Rammstein Ranker - Liebe ist für alle da

Liebe ist für alle da signaled a return for the German titans, after a 5 years hiatus where the band almost self-destructed. Fortunately (for all of us fans) they found a way to get along and operate as a six-headed monster, and found their back to recording a new record.

On this offering, the band kicked their absurdity to a new level, premiering the first single on a porn site and offering a deluxe bonus edition of the record with fuzzy handcuffs and dildos molded after each member and their genitalia. The album's booklet also features a lot of graphic and gruesome scenes, with a heavy lean towards nudity. The album was released in 2009 and was the band's last disc before an extended period of inactivity.

 

 

 

 

Rammstein -  Liebe ist für alle da

 

11. Wiener Blut

Okay, I lied on the last ranking. Wiener Blut (Viennese Blood) is absolutely the worst Rammstein song. There are absolutely zero redeeming musical qualities, and the fact that the story it is based around is true makes it even more horrifying.

10. Pussy

What do you do after disappearing from the map for 4+ years? You write a lead single that alternates between German and English lyrics, specially about sex. A lot of what R+ do is specifically for shock value, and making a video that had to be released on a porn site... because it's straight up porn. I dunno, even if the lyrics were totally in German, I don't think they could've ironed the cheese out on this one. Musically, it rollicks along as if it is not supposed to be taken seriously, which makes it even more amusing as a single.

9. Roter Sand

Roter Sand (Red Sand) is a lovely song that opens with singer Till Lindemann whistling before he sings about two lovers who have an old-fashioned pistol duel for a woman. The unnamed woman loves the protagonist more, but he is not quick enough and perishes. It's fairly bland other than the great lyrical work, otherwise. Sometimes their softer songs hit the mark, and sometimes they fall a little short.

8. Haifisch

Haifisch (Shark) is an interesting song, because it seems to be about the members of Rammstein and their love for each other as well as the fans, It's kind of a follow up to Ein Lied in that regard, and was released as the last single on the record. It has an upbeat mix of Flake Lorenz' keys and Christoph Schneider's pounding snare and tom work and is well strung together, if not standing out against the rest of the record.  The video is a hat-tip to all of their previous work as well, with Till's mysterious death being shown committed by different members in scenes from old music videos.

7. B********

What would a Rammstein record be without confusing lyrics that can be translated or twisted into several different meanings? B********, or Bückstabü is never explicitly spelled out in any translation, and any time they are asked the band members say it can mean whatever you want it to mean. The lyrics are wholly ambiguous too - could be about sex, could be about anything you want it to be. The guitars are blistering and the song punches hard, so I guess take it for whatever you want?

6. Liebe ist für alle da

Christoph's drums immediately announce that you're about to go through a thrill ride on Liebe ist für alle da (Love is there for all), and with the strings joining in, you're pushed into a tidal wave of aggression and might. Curiously, it's the only album title that is more than 2 words (in fact, Reise, Reise is the only other album title that is more than 1), but this album is a little short on single word titles. Like many songs, this one is about longing for a sexual encounter with a woman, in which the protagonist dreams up a rape fantasy. I'm not sure how the band keeps making this lyrical plot device stick, but if they keep writing songs that hit this hard, I'm sure they can keep doing whatever they want!

 

5. Ich tu der weh

Easily the most controversial of the songs on this record, Ich tu der weh (I hurt you) is about S+M, plain and simple. Even the opening guitar riff feels like a whip cracking against willing skin. The line "Du liebst mich denn ich lieb dich nicht" obviously points to a master and servant relationship, and the lyrical content led to the song being banned in Germany. The group had to release a version of the album with this song omitted to make up for the fact that they were placed on the naughty list. The song itself is outstanding from a sonic standpoint, with Flake's keys shining brightest and the guitar work mirroring several songs from the Herzeleid/Sehnsucht era.

4. Mehr

I was honestly surprised when I pulled up Spotify and saw that Mehr (More) was one of Rammstein's least streamed songs. The song speaks of the singer's desire for excess in every aspect of his life, with a chorus that calls back to the bands earlier days of belting out the same word over and over again. The chorus guitars are crunchy and punchy, and Flake's keys help carry the song to completion. It's really just a solid song top to bottom, with a lot of different riffs and timing patterns thrown together to make another banger.

