RAMMSTEIN Liebe ist fГјr alle da (2009)

16 October 2009
news page
Rammstein play in the Quentin Tarantino’s league – these heavyweight Teutonic industrialists manage (seemingly with no effort at all – but in fact with great consistency and talent) to stay on the borderline between profane sexism and cynicism and elaborate poetry and classical music. They like playing with extremes and do it better each time. Thus new album Liebe ist für alle da doesn’t surprise but never disappoints either and somewhere between the layered keyboards, ten ton heavy riffing and Lindemann’s eponymous vocals comes a sigh of relief – Rammstein’s first disappointing album is still years away from now. Though misled by the rather funny and somewhat unsophisticated ”Pussy” video we did expect a more commercial, easy to swallow album lacking the more edgy tracks of the ”Bestrafe mich” or ” Bück dich” type. Boy, were we wrong. It is not that we dislike the catchy synth line in ”Pussy” or the cute way Till says ”You have a pussy, I have a dick-a” with a strong German accent but we are always aware Rammstein can do better than that. And this they do. Liebe ist für alle da starts off with the kind of symphonic-driven, über-heavy self glorification ”Rammlied” delivering a very familiar ”Ramm! Stein!” chorus remind us of other such songs (namely "Wollt ihr das Bett in Flammen sehen?" and ”Rammstein”, of course). Pretty soon one change in the overall sound gets pretty obvious – keyboardist Flake has much more input that on the previous two Rammstein offerings – the synthesizer melodies, symphonic passages and electronic loops are present in each and every track. We tend to like the heavy both on atmosphere and riffs ”Waidmann's Heil” и ”Führe mich” right away only to get really tharshed by the oh-so-dark and slow ”Wiener Blut” – a musical exploration of the famous Josef Fritzl incest case. The epic take on "Roter Sand" blows us away with Till’s most impressive vocals and bonus track "Donaukinder" is a reason enough to get the deluxe edition of the album as well as a track most German gothic bands would kill to have in their discography. As is always the case with Rammstein humour and sexual perversion go hand in hand with the music so if willing one might acquire the ultra special edition of Liebe ist für alle – a metallic suitcase containing a bunch of CDs, handcuffs and six pink rubber penises. We’re not sure if the price of more than 200 euro is worth it but we have no doubt the album itself is.
Source: