Album Review: Rammstein – Zeit (Spinefarm Records)
On April 29, the album of the German industrial metal band Rammstein called “Zeit” was released. The new long-play came out unexpectedly, as the impressions from the previous album are still fresh. This is the second Rammstein album in three years – before that, there were no releases for 10 years. The album shouldn’t come out so soon, but the Covid pandemic has corrected musicians’ plans. Because of limitations with moving around the world, Rammstein used the lock down time to think up something new and recorded a new album. Musicians always keep their mark and do not tolerate compromises. Everyone remembers the story from the last album when the group did not like one of the clips and it simply was not released. That’s why the band’s concerts still gather stadiums, critics discuss the lyrics, and bloggers continue to buy TikTok followers, ads increasing the news noise around the musicians.
The new album “Zeit”
The album opens with the single “Armee der Tristen”, where the key call is to join to be sad together. “Zeit” is one of the philosophical works of Rammstein, so the mood of the first song will be felt during listening to the whole album.
“Zeit” is a sad song about the eternal problem of the impossibility of stopping and being saturated by time, which runs faster than human life. The song also touches on the inevitability of events that happen to a man. In the music video, Moirae, the goddesses of destiny, are present: one gives the thread to life’s beginning, the second determines its meaning, and the third decides when to cut it. A fragile human life can be cut short both at war or in the middle of a peaceful day and at a young age. In the new clip, there are scenes of war, which now we all observe in the chronicle of terrible events in Ukraine that resists aggression from the Russian government. All band members have friends, colleagues, partners, and fans in both countries. Rammstein’s vocalist with his band mates openly opposed the war and expressed support for Ukraine.
The song “Zick Zack” is an irony on the standards of modern beauty: silicone, Botox, plastic surgery. Here, the older generation, corresponding to the age of the musicians is mocked. A music video for the song was released and became the center of discussion for many Influencers. As a rule, opinion leaders, to increase their ratings, constantly invest in promotion, buy followers on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, advertising integration, and further highlight the work of musicians for their devoted fans.
Rammstein has the strongest and most distinct personality of any metal band. All points of contact of their sound are present: from grinding guitars to low vocals. In terms of instrumentation almost all the works of the album are filled with calm melody with elements of powerful riffs, except “Zick Zack”. This song from the very beginning to the end sounds solid, noisy, with an abundance of guitars, synthesizers, and it has no melancholy. Rammstein complemented their three songs with beautiful music videos with a deep sense, with certain mockery of vices of society and raising the problems of modernity.
The last song is like a farewell
The album “Zeit” also points farewell to perhaps the greatest German band of all time. The band’s statements had already indicated this during their last release. With the last song of the album, “Adieu”, Rammstein would present a perfect final chord.
Before making the album, Rammstein founder Richard Kruspe fell into depression. The last tour was the biggest in the history of their band. So when he came back home, he was thinking to finish with the music, because he didn’t see any sense in it. The musician says that if you’re not getting help from the outside, you’ve got to go deep into thinking about yourself, into your memories, into the past. So, he came across all the old songs and ideas and looked at them anew. They helped the musician return to the present so that he could look again into the future.
As a result, we got quite a calm, philosophical album without action style but with bouncy rhythms and hooligan antics. The musicians write songs that reflect their current state and do not hesitate to be brutal. In this way, they continue to please their fans and do it from the heart.
