Rammstein: Rammstein (untitled) album review

This is a sample 500-word album review.

Popular artists with established catalogues often face an ancient paradox with every new release. Make it too similar to what you’ve put out before and your fans will think you’ve gone stale. But deviate too far from what you’re known for, and you risk alienating them.

New albums from established artists are the embodiment of the old maxim that you can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but never everyone all the time — and the longer the wait between releases, the more pronounced this phenomenon appears to be.

Such was the weight of expectation about Rammstein’s latest untitled album (for the nit-pickers, the release is technically untitled, although it’s widely referred to as self-titled). In their 25-year career Rammstein have remained enormously influential on alternative music, yet somehow they've also captivated relatively mainstream audiences. More to the point, it’s been 10 years since the release of last studio album, the lukewarmly received Liebe ist für alle da. After all this time, there was one question above all hanging about this album: was it worth the wait?

The short answer is a resounding: yes.

My copy.

Quite simply, the new album is Rammstein doing what Rammstein do best, while throwing you enough curve balls to keep things interesting. For hardened fans, a couple of listens may have you reminiscing about the Mutter era, for the new album invokes the spirit of a time when Rammstein attained a superb balance between rock solid industrial metal and unexpected experimentation.

There are Teutonic stomping tunes aplenty here, like the successively released singles Deutschland, Radio and Ausländer. Then there’s the lurid groove on Sex and Was Ich Liebe, and the fist-banger that is Zeig Dich.

However, there are enough deviations from the template to keep things compelling. For instance, Rammstein have demonstrated on almost every album that they can do heart-rendingly mournful ballads, despite being typecast for machine-precision metal riffs, they’ve. That’s the case here with the Kraut rock-inspired Weit Weg — which incidentally, has one of the most brilliant (and yet laughably simple) synthesizer lines you’ll hear this year. Puppe meanwhile sees vocalist Till Lindemann adopt a disconcertingly savage snarl unheard of on previous releases, suggesting that his range has in fact improved over the decades.

The only questionable track is the riffless Diamant. Sounding suspiciously like it began life as a discarded intro, it goes for under three minutes, something which actually adds to the suspense preceding the next track.

As expected, the production is unmatched. The experimental elements (including a full national Belarussian choir on Zeig Dich) are all there but not overwhelming while the meat and potatoes heavy riffs are ever-present, but never stagnant.
Whether you’ve just discovered Rammstein or you’re a veteran fan, whether you’re a riff-loving head banger or a stomping rivet head, whether your wardrobe consists entirely of black band shirts or Rammstein is your sole foray into heavy music, the Rammstein's latest is a superb and yet accessible album — and a masterpiece of industrial metal.
Thank goodness they're still at it.