The Aesthetics of Rammstein

Overview

As aesthetics goes, I think Rammstein is best described as an acquired taste. Odd and peculiar at first, it grows on you, and after you get used to all that it means, it grabs hold of you and never lets go. Like old wine, the songs are even better as time goes by. The range of sounds and that of emotions baffles your mind and by listening to them you can be outraged, enraged or brought to tears. The band never ceases to amaze and shock, and it’s like it never stops moving. The aesthetic universe is bleak, cynical, harsh-sounding and full of despair, but it is only a mirror facing reality in the most postmodern and artistic manner possible.

Rammstein is an industrial metal band and this means that their musical sound involves the presence of characteristic themes. However, the band stands apart in the rock landscape because of the way in which the sound, the lyrics, the videos and, most of all, the live performance are combined in a perfect unity. It’s not easy to understand Rammstein, as the message is hidden deep between all those layers. What is most striking is the fact that once the meaning starts to take shape, primarily from the interaction of music and lyrics, it seems to grow right in front of you, as all the metaphors, the interaction of musical instruments, the images from the videos and the pyrotechnical effects from the live performances converge around one feeling or one image.

Music

A Rammstein song makes use of all elements available from an audio perspective, as music and lyrics complete each other. The singers’ voices act like instruments themselves (as with most rock bands) and they merge with the instrumental sound. All these audio elements function as a whole and many times the different tunes developed in a song respond to each other, are antithetical, not just an element of completing the previous sound.

Lyrics

The lyrics are usually highly complex and metaphorical. Actually, Rammstein’s lyrics are not exactly rock verses, but poetry. Symbols, metaphors, double meanings, play of words and irony abound. They manage to intetextualize many literary manifestations, from German Romantic poetry to fairy tales and Symbolist poetry. Less brutally open than contemporary European poetry, they are brutal in another manner, as they expose society and the depths of the human soul in all its horror and lack of humanity, just as Expressionist poetry did. Also, their lyrics speak very directly and often cynically about sexuality, thus hurting the more delicate ears. With most rock bands the extreme, rebel openness of the lyrics is a given, but seldom does it manage to be combined with a very high sense of artistry and a genuine expression of feeling.

Videos

A Rammstein video is like a short movie. There are so many links between the different images, so many connections to the instrumental part of the song and so many new developments of symbolism that one view of the video is never enough. Only after observing the very fine links between ideas, feelings, sounds and images does the meaning begin to shape up. Also, the band relies heavily on intertext, making obvious or obscured references to movies and, in some cases, to their own videos, which are reinterpreted in a postmodernist manner. Altogether, Rammstein have shot 15 videos, very different in theme, but mostly residing on similar aesthetic principles. They enjoy breaking taboos of any kind, be it social, moral, political or simply aesthetic. They toy with kitsch, grotesque, forbidden, pornography or obscene, but never lack irony and sometimes self-irony. The six members of the band portray certain human categories in the videos and they are usually “bad guys”, outlaws. Such is the perception of the videos that fans have grown to identify them with the categories portrayed throughout time.

Live

A Rammstein concert is unique. Not only are the pyrotechnics involved spectacular, but they are not used randomly, but in deep connection to the overall meaning of the songs performed. Even for those listeners who do not understand the lyrics and the meanings of the songs, the effect is spectacular. Furthermore, the use of fire and lights is combined with acting, as the band members use costumes and act scenes, enhancing the message of the songs. In other instances, the intensity of music is heightened by the raw feeling transmitted from the stage, reflected in the very movements and modulation of voice and instruments.

Themes

Thematically, Rammstein’s songs can be categorized into six types. Most songs have a social theme, a feature common to the punk rock genre, a larger category from which industrial metal is derived. There are also many songs which belong to the statement category, melodies in which the band defines or redefines their message or style. There are also a lot of love songs and songs about sexuality, but this last category is best represented in the first albums and less in the last ones. Another theme present in Rammstein’s songs is the reversed fairy-tale, which relies on intertext and the least represented is that of the split soul, which only appears on two albums.

Albums (chronologically)

The six studio albums released between 1995 and 2009 all contain these six themes and are structured in similar manners, although the style of the band differs a lot. The seventh album, Made in Germany, released in 2011, comprises songs from all the other albums, actually being a “best of” album and reunites five of the six themes developed so far, as no songs referring to the split soul are included.