RAMMSTEIN – Rosenrot

When Rammstein put together new tracks for the album Reise, Reise, they found themselves with an overabundance of material and the decision of whether or not to release a double album at that time. In the end, it appears the best songs were put on the fast track towards completion and were included on Reise, Reise, while the songs comprising the flotsam and jetsam that didn’t make the cut in 2004 were left in an unpolished state, to be revisited at a later date.

Historically, whenever a band breaks a newsflash that they are going to do their fans “a favor” and release an album filled with a bunch of tracks that didn’t make it on a recent album (for whatever reason), it usually spells trouble. However, Rammstein, as a result of producing 4 very high quality studio albums, certainly makes one initially think that even their “leftovers” could still render bone-crushing, musical magic … sadly, this is not the case in their 2005 Rosenrot release.

Rammstein became one of the more popular bands in all of Europe, and developed a fairly strong “underground” following in North America, largely because their brand of incredibly well-produced Industrial/Techno Metal has had a thickness and aggression to it unlike anything offered by any other band in the past or currently. Now, you can’t impetuously slam a piece of work by a band just because it’s different than anything they have done in the past, regardless of how successful past efforts may have been … after all, bands “mature,” and it stands to reason that eventually songwriters will want to branch out into new directions to convey new passions and the desire for experimentation. Yes, fans should indeed expect change to happen sooner or later, but bands, regardless of the new direction taken, should still place delivering top quality material as the paramount goal.

Rosenrot, originally almost entitled Reise, Reise II, indeed marks a significant change by Rammstein. Most of the songs on this album are slow to mid-tempo, and although more than half of them have periods of those trademark “sledgehammer-hitting-skull” powerchords, they are few and far between … almost like an obligatory teaser vs. a main component of their music within this album. Instead, Rammstein has opted to create a sedate and “sad” aura within most of the songs on Rosenrot, focusing more on the lyrical passages than on the music as a general rule. That’s essentially the biggest mistake on Rosenrot … Rammstein, as you certainly know if you’re at all familiar with the band, sings largely in their native German tongue. Vocally, there has never been any real talent in past efforts, but the band should be commended and admired for taking a crack at being successful (and accomplishing that goal) without conforming to the customary thought process that to get noticed, a band has to write/sing in English. Nope, Rammstein has done it their way, and their gutturally uttered German lyrics have in fact always complemented their brash form of Metal incredibly well. But, when you strip off the brashness, when you consistently slow down the tempo, and when you shave off much of the aggressiveness inherent in much of Rammstein’s past music, the vocal ineptitude simply prevents the band from delivering a high quality product that can be listened to consistently.

Although nowhere near the quality of their first 4 studio efforts, Rosenrot does possess a few highlights. The 9th track, “Te Quiero Puta!,” sung in Spanish with a few horny damsels of the evening brought in for shits and giggles, is a fun, if not comical, track with some cool use of Spanish “bullfighter” trumpets. Track 7, “Zerstoren,” has many of the elements of previous Rammstein works, and although there are a ton of lyrics included in this song too, this one is good enough to have made it on any prior Rammstein album. Lastly, the opening tracks, “Benzin” and “Mann Gegen Mann,” do display some of the aggression Rammstein fans have grown to love and appreciate, but the total all-around quality of these tracks still falls short.

Rammstein have a large contingent of loyal fans out there who will undoubtedly buy this album out of devotion to the band, likely causing impressive sales figures out of the shoot … but don’t be fooled, this one is far from a masterpiece … actually, it’s not even an “average” album. Rammstein has indeed delivered some incredible music in the past, but you’ll be able to tell pretty quickly why the lion’s share of these tracks on Rosenrot didn’t make Reise, Reise on the first go-around.