3. Rammlied

I don't think I've ever seen a band that likes to make up words as much as Rammstein does. Rammlied literally translates into "Ramm-song", and the band again uses it to incorporate their name into their lyrics. That's what, the 5th or 6th song to do so? They're giving KMFDM a run for their money in that regard. Anyways, Rammlied is about how the band is back - didja miss em?! That's pretty much it. "Wenn die Freude traurig macht, Keine Sterne in der Nacht, Bist du einsam und allein, Wir sind hier schalte ein" is one of my favorite verses in any R+ song. The guitars blend into the synths and the song feels like it wouldn't be out of place on any Rammstein record or live show. A truly titanic anthem about, well, themselves!

2. Waidmanns Heil

Waidmanns Heil (Hunter's Greeting, or Good Hunting) is one of those songs where you're immediately transported to a better place the moment the music starts. That faux bugle horn at the beginning immediately gets me jacked, and Till screaming "Die Kreatur muss sterben!" only serves to ramp the adrenaline level to 10. It's another one of those classic R+ tracks that just sounds and feels big. Lyrically, it could be thought of as a song about hunting for wild animals, or for a potential mate. I was honestly kind of surprised that this one never made it as a single, because it hits as hard as anything they've ever released.

1. Frühling in Paris

Well, I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that my favorite song off of this disc is another beautiful one. Seemann, Mein Herz brennt, Wo bist du, and almost Engel. Somehow the band is equally skilled in throwing massive hammers and blasting out tremendous ballads. Like Wo bist du, Frühling in Paris (Springtime in Paris) has a screaming keyboard solo from Flake that helps to cement the song together. Driving acoustic guitar, hard-hitting snare and a sneaky bass-line that you might not notice on the first listen. It's just a fantastic song and was immediately my favorite when the album first dropped. Till speaks of a fling in Paris on this one - fairly straightforward without any of the usual R+ frills. Just another beautiful one with a soaring chorus and fantastic wordplay.

 

 

Well, that's about it. I wanted to do the first six albums because I've had over a decade with each of them, whereas the newest records were released in the last 3 years. I honestly haven't listened to the untitled record in the last year - I spun it so much after it came out that I needed a break. If I had to rank the albums, it would probably go like this:

6. Liebe ist für alle da

5. Herzeleid

4. Sehnsucht

3. Rosenrot

2. Mutter

1. Reise, Reise
 

The bottom half of LIFAD is just too weak to balance out the stronger songs, whereas Herzeleid is just more timeless at its peak. Sehnsucht has a load of good songs, but the big ones on Rosenrot just feel better. Mutter... well, what can be said? The fact that they followed it with Reise, Reise is incredible - how do you pack that much good music into such a short amount of time?

Anyways, thanks for following along if you took the time to read these. Below a link to each album's power ranking breakdown. If you don't already... have a good one!

Herzeleid

Sehnsucht

Mutter 

Reise, Reise

Rosenrot 

Rammstein Ranker - Rosenrot

 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!

Rammstein Ranker - Reise, Reise

 Well, we've reached the impossible. Reise, Reise is easily one of my all-time favorite records, with absolute bangers from top to bottom. When examining the tracklist before writing this, I found myself at odds within on how to properly rank these songs. It's not that each of these songs are my favorite, but as a whole the album is just titanic. 

Reise, Reise was released in 2004, and just like the three albums prior, it exploded onto charts all over Europe and in the United States. The band actually had produced so many songs for this record that they were able to pick and choose what fit the "theme" of the record (specifically, the plane crash whose flight recorder is featured on the album cover) and push the rest to their next album, Rosenrot. To me, it gave the band the unique opportunity to be even more particular in what they wanted, and make the best possible record they could have.

 Mission accomplished.

Rammstein - Reise, Reise

 

 

11. Moskau

Moskau is a decent song musically, but it kind of plods on and lyrically does nothing for me. I do enjoy the dual vocals and the Russian singing, and among the 11th ranked songs this is easily the best one.  But, something had to be ranked at each position, 1 to 11.

 

10. Keine Lust

Keine Lust (No Desire/Don't feel like it) is one of the heaviest songs in the history of the band, especially up to this point. The music video is one of the most popular ones that the band has ever released, and Flake Lorenz' keyboard solo is perfectly placed and one of my favorites from him. The song has just never ever latched onto my eardrums as something to enjoy. I dunno. I hate to beat a dead horse, but something had to come at 10. It's not a bad song by any means.

