Album of the Week #38 - Rammstein - Mutter

Karl Hungus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfHlA3fmJG0

projectmayhem

genius album. every single song is worth a video/single release. no filler album.

liked rammstein from the time i heard "du reich so gut" and this was the first time they had a beefy, produced sound. i still think it's better then "reise, reise"...

gucci

A proper rocking/stomping album! The fact that a group singing in German can be so successful and sell so well is a tribute to their music and their stage personas. I have to admit this is the only Rammstein album i bought, and I think it is definetly when they peaked in my opinion. (have some other songs through friends!) Would love to have seen them live back in the day!

buck65

no way

djScarey

Yeah, great album, by far their best to date. More guts than theatre back then. Seemingly on a decent material downward spiral.

Mr. CooL ICE

Great band, great album. This is the only album of theirs I own, and jeebus only knows why I don't have more of their stuff

senordingdong

They really are fantastic.

For me Reise, Reise wins out, but this is an amazing album.
Not the first time I heard Rammstein but the first time I felt compelled to buy one of their albums. Ich Will is what got my attention, a cracking and provocative video.
I now have all the albums and have even been to see them live.
They had a huge impact on me and how I feel about music.

Anybody who laughs at them or judges them based on superficial things are only denying themselves an amazing experience.

adox

Their best album imo. Theres a brutality to the riffs that makes the thing compulsive.

Parsley

Finally! :pac:

One of the first metal albums I got, and still one of my favourites.

GLaDOS

Brilliant album! As project Mayhem said, no filler

Raze_them_all

Wasn't this the theme for kerrang when kerrang actually used to play half way decent music ( as in not MCR and **** like that)

judas101

Great great record.

Love Sonne especially.

The only bad thing about it I'll say is that the lyrics are absolute ****e. (german speaker)


If anyone wants a laugh type in "Rammstein Tier lyrics english" into google.

Thats a strange song (not on mutter but still)

Pugsley

Great album but I always preferred 'Reise, Reise'.

Nea

Oh Yeah.
Amazing album, its what really got me into Rammstein.
I will never get sick of Ich Will.

Reise Reise does just edge it for me but love the rawness of Herzeleid.
Hope on their next tour they will get an outdoor gig here but will travel to see them anyway!

shnaek

Nea wrote: »

I will never get sick of Ich Will.

Hear hear. Great album.

projectmayhem

judas101 wrote: »

Great great record.

Love Sonne especially.

The only bad thing about it I'll say is that the lyrics are absolute ****e. (german speaker)


If anyone wants a laugh type in "Rammstein Tier lyrics english" into google.

Thats a strange song (not on mutter but still)

in secondary school, i tried to get my school to do german instead of french, but there wasn't enough interest in the class to allocate a teacher for it. so i decided to try and learn it myself... and used rammstein lyrics, some books and watched bundesliga games to try and pick up the language.

i've never experienced such terrifically terrible lyrics then those contained in rammstein's songs. still though, if you're blissfully ignorant they're great as an instrument piece

djScarey

Ask any German, most Rammstein songs are satirical, containing numerous German "in" wordplays and subtleties far too clever for the foreign translator.

projectmayhem

djScarey wrote: »

Ask any German, most Rammstein songs are satirical, containing numerous German "in" wordplays and subtleties far too clever for the foreign translator.

i've got a crapload of german family (actual born-in-germany stuff with mad names etc.) and they would tend to agree that rammstein is horrible lyrically.

djScarey

Well, I don't know shedloads of Germans, but I do know some. :rolleyes: They find Rammstein sarcastic and witty. Presumably, you have some way of reconciling the band's obvious intelligence with some kind of lyrical stupidity.

And presumably your German relations derive from the same school of thought as the Koln-Munchen West German conservative media mafia who initially declared Rammstein as Neu-Nazis, before finally getting it.

projectmayhem

djScarey wrote: »

Well, I don't know shedloads of Germans, but I do know some. :rolleyes: They find Rammstein sarcastic and witty. Presumably, you have some way of reconciling the band's obvious intelligence with some kind of lyrical stupidity.

And presumably your German relations derive from the same school of thought as the Koln-Munchen West German conservative media mafia who initially declared Rammstein as Neu-Nazis, before finally getting it.

feuer frei! wrote:

Whoever knows pain becomes criticized
from the fire that burned up the skin
I throw a light
in my face
A hot cry
fire

Bang bang

Whoever knows pain is raised
from the fire that burns in desire
A sparking thrust
into her womb
A hot cry
fire

Bang bang
Fire at will!

