Rosenrot has always been an album of intrigue for me. It is much maligned among the fanbase as being the band's weakest offering, in spite of its album sales and chart positioning. The album has an uptick on softer songs, and was initially titled Reise, Reise Pt2 due to half of the songs coming from the prior recording session. A lot of fans consider it to be mostly leftovers, and the band themselves consider the album to have been rushed, but for me it was the first album that was "new" when I started listening to them, and was therefor heavily relevant to what I was going through in my life at the time.
Regardless of how you perceive it, Rosenrot was released in 2005, and the band went on hiatus after releasing it rather than touring to promote.
Rammstein - Rosenrot
11. Feuer und Wasser
If Adios isn't the worst Rammstein song, then it has to be Feuer und Wasser (Fire and Water). I don't even know what they were trying to accomplish musically. An all-time clunker, for sure.
10. Spring
Spring (Jump) isn't much far behind Feuer on the crap scale, though. I've always wondered if this was just a demo that got thrown together quickly due to the recording sessions being rushed. The keys do very little to boost the song, and while the guitars are heavily down-tuned, it is only the story that saves Spring. A man climbs to the top of a bridge to view the water, and a crowd, thinking him to be suicidal, urges him to jump and eventually pushes him off. Yeah, these dudes are fucked up. Lol
9. Ein Lied
The album ends with Ein Lied (A Song), easily the least heavy offering in the entire catalogue. There is a singular acoustic guitar, percussive tapping, and wailing keys peppered in. The song seems to be an homage to the fans of the band, with the line "Immer wenn ihr traurig seid, Spielen wir für euch" feeling extremely melancholy and uplifting at the same time. I don't really think it's a bad song, but if you're looking for some R+ grit, it's just not there.
8. Benzin
Benzin (Petrol/Gasoline) is the lead single and kicks off the record with a bang. Till Lindemann sings about how he doesn't need all the other vices of the world, just give him some fuel to burn with. What could be more Rammstein than that?! It's a big time workout jam that'll get your heart racing double time.
7. Stirb nicht vor mir (Don't die before I do)
On the flip side, you have Stirb nicht vor mir (Don't die before I do). I think this song caught everyone (myself included) off guard, with Sharleen Spiteri (from the universally successful Scottish band Texas) singing English lyrics to counter Till's German serenade. I've heard that the other band members were disappointed that they didn't bring back German singer Bobo for the song, electing to appease the American fans of the band. As it stands, it's my default mellow Rammstein tune, and got me through a very difficult breakup a few years after high school. For as great of a growl and scream singer as he is, Till can absolutely blast out some ballads.
6. Te quiero puta!
Of all the controversial and bizarre offerings R+ has put forth, Te quiero puta! (I love you, whore!) is exactly what you'd expect from a lyrical standpoint, with amusing innuendos and aggresive sexual phrasing. It's just that the song is sung entirely in Spanish and features a mariachi-esque trumpet throughout. But at its heart it is 100% Rammstein, and I think any bickering otherwise is simply posturing. The lead riff is explosive and the horns kick the entire song up a notch. This album doesn't have much in between the ballads and the blasters.
5. Mann gegen Mann
From the moment Ollie Riedel's bass comes in, you know you're about to be treated with a massive rocker. Mann gegen Mann (Man against Man) is a song about male homosexuality, with a greasy, dirty video to go with it. It's about as controversial as Rammstein gets, and the band deftly dances around the topic without making it political or taking a stance. The line "Gleich und gleich gesellt sich gern" makes me laugh so hard every time I hear it. But in reality, every single band member gives their all on this one, and it was a worthy single to feed the masses.
4. Zerstören
Another brutal assault, Zerstören (Destroy) is simply about, well, destroying things. Obliterating everything in your path. Well, maybe not everything... the chorus line "Doch es darf nicht mir gehören" translates to "but only if it does not belong to me". You get the point, and Till drives it home spending the last minute of heaviness listing different ways to destroy things. Ollie's bass perfectly complements the crunchy guitars from Paul Landers and Richard Z Kruspe on this one, punctuated by a screaming solo before the bridge. A soft poem is read at the end to bring the listener back to Earth.
3. Rosenrot
The title track from the record, Rosenrot (Rose Red) is adapted from German poetry and Brothers Grimm stories, creating a beautiful and tragic song about two young lovers, one of whom perishes trying to fetch a rose for his love. When this album was first released, I listened to this song over and over again. It's sad, it's exciting, and it's wonderfully poetic. It was initially slated to be the first single on Reise, Reise before the band scrapped it and threw it on an entirely different record all together. That's ballsy but I think it paid off as the cornerstone for this record.
2. Hilf mir
The album opens with pyromania and finds it's way back to the flames in Hilf mir (Help me), a story about a child who is obsessed with fire to the point that they eventually immolate themselves. The tune alternates from soft to heavy, as Till tells the story from a first-person point of view. Every time I hear the opening wail of the guitars, I am ready to roll. The chorus of "Das Feuer liebt mich, Das Feuer liebt mich nicht" is a perfect example of the regret the child feels as they perish and scream for help, despite knowing that they are all alone. What a ripper. It's a different type of heaviness from Mann gegen Mann and Zerstoren, but it works all the same.
1. Wo bist du
Is Wo bist du (Where are you?) the best of all Rammstein tracks? There's a definite argument that it may be one of the most emotional, but it certainly isn't the heaviest or the most clever. Is is beautifully done and features a tear-jerking keyboard solo from Flake after the bridge. From a personal standpoint, it easily cuts the deepest of any R+ song, due to the discovery of infidelity between my parents shortly after the album was released. I played this one over and over and over again, and it has carried me through several different difficult seasons. The keys in this song are simply majestic as Till sings about being horribly alone and unable to find solace. The song definitely wouldn't be as big as it is without the keyboard solo - huge props to Flake there.
Alright, well that's 5 of the first six, with one 2009's Liebe ist fur alle da left. If you have any thoughts, feel free to comment or discuss!
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