 

9. Amerika

Younger me really thought Amerika was the jam. Coca-Cola, Wonderbra! English lyrics! Ripping bridge! Hilarious video! Anti-American capitalism sentiment! I dunno, musically is still resonates with the me who first found the band, but in hindsight it feels exceptionally gimmicky. I still bang my head pretty hard when singer Till Lindemann says "This is not a love song, I don't sing my mothers tongue", followed by another sparkling keyboard solo. It just doesn't hold up to the rest of the record.

 

8. Los

If there's one song that inevitably gets stuck in my head every time I listen to it, Los (-less) is that song. Great guitars, brilliant lyrics, catchy drums. It's one of those songs where each preceding line hits harder than the one before. Just brilliance from a song that, from the outside, is just an acoustic guitar and a basic drum. Surprise!

 

7. Ohne dich

Here comes Rammstein with their beautiful, string-driven songs again. It worked for Mein Herz brennt on Mutter, so the band decided to expand upon that with the ballad-esque Ohne dich (Without you). The chorus line of "Ohne dich kann ich nicht sein" hammers my heart into a thousand pieces any time I hear it. We've all been through loss and heartache, and this song brilliantly captures the pain and longing of lost love.

 

 6. Amour

The comparison of Amour (Love) being a wild animal that cannot be tamed hearkens back to several R+ songs from their band, but is most beautifully captured on this record. For a song that starts slow and solemn, the 2nd chorus build-up absolutely blasts this one into space. Haunting keys, a crushing outro, and Till's signature bellow bringing everything together on what is still just the 6th best song on this record. What? Madness.

 

5. Reise, Reise

The title track, which translates specifically in this song to Arise, Arise, is a call upon seaman to wake. More specifically on this track, it is time to rise and overthrow the captain! Ahoi! I love that so many German musical artists and bands use sea metaphors and topics to make their music. This song has pulsing keys that perfectly complement Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers' guitars throughout. On any other record this could easily be the best or second best song.

 

4. Stein um Stein

Even though most of the songs on this record are about some form of death and dying, none of them seem to be quite as dark as Stein um Stein (Stone by Stone). The early buildup, the anguished "STEIN" scream, and the vocal delivery throughout this one is some of Till's finest. My friend Frankie, who sings for local R+ tribute act FleischgewehR, once told me that this was one of his absolute favorites to sing, and I can see why. Pure brutality - singing about capturing and keeping a love interest trapped with you, even burying her alive so she cannot escape. Pure Rammstein, absolute brilliance.

 

3. Morgenstern

When I first listened to this record, it was Morgenstern (Morning star) that immediately jumped out to me as a favorite. Perhaps it was my own struggles with self confidence, perhaps it was Christoph Schneider's snare, who knows. This is another that just burrows into my brain and stays for days after I hear it. It's another one that is hard to describe, but I certainly love it dearly. It always leaves me wanting more, from the opening choral parts to the last words delivered.

 

2. Dalai Lama

I'm not even going to tell you how many times I've quoted the chorus line of "Weiter, weiter ins Verderben - Wir müssen leben bis wir sterben". I just remember being at work and having the guitar riff stuck in my head for days at a time, singing the chorus over and over again. It may not be one of their most popular tracks, but on any given day Dalai Lama might be my favorite song on the record. It is dark, dramatic, and also cinematic; you can almost see the story in your mind as they sing. While the song is specifically about the plane accident that the album is based on, the title reflects the current Tibetan Buddhist leader and his fear of flying.

 

1. Mein Teil 

Hey, look, you had to know this was gonna be the top song, right? Arguably the most messed up of all Rammstein stories, if you haven't read up on Armin Meiwes (and you have a strong stomach), by all means hit up the googles on that one. Like Mein Herz brennt before it, this song perfectly weaves synthesizers and keyboards with a rumbling bassline and crunching guitars. Till often dresses up in a bloody butchers uniform and "cooks" Flake during live performances of Mein Teil (My Part). It's gruesome and grotesque, and the type of song that only Rammstein could pull off. So of course it's my favorite on this record and perhaps of their entire catalogue, given the day and mood. I don't think I scream louder than on this song when FleischgewehR performs it here live.

 

 

I genuinely cannot believe I was able to break this one down. It took several days of listening and debating the merits of each song before I could give a concrete ranking for it. I do believe Rosenrot will be much easier. At least I hope so... haha. Hope you enjoyed it. Weiter, weiter!