Whoever knows pain is dangerous
from the fire that burns the soul
Bang bang
The burned child is dangerous
with fire that separates from the life
A hot cry
Bang bang
Fire

Your happiness
is not my happiness
it is my misery

Bang bang
Fire

rough translation... but yeah, i get what you mean. you're right. their songs just ooze wit and intelligence, but i'm just too dumb to get it. and it's obviously hereditary, as my born-and-bred german family don't get "it", maaaan.

before you rant at me... i love rammstein. they've always been one of my favourite bands. my german family who know who rammstein are, also love rammstein. they're fantastic... but i'm not going to convince myself or be convinced of some sort of underlying lyrical genius that lies within each song they've written.

djScarey

Your translation certainly helped me to understand your point and made me smile. A dictionary and XxX fire obsession influence, perhaps?? You might e-mail your relations and ask them has the song anything to do with being raped and consequently committing suicide from the pain. Oh and the song rhymes (in German) too, a very easy skill for most song-writers and translators.

projectmayhem

djScarey wrote: »

XxX fire obsession

djScarey wrote: »

You might e-mail your relations and ask them has the song anything to do with being raped and consequently committing suicide from the pain. Oh and the song rhymes (in German) too, a very easy skill for most song-writers and translators.

i don't think you're getting my point here. i'm not talking about rammsteins ability to tackle subject matter and write about them... or the ability for till and co. to write catchy, rhyming songs. i'm just saying the actual execution of the lyrics is ****e.

great, till wrote a song about rape/suicide. good for him. it still doesn't make him a good songwriter.

djScarey

In relation to the XxX reference, your Feuer Frei translation I've seen on websites and appears to have been influenced and themed with reference to that film (opening sequence), rather than objectively.

Rammstein lyrics, I agree won't shake the earth like Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen maybe have, but they provide far more current social and political commentary than the usual metal fantasy satanic/ viking/ love stuff.

Like yourself, I know some German and indeed Germans. Your critique of their lyrics doesn't seem to wash over there. Most have a problem interpreting them but stop far short of deriding them.

Undergod

No, that's a pretty decent translation. I quite like their lyrics, I think the wordplay can be quite witty, but not being a native German speaker I guess I'm not the best one to judge.

I love this album, it's just deadly, every song is a cracker.

senordingdong

projectmayhem wrote: »

i don't think you're getting my point here. i'm not talking about rammsteins ability to tackle subject matter and write about them... or the ability for till and co. to write catchy, rhyming songs. i'm just saying the actual execution of the lyrics is ****e.

great, till wrote a song about rape/suicide. good for him. it still doesn't make him a good songwriter.

Just because the lyrics don't make sense in English doesn't mean they don't make sense in German.

I think U2s lyrics are ****e....they just don't make sense.

projectmayhem

senordingdong wrote: »

Just because the lyrics don't make sense in English doesn't mean they don't make sense in German.

I think U2s lyrics are ****e....they just don't make sense.

this is why i brought up people who do know german. u2 is a good example, as is coldplay et al. their lyrics are inane and useless...

senordingdong

Exactly, so people would say, 'I didn't udnerdstand their lyrics so I had my German learned friend translate them...and they were teh wacky! LOL!!!!111111'

And suddenly these people forget that just about every band has 'wacky' ambigious lyrics.

the_syco

judas101 wrote: »

The only bad thing about it I'll say is that the lyrics are absolute ****e. (german speaker)

I think they are more popular in the English speaking world, than they are in Germany... and that says a lot:pac:

senordingdong

the_syco wrote: »

I think they are more popular in the English speaking world, than they are in Germany... and that says a lot:pac:

I don't think that for a second....since they sold out the Wulheide arena four nights in a row...and that was just Berlin.
And what exactly do you mean by the English speaking world? Britain, Ireland, America and Australia?

djScarey

Quite right senordingdong. That Berlin fourgig sellout would not happen in any English speaking city. Rammstein's earlier releases all hit high in the German charts, Herzeleid and Sehnsucht eg selling over 500,000 in the German market and Live aus Berlin going straight in at No. 1, long before MTV attracted the English-speaking pop-rocksters. Rammstein have been doing sell-out tours in Germany as headliners since 1997.