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Rammstein brings on the flamethrowers during Feuer Frei! - Globe Arena, Stockholm, 18 November 2004.
The band's members all come from the former East Germany, specifically East Berlin and Schwerin. They are:
Riedel, Schneider and Kruspe were the original founders of Rammstein, following an attempt by the latter to compose American-influenced music with a West Berlin band called Orgasm Death Gimmicks. As Kruspe put it, "I realized it's really important to make music and make it fit with your language, which I didn't do in the past. I came back [to Germany] and said, 'It's time to make music that's really authentic.' I was starting a project called Rammstein to really try to make German music." He invited Till Lindemann, a basket weaver and drummer for the band First Arsch, to join the project as a vocalist. The four entered a contest for new bands and won, attracting the interest of Paul H. Landers, who knew them all and decided to join the band. Christian "Flake" Lorenz was the last member to join; he had played with Landers before in the band Feeling B and was initially reluctant to come on board, but was eventually persuaded to join. Their first album was released a year later. They have been nominated for two Best Metal Performance Grammy Awards: in 1999 with the song "Du hast" and in 2005 with the song "Mein Teil".
Although Rammstein is often generalized as
industrial metal or — especially in Germany —
as
Neue Deutsche Härte (N
ew
German hardness),
its music spans a variety of related styles, including
German
hard rock and
heavy metal. The band was strongly influenced
by
Laibach, a
Slovenian
neo-classical and
industrial group. Other influences include
DAF (Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft),
Oomph! and
Ministry, but the contrast between
individual songs such as "Bestrafe mich", "Ohne
dich" and "Te
quiero puta!" makes the band difficult to classify.
Richard Zven Kruspe, guitarist and founder.
Rammstein's style has tended to divide critics, some of
whom have responded with memorably dismissive comments. Jam Showbiz
(April 2001) described
Mutter as "music to invade
Poland to."
New Zealand's Southland Times (Dec. 17,
1999) suggested that Till Lindemann's "booming, sub-sonic voice" would send "the
peasants fleeing into their barns and bolting their doors." The
New York Times (Jan. 9, 2005) commented that on
the stage, "Mr. Lindemann gave off an air of such brute masculinity and barely
contained violence that it seemed that he could have reached into the crowd,
snatched up a fan, and bitten off his head." Other critics have been more
positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of
All Music Guide commented that "their blend
of industrial noise, grinding metal guitars, and operatic vocals is staggeringly
powerful"[2].
"We just push boundaries," said Till Lindemann in an interview with rock
magazine
Kerrang!. "We can't help it if people don't
like those boundaries being pushed."
Despite Rammstein's brutalist image, many of its songs lyrics demonstrate a certain sense of humour. "Zwitter", for example, is a bizarre take on narcissism (and bisexuality) through the persona of a hermaphrodite:
Similarly, the song "Amerika" features a tongue-in-cheek adaptation of the normal chorus:
Some of their songs show unexpected influences. "Dalai Lama" is an adaptation of the famous poem Der Erlkönig by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. "Hilf mir" was inspired by the short story "Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug" (from "Der Struwwelpeter") by Heinrich Hoffmann. "Rosenrot" is inspired by the poem "Heideröslein" by Goethe and the story "Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot".
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