RAMMSTEIN: Mutter (INDUSTRIAL METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Endowed with an excellent stage reputation and a beginning of commercial recognition in Europe, Rammstein releases in 2001 its 3rd album which should normally seal its commercial and artistic triumph. A quick glance at the cover, a fetus that seems to be dead floating in a liquid similar to formalin, leads us to believe that the band seems to have difficulty in getting rid of the recipes largely based on provocation that made its success so far. Although the band indicates to have chosen this illustration for aesthetic reasons and to refer to the titles "Mutter" and "Spielhur", it would be very surprising if these communication professionals did not act in this way voluntarily.

On the musical level, the band has clearly changed division, especially in terms of maturity. Whereas until now Rammstein produced songs whose key word was efficiency (martial rhythms, catchy choruses, simple and overpowering riffs), with 'Mutter' we discover a band capable of much more subtleties than its image would have let us expect.

If the power and the simplicity are still in place, as "Feuer Frei", "Zwitter", "Rein Raus" and "Adios" can testify, appear here and there sonorities and arrangements much more varied and loaded in emotions. Thus, melancholy, a feeling almost absent from their first two albums, is here the subject of a much stronger exposition, as in the title "Mutter" (mother) which depicts the feeling of a test-tube baby deprived of father and mother. Poetry is also in the spotlight with the almost doom "Nebel" (mist / fog).

Many texts are also more worked than in the past, whether it is "Allelujah" (bonus track from the Resident Evil soundtrack) or "Mein Herz Brennt (my heart burns), which is a digression on the story of the Sandman (the demo of this track is called "Sandman"), or "Mutter" whose lyrics are a tangle of distress and anger.

On two songs, the band reacts to accusations they have been subjected to. Firstly to justify themselves, with "Links 234" (Left 234), in which they try to clear themselves of the "fascist" image that sticks to them (vocals in German, martial music, body worship ...) but also by playing the card of provocation with "Feuer Frei! "(fire at will), which is a violent reaction to the accusations that the group has been subjected to following the statements of the two teenagers behind the Columbine massacre in 1999, who said they were fans (among others) of Rammstein.

Beyond the lyrics, inaccessible to most of us, it is thus on the level of the arrangements that the band progressed. Whether it is through the superb choirs of "Sonne", the magnificent chorus of "Ich Will", or the symphonic arrangements of "Mutter", we have the confirmation that Rammstein is now a big name in music and not a fairground phenomenon anymore. - Official website

RAMMSTEIN

MUTTER

UNIVERSAL

INDUSTRIAL METAL