever heard, but the track is absolutely worth to hear and is by far the most original song this album contains.
And what about the ballads? It is difficult to imagine a Rammstein's disc without at least one of them, and this is surely not the exception. The last three songs in Reise, Reise are ballads, being the most remarkable Ohne Dich. They are beautiful, atmospheric and really sad and depressive. As I consider myself a die-hard fan of industrial slow songs, I enjoyed them a lot, although non of them reaches the level of Mutter or Seemann.
It is difficult to write a conclusion about this album; is not a bad one at all, but is impossible to make a review of a band without of a context. If this were the first Rammstein's album I listen too, I would surely feel interested for the band, but is undeniable that is the worst (or least good) release of these guys, and always hurts when a beloved band gives you so
much less than you would expect.
written by Iconoclasta | 31.10.2004 |
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
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Guest review byBas
Rating:
8.8
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Reise Reise... yeah I really was terribly unimpressed the first time I heard this release. I wasn't much of a Rammstein fan anyway, liking some of their heaviest songs but further thinking of them as a boring and average industrial metal band. Now I think differently.
After a comment by a friend of mine made me listen to Rammstein's lyrics more closely I was greatly impressed. Yes, in my opinion lyrics are the main thing that Rammstein gives us. Be it the social-critical Amerika or the cannibalistic Mein Teil or Dalai Lama, a modern remake of Goethe's world famous "erlkönig" (erlking) in which the father squeezes his son to death out of fear for his child's life, or Morgenstern which shows a lot of similarities to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The lyrics are simply brilliant. Like on all other albums the songs are filled with brilliant metaphors and every single song can be listened to with two or three different meanings. Like always the lyrics are about modern decadence, violence and sex. Listening to the lyrics will unfortunately be very difficult for non-native German speakers though. Because a lot of the lines are parables and idioms. For anyone who speaks very good German I greatly recommend Rammstein for the lyrics alone though.
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| published 03.12.2006 | Comments (17)
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Carrion - 01.05.2007 at 16:30
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| ""Los", by far the worst in the band's career"... It is quite boring on the record, but it's one of the best live tracks of Rammstein. |
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| Los would work as an interlude, if it wasn't as long as it is. Anyway, other than that I found this album to be very enjoyable, and really on pair with Rammstein's others. It's catchy as fuck, even though you don't understand a word of what the vocalist is saying, and they really kept their industrial-ish sound. Great work, I was definitely not dissapointed with this. Kein Lust and Ohne Dich are my favourite songs. Check out all their videos, as they are amazing, as usual. Great review btw, even if I'd rate it higher. |
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| it is strange but i like especially this album (almost all tracks) and the other "better ones" not...or "i like" - i liked about year or two ago, now i´m not listening to them anymore... |
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| This is the only Rammstein album I had the slightest interest in, and even then it has alot of filler IMO. Appropriate rating and good review. |
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| I wasn't expecting anything superb, but it turned out to be. By far my favourite album of theirs. Not a dull moment in my opinion |
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JeffreyAgente - 22.04.2011 at 00:25
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| I like this album! It's have the best rammstein track : "reise, reise". |
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